How to reduce Lychee Wine Acidity and Sourness

[minewaker]

Hello everyone.

I hope everyone safe and hanging in there during these tough times. So I have been experimenting wine making using different fuits and am learning new things about the process as I go along.

So I have recently taken a small sample (about 500ml) from my lychee wine batch after completeing primary fermentation of about 8 days and having racked it once for about 18 days. The alcohol content seems to be fine, the consistency needs more clearing (not too bothered about this as the main batch has been racked a second time), the major problem is the sourness and acidity. I do not have access to a lot of DIY wine equipment around in the area so cant do an acid titration test. Ph meter is giving a 3.2 reading. Any ideas on how to reduce the sourness? Really looking forward to consuming this sample after achieving a more balanced taste.

 

[Amadeo38]

I wonder if you could improve the “perceived acidity” by adding a little baking soda. Try measuring out a known volume of your wine in a measuring cup then adding 1 gram or less of baking soda at a time, then tasting a small sip between additions to see if it gets better. If it does improve it, take note of how much baking soda it takes per ml of wine and multiply that by the final volume in the fermenter. Might be best to dissolve it in some hot water before adding, though not positive about that.

In the future, this may have been caused by a potassium nutrient deficiency in the yeast, so adding potassium bicarb during primary ferm may have reduced the acidity of the final end product a bit.

Just my thoughts based on limited mead-making experience.

 

[BBBF]

You could do a malolactic fermentation. A quick search says malic is the primary acid in lychee.
https://eckraus.com/wine-making-malolactic-fermentation/
You could also try back sweetening to improve the perceived acidity.

 

[Amadeo38]

You could do a malolactic fermentation. A quick search says malic is the primary acid in lychee.
https://eckraus.com/wine-making-malolactic-fermentation/
You could also try back sweetening to improve the perceived acidity.

True. If you use Lalvin 71B in the future, that might help since it can ferment malic acid and is a better choice for fruit wines over D47 or EC-1118.

 

[minewaker]

I wonder if you could improve the “perceived acidity” by adding a little baking soda. Try measuring out a known volume of your wine in a measuring cup then adding 1 gram or less of baking soda at a time, then tasting a small sip between additions to see if it gets better. If it does improve it, take note of how much baking soda it takes per ml of wine and multiply that by the final volume in the fermenter. Might be best to dissolve it in some hot water before adding, though not positive about that.

In the future, this may have been caused by a potassium nutrient deficiency in the yeast, so adding potassium bicarb during primary ferm may have reduced the acidity of the final end product a bit.

Just my thoughts based on limited Will give this a go today and update you regarding the results.

I wonder if you could improve the “perceived acidity” by adding a little baking soda. Try measuring out a known volume of your wine in a measuring cup then adding 1 gram or less of baking soda at a time, then tasting a small sip between additions to see if it gets better. If it does improve it, take note of how much baking soda it takes per ml of wine and multiply that by the final volume in the fermenter. Might be best to dissolve it in some hot water before adding, though not positive about that.

In the future, this may have been caused by a potassium nutrient deficiency in the yeast, so adding potassium bicarb during primary ferm may have reduced the acidity of the final end product a bit.

Just my thoughts based on limited mead-making experience.

Sound idea, thanks. I had read this somewhere else as well, however, had been resisting using baking soda as adding baking soda to wine sounds odd to the mind. In any case the notion does seem to have support, so I'll give it a go and update you regarding the results.

 

[minewaker]

You could do a malolactic fermentation. A quick search says malic is the primary acid in lychee.
https://eckraus.com/wine-making-malolactic-fermentation/
You could also try back sweetening to improve the perceived acidity.

Appreciate the suggestion and link. Need to learn more about malolactic fermentation.

 

[minewaker]

True. If you use Lalvin 71B in the future, that might help since it can ferment malic acid and is a better choice for fruit wines over D47 or EC-1118.

Thanks for the update. Unfortunately there are no diy shops around the area and very limited resources wine making wise. So I've been trying to make the most of domestically available ingredients. Hoping to travel soon as it's been too long. Will take that opportunity to stock up on different winemaking essentials.