Frozen Chardonnay

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codeman

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Buying a frozen chardonnay bucket this week. (5 gallons)
How much k meta powder should I add when I get it? 1/8 teaspoon?
Then wait 12 hours before pitching the yeast.
How much powdered pectic enzyme?

What yeast? I was thinking 71B-1122.
 
There are much better products out today than pectic enzyme. I would go with some Opti-white and perhaps some Booster Blanc. Make sure it hasn't already half fermented before anything else.

Use the Morewine Guide to White Wine as a primer.
 
There are much better products out today than pectic enzyme. I would go with some Opti-white and perhaps some Booster Blanc. Make sure it hasn't already half fermented before anything else.

Use the Morewine Guide to White Wine as a primer.

I will be picking it up directly from the cold storage place. I hope it hasn't fermented at all... lol
 
White Salmon Vineyard Chard?....Peter Brehm grows top quality fruit. Commercial wineries have been getting a lot of awards with his Chard recently.

It goes against most winemakers instincts, but don't add any s02 before you pitch your yeast with frozen white juice (reds you should). It can actually cause problems with color in frozen whites and Peter, MoreWine, nor myself recommend it. Once it's done with primary (or secondary) fermentation you should add so2 just like you would with fresh juice.

I like CY3079 yeast if you're planning on doing MLF and Surlie aging.

Any specific reason you were planning on 71b-1122...I've never used it so I'm curious.
 
I uses 71b on a viognier before and it enhanced the smell tremendously.
 
I've bought 5 chardonnay juice buckets in the past year all were partially fermented or mostly fermented by the time I got them.
 
All the juices that I got from M&M were still frozen when I got them. Opti-White and Booster Blanc are not substitutes for pectic enzyme, they are nutrient/ smoothness and anti browning compounds.

There are other enzymes than just pectic enzyme out there though... But, it really depends on what you are going for.

http://www.scottlab.com/product-157.aspx

or this guy

http://www.scottlab.com/product-165.aspx

Most of the sources I have read advice pitching SO2 prior to ferment to control microbes. In addition, the SO2 would help protect the delicate white juice from browning. Plus, if you are worried about MLF not catching on due to the initial SO2 addition, you should not worry too much about it since most of the free So2 will get bound up during the fermentation.
 
There's a strange, counter-intuitive occurence with frozen white juice where if you add s02 prior to fermenting you risk locking in a brown color that would have otherwise dropped out naturally during fermentation.

This is straight from the MoreFlavor guide and was likely written by Shea Comfort so I would have reservations about disagreeing with it.

"It is important that you NOT add SO2 to white juice when you receive it. The fermentation of the juice requires oxygen. The yeast will consume the oxygen in the juice and the oxidized phenolics will fall out before the end of fermentation, to reveal a golden/ green wine. An addition of SO2 before this is accomplished risks maintaining these brown oxidized components in the wine. You will later add SO2 after fermentation is over."
 

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