Fig Wine: Can/Should I add acid blend at bottling?

[missjacki]

Hi all. I made fig wine about 1 year ago. Followed Jack Keller's recipe to the letter. It turned out pretty good. I think it could use a little acid bite, my husband thinks it is fine the way it is. Neither of us are very big wine connoisseurs to really know what we are talking about though!!

anyways I could bottle it any day now. I have a 5 gal carboy and a 1 gal carboy.

My question is 3 part:

CAN I add acid blend this late in the game?

SHOULD I add acid blend (subjective, I know. I was thinking about just adding it to the 1 gal carboy and leaving the 5 gal as-is)

HOW MUCH acid blend should i add per gallon if I decide to do so, and then how long do I wait before bottling?

 

[missjacki]

Oh, and in case anyone would find the recipe helpful in answering my question here it is:

Fresh Fig Wine (from Jack Keller Website)
4 lbs figs
7 pts water
1-3/4 lbs granulated sugar
3-1/2 tsp acid blend
1 crushed Campden tablet
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 pkg Montrachet wine yeast

 

[Yooper]

I only have one answer, to one question, sorry!

Yes, you can add acid blend anytime. As far as how much, though, it's going to be added "to taste" so that's a hard thing to say for anybody.

You could try taking out a sample of wine, and adding a tiny amount (if you have a small measuring spoon set or a gram scale, that would help). If it improves with a little acid blend, and you know how much you added per 6 ounces, you could multiple that and add it to the whole batch. You can bottle right away.

Or to make it easier, maybe take a tiny sample of the wine and squeeze a drop of lemon juice into it. If that makes the wine taste better, the acid blend would probably help the wine.

If the wine is in need of a "bite", though, I wonder if you've considered tannin? Powdered tannin is a nice tool to have, and I've added it to grape wines, chokecherry wines, and even apple wines for a bit of a "bite". I mean a TINY amount- like 1/8 teaspoon- and that may really help out your wine.

 

[missjacki]

yes, i have tannin on hand.

maybe i'll try a small amount with tannin AND a separate small amount with acid blend? See which of the 3 tastes best?

Since we have 5 HUGE fig trees on our property; this is a recipe I'd like to perfect for years to come...

I also feel like there was slightly too much sugar added. Dont think there is too much I can do about that though, except make a note and add less next time...

 

[Yooper]

yes, i have tannin on hand.

maybe i'll try a small amount with tannin AND a separate small amount with acid blend? See which of the 3 tastes best?

Since we have 5 HUGE fig trees on our property; this is a recipe I'd like to perfect for years to come...

I also feel like there was slightly too much sugar added. Dont think there is too much I can do about that though, except make a note and add less next time...

Yes, using tannin and acid blend and playing "mad scientist" sounds like a great idea. It's also quite possible that the wine is great as is, and will age in a year into something awesome. Not to confuse the issue, of course! :cross:

 

[missjacki]

thanks for the help!

as it turns out, I did a blind taste test for my husband. I added a tiny bit of tannin to one. A tiny bit of acid blend to the other and the 3rd I left as is.

My favorite was the tannin. my 2nd favorite was the as-is.

My husband picked the "as-is".

I decided to just go ahead and bottle it as-is.

I figure since I followed jack Keller's recipe down to the last letter (and he seems to know what he is talking about) and also my husband preferred the "as-is" both blind and knowing....that is pretty solid evidence for following the age old wisdom: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"