Thanks to the comments from the group, my pH meter appeared last week from e-bay. Micorbiologist friend helped with explanations, calibration and calibration solutions.
And I must comment on the wonderfully helpful and polite character of the posters in the group here. And the occasional tongue-in-cheek humour such as seen in the responses to our magnum reloader a couple of weeks back! It's quite refreshing when compared with (or contrasted to) the behaviour on a few other groups I visit.
Back to the meter - does it ever aid in TA measurements!
It's also giving me some interesting insights in other areas. After a rave review a few weeks back about Superstore cranberry cocktail wine, I thought it was worth trying. So put on a couple of gallons (4 half-gallon batches trying different combinations of sugars etc) in mid-June.
Most of my wines have stopped bubbling after 3 to 4 weeks, and have been racked. The cranberry cocktail batches are still bubbling after 7 weeks. One stopped a couple of days ago, so racked it.
SG .997, TA 5.25 pH 1.33 on first go; friend said he'd never seen such a low reading. Recalibrated meter, pH 1.48.......
This probably explains the slow fermentation process.
A couple of others are 2.3 - 2.75. And I believe that they should be a bit over 3 from the literature.
None of my reference material is clear on corrective measures.
Suggestions?
Thanks.
jack