Easy Steps for Controlling pH?

[Erik the Awful]

Now that I have my clarity down, it's time to up my game and start controlling pH. I like keeping things simple and repeatable. How do you test and control pH in your wines?

 

[Maylar]

What kind of wine, and what are you trying to achieve?

 

[Erik the Awful]

Fruit wines of all different types. My taste and mouthfeel are all over the map and I'd like to start getting my wines more refined. I currently have two wines in secondary, a banana-apple wine and a wine made from old jellies and jams my wife forgot about. I do a lot of "ciders" which are probably more accurately called apple wines, and at least once a year I make cherry-jalapeno.

 

[Maylar]

In my experience it's best to do acid adjustments "to taste" after it's done, just before bottling. The acid should be whatever the predominant acid is for the fruit being fermented - tartaric for grapes, malic for apples, etc. It's not the pH that determines what we taste, it's the T.A. The only time I would adjust pH before fermenting is if it was way outside the range of what is expected for a healthy ferment. Too high risks the growth of unwanted things, too low stresses the yeast. I find that my ciders don't need much of anything and my meads need an acid adjustment. After back sweetening and oaking, as a final step. Always to taste.

 

[Erik the Awful]

While I do appreciate the answer, that leaves a lot unsaid. What do you mean by "T.A."? After a little googling, I'm assuming "total acidity".

I'm fine with adjusting pH to taste just before bottling, but when it comes to fermenting I'm pretty sure my pHs are all over the map. What is an acceptable pH for a healthy ferment?

Is there a guide somewhere as to which acids each fruit has?

I did find these, but my wines vary greatly in color, so I'm wondering how effective they'd be. Thoughts?
www.amazon.com/Strips-Making-Homebrew-Strip-Acidity/dp/B07FW72CJ1/

 

[Maylar]

While I do appreciate the answer, that leaves a lot unsaid. What do you mean by "T.A."? After a little googling, I'm assuming "total acidity".

I'm fine with adjusting pH to taste just before bottling, but when it comes to fermenting I'm pretty sure my pHs are all over the map. What is an acceptable pH for a healthy ferment?

Is there a guide somewhere as to which acids each fruit has?

I did find these, but my wines vary greatly in color, so I'm wondering how effective they'd be. Thoughts?
www.amazon.com/Strips-Making-Homebrew-Strip-Acidity/dp/B07FW72CJ1/

TA is "titratable acidity" and can be tested with a titration kit:
Acid Test Kit
Though for our purposes, "total acidity" is an appropriate term. pH is the strength of acid, TA is the quantity (gm/ltr) and that's what we perceive in our taste. All of my references say that the ideal pH for wine and cider is 3.4-3.5. Below 3.0 can cause a stall, and above 3.8 affects the effectiveness of sulfite additions. FWIW, my ciders always read 3.3-3.5. I use an electronic pH meter, not test strips.

Fruit acids are discussed here:
A Guide to Common Fruit Acids

For vintners there's an "acid blend" that a lot of people use.

 

[Raptor99]

Adjust pH before adding the yeast so that it will be a healthy range for fermentation, between 3.3 and 3.5. A pH meter is much more accurate than pH strips for measuring pH. Low acid fruits such as bananas will require the addition of acid to lower the pH. You can use acid blend, or use the acid predominate in the type of fruit, e.g. malic acid for apples or citric acid for blueberries. High acid fruits such as cranberries might require you to raise the pH a bit.

After fermentation, adjust the TA according to taste. I don't have the setup to measure TA, so I just adjust the acidity to taste if necessary. But for protection during aging, I wouldn't raise the pH above 3.5. Then before bottling you can backsweeten if desired. A small amount of sugar helps to bring out the fruit flavors and balance the acid/tannins.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Excellent, thanks! That gives me a pretty good direction to head. I put the test kit and some food grade acid powders into my online shopping cart.

 

[bernardsmith]

The thing is that you want to know pH to know how much K-meta to add to inhibit oxidation : the lower the pH , the less free sulfur you need - but then even if you know the pH providing the precise amount of free sulfur is not so easy to measure, so (I think) unless you have a lab set up, we generally add 50 ppm of sulfur which is the equivalent of about 1 campden tab /gallon. The other, earlier reason to know the pH is that yeast really cannot handle too much acidity and a pH of below 3.0 can stall the fermentation. OK.. but we do not "taste" the strength of acids. We can taste different chemical acids (citric does not taste like lactic or malic or tartaric - although each has a different pH . What we taste is the AMOUNT of acid in solution - and that is not measure by pH of g/L - so you want most wines (depending on the perceived sweetness etc) to have around 6 g of acids per liter. To measure the amount of acidity we titrate a base to neutralize the acid, and the amount of a known base (usually sodium hydroxide) is used to determine the amount of acid in solution. You can do this in one of two ways. One way, is using a colorant that changes color when the acidity has been neutralized and a second method, much more reliable if you have a working pH meter is to add the chemical base until the pH reads 8.2 The volume of base you added to hit 8.2 is an indication of the measure of the amount of acid in solution. (The calculation to convert the amount of base added is 75 * volume of NaOH * concentration of Na OH / volume of wine sample) For an excellent quick video on the process see using a ph meter to measure TA - Search Videos

 

[Maylar]

have around 6 g of acids per liter.

You omitted the decimal point... you meant to say 0.6 g/L

 

[bernardsmith]

Arghhh. Good catch, Maylar. Thanks. Those periods get me every time.