Outfitting a Winery Laboratory---Part 2

On February 13, 2021 I blogged about Outfitting a Winery Laboratory where I checked off the equipment that we had purchased and there were a few blanks against the equipment we had not yet purchased:
Equipment to Outfit a Winery Laboratory

Equipment	Year Purchased	Equipment	Year Purchased
Cash/Markham Still		pH Meter	2015
Paper Chromatography Equipment	2017	Ripper Equipment
Ebulliometer		Refractometer	2015
Filtration Equipment	2016	Scales	2015
Forceps and other Manipulators		Spectrophotometer
Heat Source		Test Kit for Residual Sugar	2015
Hydrometers	2020	Titration Equipment	2015
Material Mixing Equipment		Assorted Chemicals and Reagents	2015-now
Microscope		Misc. glassware including flasks, beakers, sample containers, test tubes, racks and pipettes	2015-now

In today's post I will follow the Morris paper and explain what the other equipment are:
Cash/Markham Still
A Cash/Markham Still is used for volatile acid analysis. Volatile acids are acids that turn to vapor when heated. Wine normally contains some volatile acid, usually acetic acid, as a result of fermentation. In addition, spoilage organisms may cause an increased presence of volatile acids.
Measuring the amount of volatile acidity in wine is useful for the detection of spoilage and to assure compliance with federal regulations regarding allowable volatile acidity levels.
Ripper Equipment
The Ripper analysis, which involves an iodine titration, is one of the most common methods used for SO₂ analysis. The equipment for this test is basically that used for titration and is relatively inexpensive.
There are some complications in using the test, however, since the test must be done with chemicals that are accurately standardized. Since the iodine solution used is not stable, it must be standardized regularly. An additional problem in using the test is that it is sometimes difficult to determine the endpoint of the titration when testing red wines. These problems can be overcome with sound laboratory procedures so that the test is generally accurate enough for winery laboratories.
Ebulliometer
An ebulliometer is used for testing alcohol content of the wine. An ebulliometer works by determining the difference in the boiling point of the wine and that of pure water. Since this difference is related to the alcohol content of the wine, tables that come with the instrument can relate the boiling point information obtained to alcohol content of the wine.
Spectrophotometer
Spectrophotometric analysis is useful for determining turbidity (cloudiness) and ripeness of tannins in wine and juice.
A Spectrophotometer takes a light source and splits it into its component wavelengths. By selecting a narrow band of wavelengths and passing them through a solution, it is possible to measure the percentage of light at that wavelength that is absorbed by the solution. This provides information on the presence of components in the solution.
Microscope
Getting a microscope depends on how much money you would like to spend on this equipment for looking at yeast and bacteria that might be in the wine.
Most of the rest of the equipment looked really expensive and at this time, we probably would not invest in any other equipment for our winery laboratory.
One thing that I did come across which we might try is the Titrets Test Kits for testing SO₂ levels in white wine.
References:
1. Justin R. Morris, Considerations for Starting a Winery, Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Division of Agriculture, University of Arkansas System, January 2008, Research Report 983.