How much acid blend?

jcobbs · 07-13-2009, 05:03 AM

I have searched the forums and found some help but I wanted to get a little more advice if possible. I have a 1-gallon batch in secondary made from the following recipe:

5 pints homemade pear nectar (extra juice canned while making pear preserves)
1 can Welch's frozen white grape juice concentrate
1 cup sugar
1 pkg Red Star champagne yeast

Combined nectar, concentrate, and sugar in a gallon jug, topped up with water, and pitched the yeast. It fermented nicely and after all bubbling stopped I waited another week or so and racked to secondary, where it has been for the last two weeks. I know it will improve with age (hoping for Christmas), but right now it is very flat, no tartness at all. I feel sure acid blend will help, but I'd love some advice as to how much and when to add it. Should I add it now or wait closer to bottling? I'm thinking of leaving in secondary another couple of months at least and bottling maybe October or November, to give it at least a month in the bottles before Christmas. Suggestions?

will_cbe · 07-13-2009, 01:29 PM

Frankly, it's a matter of taste.

First, I wait until fermentation is done and I'm ready to bottle. I taste a sample first. If it's too bland, I dissolve 1/8th tsp into about a shotglass, and pour that back in. A week later I try again. Repeat as desired.

gregbathurst · 07-13-2009, 09:53 PM

Even in commercial wineries the only way to tell is trial and error. Every wine varies in its buffer capacity, so the amount of acid you need is always different. just "suck it and see".

gramps · 07-16-2009, 04:12 PM

Can you use sodium bicarbonate to equalize the acid in wine? Cheers