Saturday, October 9, 2010

Testing PH and Brix

PH will show the acid content in your wine/must and Brix is the percentage of sugar in the solution.  Both are important to test.  You can test the PH using titrets and paper samples, or by using a PH meter.  You want your PH to be somewhere between 3.1 and 3.7.  Anything outside that range and you will need to do adjustments.  If your PH is over 3.7, add tartaric acid to bring it back into line.  A wine that has a high acid content has a low PH, and vice versa.  So adding acid actually lowers your PH. 

Brix is tested using a hydrometer.  Fill the cylinder at least 1/2 full or a little more with clean must (no skins or pulp), and read the brix or "balling scale".  That is your Brix.  Wine is basically converting sugar to alcohol.  When your brix gets to 0, your wine is what is considered "dry".  Sweet wines like rose's and dessert wines stop in the single digits and don't go all the way to 0.

Here is a quick video for illustration:

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