Acid Reduction - Baking Soda?

[C2H5OH]

Has anyone used Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) to reduce the acidity of their wine?

I know you can buy "Acid Reduction Solution" from home brew stores, but I was wondering if baking soda would do the same job cheaper?

[NorthernWiner]

No, it will give your wine a nasty metallic taste. Trust me, I know this from personal experience.

Spend the money and get the acid reduction solution.

[Cellar_Rat]

Decreasing acidity is done in on eof three ways malolactic fermentation, cold stabilization and/or additions of potassium carbonate or calcium carbonate.

I find cold stabiization very good and very easy. Try the fisst two before adding anything and even then you only need some salt.

Then of course you could hide it by adding sweetness.

Hope this helps

[Old un]

I have used Sodium bicarbonate for the reduction of acid; I thought it worked very well.

If you use too much it does gives it a funny taste.

I have used one teaspoon per gallon. I must say that I only use DJ not big containers

[C2H5OH]

OK, thanks for the advice folks.

It sounds like baking soda is a bad idea (unless used in very low quantities).

I'll get hold of some of that "Acid Reduction Solution" instead.

[lockwood1956]

OR....
you could blend with a less acidic wine.

[lockwood1956]

If you decide to go the acid reduction route, best option is to remove a portion of the wine, treat it and add back, that way you risk only a certain amount of the batch.


Cold stabilisation as Brian points out, is one way of reducing tartartic acid, but will not work for malic or citric acid

Malo-lactic fermentation will only work in wines that contain significant amounts of malic acid, those made up with fruits etc that dont contain a lot of malic (Elderberry for example is citric acid) will not be affected by it. it happens spontaneously occasionally with grape wines, but very rarely can it happen with fruit wines.

blending (or even dilution) in my iopinion are less invasive ways of achieving the same result.

regards
bob

[Cellar_Rat]

taking this subject a bit further then - how do you tell which acid you are dealing with? Is there a test?

You are absolutlay right about cold and tartaric acid, but it always works a treat, for me - does that mean I only get issues with tartaric ?

[lockwood1956]

The fruit content of the must will tell you what acids are present

see here

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/downloads/sugarandacid.pdf