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Brix, Ph, and Acidity in wine - how to measure each.

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Uploaded by on Jul 25, 2009

Picking wine grapes is a mix of art and science. Three measurements are often mentioned: Brix, Ph, and Acidity. In this video, Wes Hagen of Clos Pepe defines each and talks about Birx levels in California, in German Rielsing, in Champagne, and in the Rhone Valley. This is a useful video for WSET students and anyone trying to better understand winemaking. We filmed Wes at Pinot Days in San Francisco in 2009. www.pinotdays.com. Askawinemaker is a production of Candid Wines. www.candidwines.com. Follow us on Twitter @candidwines

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  • Wow, I really should have listened to the entire video before posting. Acidity is not a measure of the "weight" of acids. It is expressed in terms of a concentration of a standard acid -- in winemaking, usually tartaric acid. However, what's actually being measured is the juice's ability to donate protons to a base. You add base until the juice reaches a predetermined pH, and the number of hydrogen acceptors you've added, divided by the original volume of juice, indicates the acidity.

  • pH is the negative log of Hydrogen ion concentration. It has nothing to do with how fast protons are flying around. You're thinking of temperature, which is a measure of how fast atoms vibrate. Perhaps you aren't "geeky" enough to understand concentrations and temperature, but the average Joe is perfectly capable of this, if you don't insult his intelligence.

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