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High pH and High TA

Tristan,

I was hoping you could give me some guidance. I have 12 gallons of Petite Sirah and 12 gallons of Syrah from grapes from Oakley. Both were fermented with Syrah yeast successfully. After pressing, the juice in the Petite Sirah has a pH of 4.1 and TA of 8.5 g/l. The Syrah has a pH of 3.9 and TA of 6.6 g/l. I can deal with the Syrah as just adding Tartaric will help. But, the Petite is throwing me off. What should I do with both high pH and high TA?? I have not put it through MF yet, not sure if I should. I understand that this condition can be caused by 2 factors (too much malic acid in cold climates or too much potassium in hot climates). Regardless, I'm not quite sure what to do??

Thanks for your help !

Reply to
gp
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The too much malic is usually because the grapes are unripe; if your sugar levels were OK I would suspect high potassium.

If you are _sure_ your TA and pH values are correct (did you degas the samples?) adding tartaric along with cold stabilization is the only option I know of open to small scale winemakers; when you cold stabilize you will pull out potassium.

Joe

gp wrote:

Reply to
Joe Sallustio

Ditto the comment about degassing and being sure of the readings. Make that mistake myself all too often

Joe - how do you degas before testing? Do you use heat, agitation, or both?

Reply to
Ric

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