Best plan for cider with too much acid?

[clengman]

I currently have my first batch of cider fermenting in a 3L wine jug. The juice is from sweet dessert (red and golden delicious) apples I have growing in my backyard. I suspected that they would not be high enough in acid content so I had some malic acid on hand to correct with. After pressing the juice (OG 1.056) my suspicion was confirmed. I didn't have test equipment at home to measure pH or acidity so I just judged by taste. I ended up adding 4 teaspoons of the malic acid, then sulfited with one campden tablet, waited about a day and a half and pitched my yeast. It is now bubbling away happily.

In the meantime I was able to take a couple samples of my juice to work and used some equipment and reagents there to test for pH and TA. I found the pH of the acid adjusted juice to be about 3.2 and the TA as malic was 0.75%... so... too much acid. Just thinking now about what I'm going to do with it and I've had a few thoughts.

1) Let it ferment to dryness, dose it with sorbate and sulfite, backsweeten. Give it some time to mature in the bottle to even out the sharpness of the acid a little?

2)Let it ferment to dryness and keep adding sugar a little at a time until the yeast can produce no more alcohol (I used EC-1118) then add a little more sugar to backsweeten and make a high alcohol, tangy, sweet dessert wine.

3) Let it ferment to dryness, rack it off and try to get some malo-lactic fermentation going to work on the excess acid. Leave it as a dry, still cider.

4)... Other?

I appreciate your thoughts. I never did this before.

 

[Yooper]

It might still taste just fine, so I would wait and see. I like an acid bite to my cider. If it's a bit too much, you could first try adding 1/8 teaspoon of powdered tannin- that can help balance too much acidity. But use a tiny bit! Because it's potent stuff. Wait a day or so, and taste. You can always add more but can't take it out. (Sort of like the acid )

If it's still a bit too acidic, then you could try option #1.

 

[clengman]

It might still taste just fine, so I would wait and see. I like an acid bite to my cider. If it's a bit too much, you could first try adding 1/8 teaspoon of powdered tannin- that can help balance too much acidity. But use a tiny bit! Because it's potent stuff. Wait a day or so, and taste. You can always add more but can't take it out. (Sort of like the acid )

If it's still a bit too acidic, then you could try option #1.

You would add the tannin when the primary fermentation is done and after racking to a secondary?

 

[Yooper]

You would add the tannin when the primary fermentation is done and after racking to a secondary?

I'd wait until a few weeks before bottling, to see if it's improved on its own. I'd only add anything at all if it needs it.

 

[agent44]

You could rack to a bigger bottle and top off with more juice

 

[BoomerCreek]

The idea of racking to another vessel and adding more juice is good. Malo-lactic fermentation too. I usually add a teaspoon or 2 of malic acid or acid blend to a 5 gallon batch in combination with the tannin. It gives it a better mouthfeel without being too acidic. Good luck!