Acid Addition Calculator

About this calculator

Titratable acidity (TA) in must or finished wine determines how tart, balanced and microbiologically stable it tastes and ages — too low and the wine reads flat and is more vulnerable to spoilage organisms, too high and it tastes sharp or sour. Tartaric acid is the standard addition in winemaking because it’s the dominant natural acid in grapes and, unlike citric or malic acid, doesn’t get metabolized away by malolactic fermentation, so an addition made pre-fermentation stays effective through to bottling.

Home winemakers and small commercial producers measure current TA (usually via titration) and compare it to a style-appropriate target — reds are typically balanced lower than whites — then dose tartaric acid to close the gap, most often at the must stage before fermentation starts, since additions are easier to integrate before alcohol and tannin structure are locked in.

This calculator takes your current TA, target TA and batch volume and returns the grams of tartaric acid needed to raise the must or wine to your target acidity.