I helped a buddy figure out his sugar addition last week. He got the juice from a nearby winery. Two different kinds, and there was a big discrepancy between the wineries claimed Brix, and what my refractometer measured. One was 13+ (claimed 15+), the other 16+ (claimed 18+(very poor). Was the winery fudging the numbers so that it would sell? Any other explanations? Ken A.
Perhaps one or both refractometer's were not calibrated properly for the temperature of the must?
Mine's ATC. Stood in the garage and calibrated at probably 60 ambient. In any event, I doubt you'd get a difference of 1.5 to 2.0 due to poor calibration. Could my chintzy refractometer be that inaccurate? Do folks ever take their refractometers with them to the juicehouse, so as to check the Brix for themselves?
Probably not.
Always.
This guy had his wife pick it up. Concord and Delaware. I called to get the numbers. The TA on one of them was 1.15, IIRC. TA on the other was like .90. Just a crappy year, I guess. I went the juice route 3 years ago, and had bad numbers then, too. I just went ahead with it, and the wine was undrinkable. Too acidic and bitey. There's a bunch of it STILL in the basement, er, winecellar. I know there's a ton of guys that find it convenient to just buy the juice. For a red wine, it doesn't seem to make sense to buy juice and not have the skins to ferment on. To each his own, I guess. Ken A.
You should consider blending your too-acidic wine with one that is lacking in acid.
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