What are the Items You Need for Wine Analysis?
The craft of winemaking blends both passion and science into one tasty art-form. People have been making wine for longer than we’ve all been around and people will keep on doing it into the future. No reason not to get involved, right? While making wine has a low barrier for entry, the best vintners follow several important steps in order to come away with a bottle worth celebrating. One of the most important aspects of winemaking is wine analysis. Wine analysis is rarely thought of with the beginning winemaker but well-practiced by the professional. Let’s see what wine analysis is and what we need to perform it back at home!
What is wine analysis?
Wine analysis is an umbrella term we used to describe the tools that test the chemical make-up of our wine. Wine analysis may sound difficult or confusing from the outside looking in but it is a side of winemaking that definitely deserves your attention. Let’s take a close look at which tools we need for the wine analysis part of the process.
What tools do I need for wine analysis?
Wine analysis is actually a thorough field. In order to make your wine as high quality as possible, try to get a hand on all of the following tools that we are going to list.
- Accuvin Free Sulphur SO2 Test Kit – SO2 is the chemical compound for Sulphur Dioxide. Adding the correct amount of SO2 to your wine will help to control bacteria and yeast growth in your wort. SO2 also helps to prevent your wine from oxidising over time. This test kit will show you where you are at in terms of SO2 contents.
- Malic Acid Test Kit – Malil acid is one of the primary chemicals in the winemaking process. Malic acid is naturally found in grapes and the concentration of the acid will decrease during respiration. Without enough malic acid in your wine, the wine will taste flat. With too much malic acid in the wine, your wine will taste sour. Get to the right place with this test kit.
- Clinitest Reagent Tablets – When you need to measure the residual sugar left in your wine, this is the tool that you reach for. Getting your sugar levels right is imperative during the winemaking process.
- Hydrometer – Finally, we introduce you to the hydrometer. One of these glass vials should be in the possession of every winemaker. This tool essentially measures the alcohol content of your wine.