Chromatography Test Reading?

[JamesdNorcal]

I did the chromo test on my acidic barbera..one early fermentation (8/18 crush) and the other which I just pressed. (8/11 crush). I added ch16 to the 8/11 during ferm. Then I read ch16 not good with a low ph so I picked up VP41 and added into both batches.

PH has risen from 2.95 at crush to 3.25 after pressing. The batch in primary had a 2.97 PH at crush and now is at 3.15 so maybe it will be 3.25 after pressing.

acids are high on both 1.1-1.2%.

here’s the chromo test I just did. (btw, my background was really yellow so I held the paper over an open bottle of winded and the blue background came out)

Looks like a lot of malo needs to be converted? Basically, I want to rerun this every few weeks and see that the malo fades away and the lacto gets brighter to see that mlf is complete?

 

[NorCal]

Looks good @JamesdNorcal. I'd be patient with the rerunning the test. You can tell when mlf is active with small bubbles around the neck of the carboy. For reference, my wines typically finish mlf in Nov-Jan.

 

[JamesdNorcal]

Thanks. I figure it’s good to have a starting baseline.

 

[JamesdNorcal]

Norcal, just wanted to confirm. No more Sulfites until after MLF complete? I added 35ppm at crush, wasn’t sure if that dissipates through ferm and if I should top off a little or leave because of the MLB. I know with my low ph, don’t need as much so2.

 

[stickman]

Definitely don't add any more sulfites until ML completion.

 

[JamesdNorcal]

Roger that. That’s what I thought.

 

[Snafflebit]

MLF bacteria are very sensitive to SO2. Yeast can kind of shrug it off at 50ppm, especially the yeasts we use which are bred to tolerate sulfites.