Where to start when Adjusting and Balancing Must
There are two main steps to Adjusting and Balancing Must, which consist of adjusting your Brix and adjusting your pH/TA. We’ll cover what they are, what they mean, and how to do both.
Where to start when Adjusting and Balancing Must
Firstly, you’ll need your starting numbers. You’ll have to measure your Brix, pH, and TA. To measure your Brix, you can use a Triple Scale Hydrometer. To measure your pH and TA, you’ll need a titration setup or an acid test kit, and some mathematical skills. If I lost you at math skills, don’t fret – Musto Wine Grape Company offers a wide variety of testing including pH and TA testing!
What are Brix, pH, and TA?
Brix is a measurement of the sugar content within your must. This indicates the degree of the grapes’ ripeness at harvest. The higher the Brix, the higher the alcohol content in the finished wine. To get an alcohol conversion level, simply multiply your Brix by .55. pH is the measurement of the ripeness in relation to acidity. A low pH wine is crisp and tart, while higher pH wines are more prone to bacteria growth and spoilage (3.9 pH and higher). Wine generally falls between 3 or 4 on the pH scale, with 3 – 3.4 being the average for white wines and about 3.3 – 3.6 for reds. Finally, TA is measuring acidity by volume. TA stands for Total Acidity. Usually, the higher the pH the lower the TA and vise-versa. This is not always the case though, and you may need to make adjustments to your must. Hold tight, how to do that is next!
How to Adjust and Balance Must
If you need to lower your TA, we recommend using Potassium Bicarbonate. Adding Potassium Bicarbonate to your must will reduce acidity. Make sure to add slowly, as it foams significantly. It is also recommended to add to water first, then add the mixture to your must. Under typical conditions and normal use, Potassium Bicarbonate neutralizes Tartaric Acid. It’s best used when the TA is high and pH is low, due to the fact it causes an increase in pH. It also adds potassium to the must and that requires cold stabilization. Potassium Bicarbonate can contribute to tartrate instability in wine, which is also why cold stabilization is recommended. It is also good to note that the addition of Potassium Bicarbonate will cause a reaction in the wine which will vary from wine to wine and the pH will not shift in a predictable manner. Bench trials should always be done first when attempting to adjust pH.
To lower pH, the most effective method is to add Tartaric Acid. If both TA and pH are too high, tackle the pH. The pH is more critical to the wine chemistry. This addition also requires bench testing to find the best addition.
To raise the brix, we can add table sugar to the must, be sure to dilute the sugar first with hot spring water before adding it to the must or juice. There are good formulas available to calculate sugar required based on the brix you are trying to achieve.
To lower the brix, we will add spring water to the must to “dilute” the high sugar content in the must or juice. Just beware there is a limit on how much water you can add to a must or juice before you reduce the wine quality. There are also good formulas for this adjustment too.
For exact measurements and instructions, follow the directions on the manufacturer’s packaging, contact a winemaker at Musto Wine Grape Company for assistance, or download our Full Class offering at WinemakingInstructions.com.
We’re here to help when you need it
As stated above, Musto Wine Grape offers a variety of products as well as services including testing and support. Email winemaker@juicegrape.com or call (877) 812 – 1137 to speak with someone who can assist you.
The Winemaker’s Think Tank: Vol 22 – Seven Most Common Winemaking Mistakes
What’s the Winemaker’s Think Tank?
Every Thursday we will post about a few frequently asked questions that our winemaker has answered. If you have a winemaking question you would like to have answered, please email us at support@juicegrape.com and we will try to get into next week’s post. Cheers! 🙂
Seven Most Common Winemaking Mistakes
1. Headspace – When making wine, it is imperative that any vessel being used is filled completely. Filling carboys, demijohns, or fixed capacity tanks to the highest level possible, minimizing any air space it very important to prevent oxidation. If using a barrel, the barrel will allow for some evaporation as the wine ages. It is critical to top of the barrel with additional wine as this will prevent the oxidation of the wine in the barrel. Barrels do promote a small amount of oxidation, referred to as micro-oxidation, which is helpful at creating a creamier mouthfeel and promoting the expression of fruit flavors and aromas. If a large headspace develops due to evaporation, this can cause severe oxidation in the wine.
2. Degassing– Carbon dioxide gas is a byproduct of the yeast during alcoholic fermentation. Often times the bubbles of SO₂ are so small, they get trapped by the weight of the wine. If the wine is not purposefully degassed, the bubbles may come out of solution in the bottle, resulting in a fizzy wine for the drinker. The degassing process is relatively simple. One may purchase a degassing tool that is attached to a cordless power drill and stirs the wine at a high speed, agitating it and releasing the trapped bubbles. The winemaker can also splash the wine while racking, agitating the wine and releasing the trapped bubbles of gas. As long as the wine has been stirred vigorously, the gas should dislodge and escape, ensuring that it will not be fizzy in the bottle.
3. Sanitation – This may be the most important step in all of winemaking. While cleaning and sanitizing may be a tedious and time consuming process, it is critical to ensure a healthy, long lasting wine. There are an assortment of cleaning agents (B-Brite, Soda Ash, Sterox) that are excellent at cleaning wine making equipment and removing stains. These products need to be rinsed off thoroughly and should be thought of as “soap” rather than sanitizer. After the equipment has been washed and well rinsed, it must then be sanitized with potassium metabisulfite. A solution of 2 ounces of sulfite powder, dissolved into one gallon of water, will yield a strong sanitizing solution that will kill off any microbes that could spoil the wine. This will ensure the longevity of the wine in the aging vessel or bottle.
4. Bench Trials – When using a fining agent or oak additive to your wine, it is very important to first conduct a small trial of the product, before adding it to the entire batch. Assess the addition rate for the compound you would like to add to the wine. Using that as a guide for your ratio, pull out a small amount of the wine and add the compound, making sure that the ratio is accurate for that size sample. Allow the sample to sit for a few days and try it. If the results are what you were striving for, then you can apply the compound to the entire batch. This will help save you time and money if you are not satisfied with the results of the bench trial and will help you most effectively improve your wine.
5. Sulfites – Sulfites are a naturally occurring compound within wine. While sulfites do exist naturally, they are at a low level, not sufficient for helping to preserve the wine as an antioxidant. Additional potassium metabisulfite must be added to help prevent oxidation as well as prevent any advantageous microbes from growing in the wine. If the winemaker neglects to add sulfites to the wine, it will easily oxidize and could also be susceptible to bacterial contamination.
6. Record keeping – Often times with winemaking, “the devil is in the details”. The smallest change in yeast strain, nutrition, and grape acid and sugar content, can have dramatic effects on the resulting wine. The best winemakers, on the home or professional level, take meticulous notes on all of their activities and observations. By keeping track of each step of their process, they are able to reproduce their very best wines and also do research on what went wrong with their failures.
7. Timing – It is said that timing is everything. This is particularly true for winemaking. Many folks assume after fermentation, they can just leave the wine alone to age and it will come out beautifully if untouched. This is not the case. The wine needs to be maintained with racking and sulfites to ensure its longevity. Sometimes in winemaking, a fault may develop, Rather than researching a way to fix the fault or seek some professional advice, some winemakers elect to do nothing and hope the fault goes away. Often times, these faults progress and get worse. If caught early, they can be easier to fix.
We hope this information helps with your winemaking. If you have any follow up questions or winemaking questions in general, please email us at support@juicegrape.com.
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