Malolactic in Fruits?

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Just a quick question...

Is encouraging a malolactic fermentation (MLF) a general practice when making fruit wines? Everytime I see someone talk about MLF they are talking about grape wines. Since I am mainly trying my hands at fruit wines I wonder if this is something I should be doing that I haven't been.
 
I have made many fruit wines and have never MLF them. MLF a wine will smooth them out. It's all in what you like.

Have you tried any wines that were MLF'd?
 
Thanks for your response I feel better haha

I am sure I have tried some wines that have been but I've never actually been told the difference or handed one that has been followed by one that hasn't.

I am just trying to work out the bugs as to why my wines aren't turning out as good as I would like....decent? yes, but one that is REALLY good I'm still working on and MLF came up again in the latest book I've been reading through.
 
If you are having trouble with wines then you need to discover why. A wine can be very good with or without MLF.

There are several tutorials on our home page that may provide some insight as to what to do regarding making wine, perhaps you may find out there what you are or are not doing for your wines to just be okay.

Once you are able to make good wine then you can move forward with other ways to make wine.
 
There arent many fruits besides grapes that will benefit from MLF, Black is 1 and even then Id test it before doing so to see if it really needs it.
 
We make lots of fruit wine---never MLF'd any of them. If you ever drank Cardonney, it was likely MLF'd. Pinot Noir is,typically, MLF'd.

What you're doing in an MLF is converting malic acid to lactic acid. So you can't do it on non-malic fruits. MLF makes a wine less acidic, raising the PH. Many fruit wines would taste kind of flabby with the high PH. I would say the best fruit to do this on would be blackberry. We've never done it on blackberry so I don't know how it tastes. MLF'd wines have a buttery flavor to them because of the lactic acid. It also smooths out the wine--makes it more complex and robust.

If you're having fruit wine problems, I'd be glad to help you as would others here. Seems there's a fair number of fruit wine makers on here who are finding the benefits of using little water on fruit wines. All of our fruit wine tastes like the fruit it's made from. It seems that's what you're complaining about. Just start eliminating water and you'll be surprised how much better your wine becomes.

The thing about making great fruit wines is to add no water. I know--the recipes always say use water. That's because when you use no water, you don't have a guide to go by--you have to estimate all the chemical additions. This isn't something a new winemaker can do very well because they have no experience. A recipe is designed to make a drinkable product. Wine recipes are like cooking recipes--ANYONE can do it and have something palatable. But experienced cooks won't need to use recipes--they know what goes together and what won't.

So once you make wine a while and understand what you're doing and WHY you're doing it, you can go "off recipe" and your wines will be excellent.
 
Wow guys thank you so much.

Turok I have read a couple things about MLF and I was fairly certain I was good not to but thought I would ask. As far as my issues with fruit wine I THINK I'm starting to figure out that water is my problem. I've been topping with water (on top of adding water to start with) and they keep ending up tasting like...well...rubber and alcohol. I couldn't figure it out. This batch of blackberry that I'm on now I put extra fruit in (still water in the beginning) but I have an extra half gallon of wine that I will be using to top off. AND I'm reading more and more about using commercial wines to top off your wine so I'm toying with that idea even though I would much rather top off with something I've made.

I would LOVE to go all fruit when making these batches but I'm just not sure how much fruit to use or where to start. I guess like you said it will come with experience but if you can give me any shove in the right direction I'll take it!

Thanks again!!
 
Use as much fruit juice as you can, I like to use all juice and then I top off with a small amount off of water.

As for the rubber taste put that bottle away and come back 12 months later and try it, You might be surprised
 
I can almost guarranty Your problem is way too much water! The next thing you need to do is make more then you want meaning if your trying to make a 6 gallon batch the start by making 6 1/2 gallons as obviously some will be lost to rackings and anything you end up with over at this point is usd for topping off with. Youll need to have a few vessels in assorted sizes and a few bungs and airlocks like a #6.5 for 1 gallon jugs and a #3 for wine bottles to keep that top off wine also full. Typically about 8lbs per gallon is the lowest amont of fruit per gallon youll ever want to go with and IMO thats too low for most fruit wines! When you make wine from grapes theres no recipe rght? Thats because you dont use water and thats truly the way any wine should be made . Youll will really need an accurate way to test qcids like a ph meter to do so but they arent that expensive or hard to figure out how to use and with doing this your wine will greatly improve! Its more expensive to make this way but in the grand scheme of things if you figure out the price difference per hottle its really jot much more!
 
Thanks so much Wade!!

I do feel better that water is my main problem. I'll just have to play with how much fruit to use. I'm increasing each batch. Eventually I'll get there I'm sure. Thanks again!
 
Please post the recipe you are going to use next time before you start it and we'll give here a look over!
 
I have done that the last couple of times and the water answer just seems to be unsure.

This last time i used 9 lbs and followed your recipe to the T! haha but I think I still used to much water. but next time I will definitely put it on here for awhile before so we can discuss it.
 

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