tonyhibbett
Landlord.
It seems that total acidity and pH are related, but not the same thing, (I don't really understand it) but getting both levels right dramatically improves both fermentation and flavour.
I was using a titration kit but found this fiddly and the chemicals work out fairly expensive if you do lots of testing. Also it gives the results in terms of sulphuric acid, which is none too helpful when you are actually dealing with tartaric and/or malic acid.
So I opted for litmus paper. I was unable to find narrow range papers so ended up with universal ones instead. While these were helpful and gave instant results from a tiny sample (eg a single grape) they could only tell me, at best, if I was in the desired range between pH 3 - 4, but the colours never quite matched those on the chart, and anyway colour, like taste, varies with individual perception. I have tracked down a digital pH meter on eBay for £9, which seems very reasonable compared to what I was led to expect, and which claims to be accurate within 0.1 pH. Hopefully this will take out much of the guesswork which has led to some wines (and cider) being marred due too crude an assessment of their acidity. Hopefully I will in time be able to match the effect on my palate with some specific data. Hopefully...
I was using a titration kit but found this fiddly and the chemicals work out fairly expensive if you do lots of testing. Also it gives the results in terms of sulphuric acid, which is none too helpful when you are actually dealing with tartaric and/or malic acid.
So I opted for litmus paper. I was unable to find narrow range papers so ended up with universal ones instead. While these were helpful and gave instant results from a tiny sample (eg a single grape) they could only tell me, at best, if I was in the desired range between pH 3 - 4, but the colours never quite matched those on the chart, and anyway colour, like taste, varies with individual perception. I have tracked down a digital pH meter on eBay for £9, which seems very reasonable compared to what I was led to expect, and which claims to be accurate within 0.1 pH. Hopefully this will take out much of the guesswork which has led to some wines (and cider) being marred due too crude an assessment of their acidity. Hopefully I will in time be able to match the effect on my palate with some specific data. Hopefully...