Wino-Nouveau wrote:
> I have had very good results with my own grapes and cans of juice
> (Alexander) and decided to try a 6 gallon Kit. It is a Winexpert
> Merlot. I have read repeatedly that a kit should be made exactly
> according to the instructions for the first time. (Unfortunately, I did
> not follow the "extended" instructions on Keller's website).
>
> This wine kit started out with a very low s.g. of 1.080 and very low
> acid. It is now at day 32 and I find it to be very very bland! The
> acid is about .55%, pH is about 3.4 and does not seem to have much
> tannin (in addition to the low abv).
>
> I plan to bulk age it for at least a few more months ( in addition to
> at least 60 days in the bottle to recover from bottle shock). At this
> point I need to live with the low achohol but I think I need to add at
> least 1 1/2 tsp of tannin and at least a few tsp of tartaric acid. I
> can check it again in 30 days at the next racking.
>
> Is there any reason why I should not do this? Is it too late to add
> tannin and acid? Is Is there a better way to salvage this wine? (On
> the next kit, I plan to boost the tannin, acid, and s.g. prior to
> primary fermentation.)
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Roger L. Pelletier , Aurora, NE USA

Any chance you've added too much water in the beginning? The numbers
sound low.

FYI - you can't reliably measure TA on kit wines before fermentation -
something in the processing makes some amount of acid bound to other
things and this onl gets released during fermentation. After ferment,
the TA canbe measure correctly.

I don't see any problem in anyone adjusting wine to their taste -
that's how it sholud be done. If you add tartaric acid and don't want
to get bitartrate crystals in bottle, you'll have to cold stabilize.

Pp