I am a winemaker and in the course of my work I simply do not understand how to do a calculation of this sort. We usually express acidity (in wine) in terms of titratable acidity in grams tartaric acid per liter. Here is the information that I have:
If 500 mg/L of lactic acid is added to distilled water and NaOH is added until the pH
= 3.1, what are the final amounts of each species in the acid equibrium ? What would it be expressed as titratable acidity in grams/L of tartaric acid? I know that the formula for Lactic acid is C3H6O3 and the pKa = 3.86. The formula for tartaric acid is C4H606.
Any guidance or direction on how to perform this calculation this would be most appreciated.