a few q

[bill]

im waiting for my first recipe wine to finish ( wine#1) its going well and smells bootilicious.

im waiting on some equipment so whilst waiting for this and the wine to ferment have been poking my nose around the site.. very good site and lots of info for us uninformed..

i have 3 questions

1, i have another "wine" going made from a mix of red grape juice,apple juice and real pears which smells good.. i made some a few weeks ago and everyone liked it very much except it was a little too acidic. there was no water in the mix just pure juices and i was told this was wrong .

could someone explain why?

2, i sweetened my last ( and first attempt ) at the juice wine using splend. it was taking quite a lot to sweeten so i eneded up finishing it off with grape juice which looking back i should of used all juice. anyway i have some sediment looking stuff at the bottom of the last bottle. it doesn't look like fermenting sediment but more like congealed splenda.. so is this good to use ? ( i think probably not.

3, http://www.winesathome.co.uk/downloads/sugarandacid.pdf i found this link . looking at the grape it seems the acid present is a mix of tartaric and malic. if im upping the acid content of a must using grapes would i use a mix of tartaric and malic or just one ? iv read tartaric is the one to use but would malic compliment the natural tartaric in the grape?

i know its more complex than a quick reply but im just curious till my reading material gets here..

cheers billy

[Duffbeer]

1 the acidity could be due to under ripe pears & or too much concentrated apple juice, or too much addition in the recipe. Taste your must before adding acid.
The all juice & no water method isn't wrong as such, it comes down to the style of wine you want to achieve, all juice would make a fuller bodied wine that would handle sweetness.
However if it's a table wine you want then less is best, the wine should be clean, fresh & acidically crisp with a hint of pear in the bouquet & flavour.
My way for this would have been 1 ltr white grape juice, 1 ltr apple & ferment about 6 average pears per gallon peeled, chopped or mashed.
Pear skins to me are very bitter so I always peel them.

2 try to avoid artifitial sweetener, it tastes of saccharin which I find taints the wine, stabalise your finished wines with sulphite & sorbate, this will allow you to sweeten with standard sugar or fruit concentrate. I'm sure the bottle you have will be just fine, sediment or splenda just decant it into a jug.

3 Tartaric to me gives the best acidity & if overdone can be easily dropped out by chilling, though in odd cases can drop too much. Malic is a more harsher acid found in plums, apples etc which some prefer to use as it will not drop out, citric is also used, but this is a milder acid and mainly used as it's cheap and easy to obtain.
Also acid blends are often used, I personaly only use tartaric.

[SiSandrine]

Hi Bill

I'll echo some of Duffbeers response re the acid. If you don't measure specifically the sugar and acid content, my rule of thumb is that the starting juice (must) should taste slightly too sweet and just a little too acidic/tart than you would enjoy drinking normally. You should also like the taste. This is just a guide though and will be different for different people.

Are you using a hydrometer to measure your sugar content? This is really crucial and Bob recommends an SG of 1080 to start which will give you an alcohol content of around 11.5% if fermenting to dry. If you then wish to sweeten at the end then use something that doesn't contain refermentable sugar - though I agree this does give a taste. Using grape juice though may well cause a referment. Alternatively you can stop the fermentation using potassium sorbate (stopppit) when it gets to the alcohol/sweetness level you would like. I wouldn't recommend less than 10%ABV as a minimum though.

If you would like to measure your acid content there is a great tutorial on this site http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=886 and the acid testing kits are around £6 so not too dear. Agree always tartaric. I used to use citric until I joined this site. Tartaric seems to give a smoother flavour.
Out of curiosity, what reading material have you ordered by the way?
Sounds like a good recipe. I might give it a try. Best of luck.

[bill]

cheers for the replies, yes simon im using a hydrometer. the wine#1 is coming on good with no issues.

the only issues iv had is with my own recipe but im not sure where i came to get it from , it was a hit and miss first attempt after trying ciders.

iv ordered making sparkling , wines and first steps in winemaking.

im half way through my own recipe wine ( second batch) i tried my last bottle of the first batch lastnight and to be honest its changed quite a lot from the younger bottles i tried, its now gone very warm with alcohol and its quite acidic and i can feel the tannin in my mouth ( slightly too much)

i racked my second batch lastnight and instead of topping with gj as my original i topped with water and will only use more juice to sweeten..

im not expecting anything great as i knew nothing at all when i started it off so this is just being used as an experiment and for learning purposes more than anything ..

its only cheap juice so its worth the little money using it to develop my taste buds to know what to look for if nothing else..

billy

[SiSandrine]

Absolutely, experimentation is what its all about. If you really find it too acidic probably worth brewing up a much less acidic batch and blending. Whilst the tannin and flavour will mellow I doubt the acidity will change much after a few of months in the bottle. Books I've enjoyed are Making Wines Like Those You Buy and Progressive Winemaking (Acton and Duncan) and I also really like The Wine Makers Answer Book by Alison Crowe from WineMaker Mag. Whilst not really a tutorial, for finding out common faults and all sorts of questions I thought it terrific. It's worth having access to a range of sources.
Have to say the info and tutorials on this forum are probably the best resource of all though for tried and tested answers. Anyone reckon its worth adding a book review/further reading section?

[lockwood1956]

We have a review section simon

see here

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=1502

and here

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=49

[SiSandrine]

Thanks - completely missed that. Doh.

[Cellar_Rat]

Measuring Acidity will drive you mad. Mad mad mad I tell you. iiiieeeeeeeeee

[alcopop]

Not much misses Bob out on this forum, that is why I think that it is the best.

Terry