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Wine OK?

Two questions:

I am trying some watermellon wine. The brew started a little slow and I just did it at room temperature. The starting SG was about 1.095 and finished at around .95. At the second racking in the first month and a half to get rid of all the lees, it still smelled a little stinky (like "spoiled" fruit) so I was going to let it sit a while in several 1-gallon glass jars. Low and behold, I forgot to put a stopper or cover over the jars when I was done and did not notice for a few days! Is my wine still ok?

Second, a general question. I am trying an all-fruit blackberry. As posted earlier, it had fermented to completion (starting SG 1.09, ending SG .90) and I racked it into a glass carboy, topping off with some of the original juice. It started fermenting again for a few weeks and still has a strong acid taste.

The question: I was told to let it age 9 months to a year and the acid will go away. Should I just do this in a glass carboy (racking every few months...) or can I stabelize, add sugar, and bottle? Would that still get rid of the acid?

Should I keep adding Pot-Meta at each racking? If so, how much?

Thanks in advance!

Alex.

Reply to
Alex Brewer
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Any idea what your TA and pH was on pure blackberry juice? I would think it might be to acidic. Simple aging may not be enough. You may need some acid reduction.

Reply to
Ray

Yea, a titration kit is cheap. I will say that I do not have much luck trying to see the color change when I am using it with red wines. I finally had to get a pH meter. That is not cheap.

But go to Jack Keller's site. I think you will find good info on ways to adjust acidity.

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Once you have some idea what you might do you might come back here and ask specific questions. Gook luck

Ray

Reply to
Ray

Measuring TA and pH are different things aren't they? When using the titration kit mine says you can add distilled water to reds to make the colour change easier to see. Doing so would change the pH but not the total acid of the samlpe.

Reply to
Charles

Yes, pH and TA are different, both important. I use the pH meter in place of the indicator to determine when titration has finished. Much easier for me. Yes I have diluted the wine as per instructions. I am just not good at catching the color change with red's. But I can titrate to the proper pH with the meter just fine.

Ray

Reply to
Ray

Hi Alex, just had to drag this thread up. I too have made an all berry Blackberry wine. I talked to alot of people and looked thru tons of recipes, and no one had any advice/suggestions, so I just made it following rough wine guidelines. I started with 80#'s of berries, froze them for about 1 week. dumped it all into a big stainless primary. FAQ's of the must; SG was

1.040, PH 3.79, TA was 48. I added sugar to get the SG to 1.092. 11 tsps of acid blend to get the TA to .61, which brought the PH down to 3.69. Added: 7 tsp tannin 2 tsp gelatin finings 5 tsp yeast nutrient with biotin 3 tsp yeast energizer sulfite to bring the must to 50ppm 15#'s really ripe bananas I let this sit over night, and also started a yeast starter with Premier Cuve'. The next morning I added the starter and a packet of the yeast dry. It was bubbling like nuts that evening. Started 8/22/03. 8/27/03 the SG had already dropped to 1.000. Racked to glass carboys to let finish and settle. Tonight 9/07/03 I racked again and added oak. The FAQ's SG .994 Ph 3.76 TA was .9 and Sulfite had dropped to 35ppm. It tastes really good now (of course, young) and really doesn't have any similarity to blackberries at all. It could very easily be confused with a young grape wine. It's not as dark as I would have expected. It's color is more of a darker Pinot, but not nearly as dark as a rich Cab. We'll see what it looks like after it clears. I'm curious to hear your opinions on your BB wine. Mine has the makings of a good one. In fact, my wife said "to hell with grapes, go out and pick some more of these!"
Reply to
StarrFarms1

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