How To Fix Sour Wine

Sour Face Hello,
I'm a beginner wine maker, and my last batch (2012) grapes were picked late. As the result the Brix level was high (27), and based on others recommendation I added some water to lower the Brix level. Merely this as well lowered the TA to well-nigh .40%, which is lower that recommended. So the same good friend also recommended adding some Tartaric acid to increment the TA. I used half the recommended corporeality, and ended upward with .75%, which is as well loftier. My Red wine is now aging in an Oak barrel, and the TA has been naturally lowered. Simply information technology is still a bit too sour for my gustatory modality. What do you recommend, not touching it, or to brand farther adjustment?
Name: Massoud Five.
State: Washington
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Hello Massoud,
Sorry you are having such a problem with your wine' s acidity. Fortunately, there is something you can do to correct the wine.
Add together potassium bicarbonate to the wine, also referred to every bit Acid Reducing Crystals. This works fairly well when you lot only demand to adjust the full acerbity (TA) just a little bit — say 10 or twenty basis points. The potassium bicarbonate will cause some of the tartaric acid in the wine to solidify as potassium bitartrate crystals and settle to the bottom.
Potassium bicarbonate is very simple to use. You stir in the appropriate amount needed and then allow the wine set up for anywhere from 1 week to ane month. Take weekly readings with an Acid Examination Kit. When y'all no longer see any change in the reading and the potassium bitartrate crystals accept had fourth dimension to clear, then you are free to canteen the wine at your leisure.
It's expert to exist patient with this step. If you bottling the wine before all the crystals have formed or have had fourth dimension to settle out, then y'all will end up with crystal deposits in your bottles of wine. Likewise, the cooler you tin can keep the wine during this step, the faster information technology will get. Then store the wine in as cold of place every bit possible, simply do not freeze.
Knowing how much potassium bicarbonate to add together is simply a math problem. For every teaspoon of potassium bicarbonate you add to a gallon of wine, you volition reduce the total acidity of that wine past .eighteen%.
Let'southward assume that you have a 5 gallon barrel of wine, and the TA has settled in a .70% tartaric — but y'all want it to be .threescore% tartaric. That means y'all want to lower the total acidity by .10%. If 1 teaspoon volition lower a gallon by .xviii%, so one teaspoon will lower v gallons past .036% (.18 / 5 = .036). With this information you tin determine that you lot demand to add together ii.78 teaspoons to the 5 gallons to lower the full acidity by .10% (.10 / .036 = two.78).
Before using the Acid Reducing Crystals yous may desire to requite the wine more than fourth dimension to age. You say that the full acidity of the vino is naturally lowering. What this ways is some of the tartaric acrid is dropping out on its own. Every bit eluded to before, if you cool the wine downward it may increase this natural dropping-out of tartaric acid to an extent that is adequate.
But if you done waiting, and then past all means use the potassium bicarbonate. If is a very authentic way to predictably lower your wine's acidity and is fairly simple to do.
One other bailiwick we won't go into here but is something you may desire to investigate, is using a malolactic fermentation to reduce your wine's acidity . It'due south non the right thing to do to all wines, only may exist an choice for the wine you have.
Happy Winemaking,
Ed Kraus
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Ed Kraus is a third generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make amend wine and beer for over 25 years.