Simple Deacidification
Details: This calculation is for simple deacidification using different agents:
Calcium carbonate - CaCO3
Potassium carbonate - K2CO3
Potassium bicarbonate - KHCO3
Note: Potassium salts are known to cause greater deacidification than this calculation predicts due to the potassium ions driving formation of potassium bitartrate. While this effect is small, it can be significant, and cannot be reliably predicted. Full realisation of the potassium bitartrate related component of deacidification may take some considerable time.
Tip: If you are treating a small volume, enter 1000 times the volume you have and the output will be in grams. For example, to deacidify 15 litres, type 15000 and the mass output will be in grams.
Simple deacidification is straight forward to calculate. Firstly, the difference between the current TA and the target TA is obtained, giving us the number of grams per litre we need to remove, this is then multiplied by the number of litres, to give the total number of grams of tartaric acid to remove.
As the deacidification agents used here react with tartaric acid in a 1:1 stoichiometric ratio, the factor to convert between grams of tartaric acid and grams of neutralising agent can be found by dividing the molecular mass of the agent by the molecular mass of tartaric acid. Thus, the overall formula is:
mass of agent (g) = ( ( current TA - Target TA ) * vol ) * (Mr agent / Mr tartaric acid)
Where:
Mr = molecular mass
150.087 = Mr of tartaric acid
100.087 = Mr of calcium carbonate
138.2055 = Mr of potassium carbonate
100.11 = Mr of potassium bicarbonate
VinoCalc by Jonathan Musther - jon@musther.net
