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pH of California Juice

I usually buy my grapes or juice from the Niagara Region here in Ontario as I live near the area. Due to a terrible winter that resulted in damaged vines and very low productivity of most viniferas I bought my grapes and juices from a dealer that imports from the Sonoma Valley in California.

I was very surprised to find my Gewurztraminer, Riesling and Pinot Gris all had very low pH. They were 2.85, 2.60 and 2.57 respectively. Unfortunately I do not yet know the TA as I am obtaining a new stock solution of 1% tartaric so I can titrate my NaOH. I expect to know this in a few days. The starting SG was in the low-average range at with the Gewurz and Riesling at 1.090 and the Pinot Gris at 1.080 (fairly low).

Were they picked a little on the green sinde. Has anyone else had pH levels in this range from California grapes.

Any thoughts would be appreciated and I know I can't do much without the TA. The wines have been in a cool basement for about 2 weeks since fermentation first started and are now just below 1.000 and of course are really slowing down.

With thanks,

Glen Duff

Reply to
Glen Duff
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I think that Tom is right on this. Bring the SG up on this wine or you will not have something worthwhile in the end. I have had problems with too low sugar on this kind of grapes too. I did it two ways. Used the cane and bought some juice. In the end the latter was the way to go. To me sugar always gives a certain detectable flavor. A small amount of juice of the same wine made for no unruly taste. I used Brew King, but I'm sure most others would go as good as well.

SG Brix

Reply to
sgbrix

Those are odd values for California, this must have been annoying. (You go to the West coast to get grapes and end up with the same stuff you could habe gotten here in a few weeks with our awful weather). I would still measure TA and use taste as a sanity check, but that is the only step I would add to Tom's guidance. (Tom has been making wine a lot longer than I; I almost always do exactly what he says....)

I have never seen a pH below 3 from California, but my stuff comes from the hot Central Valley, if you can't get grapes to ripen there, you need to grow something else, like bricks... Regards, Joe

Reply to
Joe Sallustio

Considering that pH is a logarithmic scale, those #s between 2.5 and

2.9 seem alarmingly low. Does the juice taste extremely tart? The only wine/must I've had in that ball park was from little red crabapples that most people find far too tart to eat (but I enjoy) and even I found the juice far too tart to be enjoyable, and that was with a lot of sugar added to make the SG about 1.100. I would be suspicious that your pH measurements are out of wack, especially if you find that the juice is not unpleasantly tart.

Good Luck!

Richard

PS. my finished crabapple wine is dry, and just too tart as is. I'll be trying to sweeten some of it and perhaps do some blending experiments too...

Reply to
Richard Kovach

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