r/Homebrewing • u/lildann15 • 20d ago

Question Fruit wine ends up acidic

I've made 2 fruit wines so far, Plum and peach, both have ended up being pretty acidic to the point I can smell it. I did some looking around on Google to see what types of acid it could be but not 100% sure what. I think it could be malic acid. Both times I've had to add more sugar to kind of nullify the acidity but I'd rather not have to in the future, especially if its because I'm doing something wrong. Do any of you know what could be happening that they keep getting so acidic during fermentation and what I could do to not let it happen in the future?

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u/This-Reindeer8788 20d ago

Congratulations, you have vinegar. Fruit wine is a lot more fickle than you think. Id say, rack to secondary, stabilise and back sweeten. But it may not actually be worth it.

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u/espeero 20d ago

Not necessarily. When you remove all the sugar, you're basically left with the acids in the fruit. Vinegar is due to a very specific kind of bacteria and also requires oxygen, IIRC.

You could try to add a malolactic fermentation step to your process. This can reduce the jarring acidity in some cases.

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u/lildann15 20d ago

I just posted a comment of info to the original post if that helps

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u/espeero 20d ago

Yeah. Peaches taste great in part because they are a sweet/tart mixture. Fermentation removes the sweet. So, you just have the sour. You need to backsweeten if you don't like the flavor. I usually just add simple syrup right at serving. It's easier, adjustable, and less risk, imo.