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lemon juice instead of citric acid

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  • lemon juice instead of citric acid

    Just realised I don't have any citric acid. I'm making 1 gallon of elderflower wine and Ben Turner's recipe calls for 2tsp citric. Any idea what the equivalent in lemon juice is please?

  • #2
    What's the rest of the recipe?

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    • #3
      According to MUST by prof Gerry Fowles (the essential reference book) 1 tsp of citric acid is 4gms, so 2 tsps. will give 8gm.
      And 1gm of citric acid is equivalent to 1.17gms tartaric. So 0.854 gms citric acid will provide 1gm acid as tartaric.
      And he tells us lemon juice is between 4% and 4.5% acid as tartaric. So 100gm of lemon juice should give approx 4 gms of acid as tartaric. So by my calculation, for the 8gms your recipe requires you will need approx 200 x 0.854gms of lemon juice = 170gms.
      Cheers,
      Dave.
      If I won the lottery I'd spend half the money on wine, women and song.
      But I'd probably just waste the rest of it!

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      • #4
        Blimey that's a lot of maths - well done.
        My initial response was cripes, that's a lot ( in the original recipe). Followed by now it's been converted (well done SD) it still seems like a lot

        The nice thing about citric acid, you can add a bit more later to taste.

        Indeed it is one of the acids used to give flabby finished wine a bit of a lift.

        I like Del's idea - what is the rest of the recipe! And what is the style of wine is it aiming to produce (presumably v dry or fizz)

        To answer your question..... I would use 100–125 ml lemon juice pre-fermentation & the rest to taste after fermentation.

        Be aware citric acid has much less flavour than lemon juice. So you need to consider you are adding flavour also - does that complement or hinder the recipe?
        Last edited by Cellar_Rat; 24-06-2014, 05:25 PM. Reason: forgot the important bit
        Gluten free, caffeine free, dairy free, fat free – you gotta love this red wine diet!

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        • #5
          It does seem a lot to me, but a flower wine is going to need a lot unless it also uses raisins or concentrate. And 8gm citric (9.4 as tartaric) into 1 gallon of wine only gives a TA of 0.2%, which is on the low side for a white wine.
          I notice that many of the flower wine recipes include juice and zest of two lemons and two oranges.
          Cheers,
          Dave.
          If I won the lottery I'd spend half the money on wine, women and song.
          But I'd probably just waste the rest of it!

          Comment


          • #6
            If you have tartaric on hand, I would just use that. Lemon juice, especially that much, is going to add a decidedly lemony taste. It might not be a bad thing, but could also cancel out the elderflower flavor.
            Steve

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            • #7
              thanks for the replies, sorry for not saying so earlier. In the end I waited until I could get some citric acid because I have noticed that lemon juice can indeed be a bit overpowering. I once added lemon peel as per a recipe, and I must have included pith too, as it was awful. Anyway, for reference, the instructions on the citric acid say that 1 rounded teaspoon is equivalent to the juice of 1 lemon. The wine is progressing nicely, so it didn't do any harm to wait a day or two before adding it.

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