acid

[jay]

hi can any one tell me the diffrane from citric acid and tartaric acid and wat one woulde work best with diffrent types of wine .thanks jay

[billybuntus]

hi can any one tell me the diffrane from citric acid and tartaric acid and wat one woulde work best with diffrent types of wine .thanks jay

Here's a good link and goes into detail.

http://www.grapestomper.com/wineacids.html

[jay]

thanks for that

[fatbloke]

An excellent link there billybuntus.

Further, I think it was Martina (medpretzel) who posted a list of the acid types associated with each fruit (commonly found/used fruit), so as to be able to match any ingredient with any possible acid additions.

There's a few oddities though. For example, meads. In that case, while a lot of recipes suggest the use of citric acid, I've found considerably better results can be obtained if the mixture suggested by Ashton & Duncan in the (out of print but available via Amazon marketplace) "Making Mead" book. They suggest the use of 2 parts malic to 1 part tartaric. It does seem to work as they say in the book.

Plus, don't forget that there's little things like using citric in some recipes can give a distinct "citrussy" flavour to the product, or that under chilled conditions some wines will precipitate out small crystals of tartaric acid, that disappear when it warms up again ("whites" are, as you'll know, often served cold/chilled).

There's probably a million and one hints and tips in connection with acids, but those might be better if alluded to by one of our resident experts (Bob and Co - the "Yorkshire massive" ).