Mustketeer
New Member
Hello all! Hoping to nip this in the bud from some that may have more experience than me on the subject so here it goes. Back in march of this year I started a 1g primary ferment following Jack Kellers recipe for dandelion wine using the ol work horse yeast Lavlin EC-1118. I racked it in a 1 gallon carboy/airlock with a campden tablet after fermentation ceased around 12-14 days. I for the life of me cannot find the paper I scribbled the specific gravity readings (this will matter greatly) that being the case I have been much in the dark about this wine, almost forgetting it at times. Fast forward to today; well it sure smells like wine! The "AH- HA!" moment for the burgeoning homebrewer! Better yet it has a nice a straw colour, clear and no haze, the yeast cake is uniform, but whats this.....oh no there is a small cloud of what appears to be baddies in the airlock water, a grey/black cloud is the best way to describe what I saw...Not a good sign, but must press onward. I decided to take a PH reading (digital+calibrated directly before reading) and to my astonishment it read @4.7
Decided to drink a little bit and it tastes like it smelled when I was boiling the petals; pollen forward and slightly sweet with a soapy green sharpness. I do not detect any off aromas that would indicate an infection, but I am still concerned about the PH level and that black cloud in the airlock. Now I understand I can raise the acidity with acids and I might plan on doing this, or may just use as-is for cooking wine....I filled 3 wine bottles before reading PH oops. I have tried but failed, or perhaps not searching with the right words to find a definitive answer of what an unsafe PH would be for wine to consume. In particular what bacteria and fungus can grow in this PH range, or is that even possible with aforementioned ?ABV on this golden brew, it subjectively smells and felt like other 14-18%ABV wines I make with the same yeast strain and sugar ratios.
Any ideas or hunches would be great thanks all!
Decided to drink a little bit and it tastes like it smelled when I was boiling the petals; pollen forward and slightly sweet with a soapy green sharpness. I do not detect any off aromas that would indicate an infection, but I am still concerned about the PH level and that black cloud in the airlock. Now I understand I can raise the acidity with acids and I might plan on doing this, or may just use as-is for cooking wine....I filled 3 wine bottles before reading PH oops. I have tried but failed, or perhaps not searching with the right words to find a definitive answer of what an unsafe PH would be for wine to consume. In particular what bacteria and fungus can grow in this PH range, or is that even possible with aforementioned ?ABV on this golden brew, it subjectively smells and felt like other 14-18%ABV wines I make with the same yeast strain and sugar ratios.
Any ideas or hunches would be great thanks all!