Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Of course, we wouldn't have to use water. We could use
watermelon juice instead! If we have one gallon of
watermelon juice has an acidity of 3g/L, how much blueberry
juice and water would we need to use?
The total acidity available from the watermelon juice is
3.79L/gallon × 3g/L × 1 gallon = 11.4 grams. The must
requires a total of 145.9 grams, so the amount of acidity
remaining is 145.9 grams−11.4 grams = 134.5 grams. If we
divide that by the number of grams of acid per gallon of
blueberry juice (41.7 grams) we get 134.5 grams / 41.7 grams
per gallon = 3.22 gallons. That's close enough to three gallons
plus a quart, so now our recipe is 3.25 gallons of blueberry
juice, one gallon of watermelon juice, and the remaining (5.5
gallons−3.25 gallons−1 gallon) 1.25 gallons made up with
water. As you can see, the math for blending to get the right
acid levels isn't very difficult.
Usually, however, excessive acid is not the problem. The
problem is more likely to be insufficient acid. This is
especially the case with low or medium acid fruits that are
fully ripened, and with fruits whose quantities need to be kept
low due to high tannins such as cherries.
If I were making a cherry wine, because cherry is high in
tannin, I would likely use half cherry juice and half red or
white grape juice in my must. Because the result would be a
red wine, I'd want the acidity to be at around 7.0g/L. In all
likelihood, though, when I measured, I'd find the acidity
closer to 5.5g/L.
To increase the acidity, you add acid directly to the must and
stir it in. Winemaking shops make citric, tartaric and malic
