Anyone use a pipette for acid testing? Or do I need a burette

Pipettes are cheap but slow unless you open up the tip. I have several and use them once in a while.

I use a calibrated 10 ml glass syringe for the sample size and a nalgene 10 ml self leveling burette for titrating, I got it from Fisher for around $40 US a few years back.

Joe

I have a nice 50 ml burette with a teflon stopcock on a ringstand. I never use it anymore. Too much hassle to set up and clean, and I don't need to be able to read it to 0.01 ml for wine analysis. I use either 1, 5 or 10 ml graduated pipettes or a 50 ml nalgene graduate for all lab volumetric measurements. That's plenty accurate, and easy to use in the field if necessary.

Tom S

In article , Fishhead writes

Could somebody explain the subtle difference between dryness and acidity in wine please. Which of them is corrected by sweetening, and which is measured as PH?

Dryness related to the lack of sugar in wine and marginally to tannin content...You correct that by sweetening if you do not like dry wine)

Acidity refers to the concentration of acid int the wine, you measure that in pH (and/or TA, titraytable acidity). You can balance out a wine that is too acidic by sweeting as well. That may be where your confustion comes from.

I always use pipettes for TA and SO2 measurements at Belle Marie Winery. Pipettes are faster and cheaper but a bit less accurate than a burette.

Lum Del Mar, California, USA

They must be more accurate then my plastic plunger I am using...

In article , Droopy writes

Thanks. I don't have any means of measuring PH yet, is there a preferable type to buy?

The best inexpensive one in my opinion is Hanna's pHep5; they are international. The best price in the States seems to be from Grainger.com at around $60 US.

You need buffer solutions to calibrate it so keep that in the back of your mind, the meter needs calibrated before each use. They are worth having if you are into winemaking for the long term. Mine is used often it's probably the item I use most (besides taste and smell)to make decisions about the wine.

Joe

Alan Gould wrote:

Yes. I find the accuracy of a pipette to be more than adequate for TA measurements.