SarahRides
Senior Member
- Joined
- May 2, 2011
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10 weeks at what temperature? I would raise to 75 degrees and stir every other day. and give it another 30 days. You have a good degree of lactic indicated. You didn't start with that. So your MLF has to be working to see these results.Sarah how did you make out? As you can see with mine below the mlf did not go anywhere. It has been about 10 weeks and I'm giving up on it. This was Chilean wines and I think it was heavily dosed with sulphite preventing the mlf. I'm kicking myself for not testing it when I got it but testing it now some of it is as high as 40 ppm. The juice I added the raisins to tested out at 12 ppm. Neither one of them budged. I racked last night and added oak.
What would others do familier with MLF at this point. Should I continue to monitor it or add meta to the wines that are at 12 ppm now to protect them?
Thank you! I think I might rack over my "dry" MLF today, and leave the "liquid" MLF and check it again in another month or so. Looks like the dry culture worked a lot faster! Other than the cultures, the 2 carboys were identical. It looks as though my little one gallon batch that I didn't add any culture to is also undergoing secondary fermentation too.
I think in the fall I'll probably do MLF on a few different wines, if I'm starting to get the hang of it! I'm thinking I might try a chardonnay from grapes, and add both the malolactic culture to it and try battonage.
10 weeks at what temperature? I would raise to 75 degrees and stir every other day. and give it another 30 days. You have a good degree of lactic indicated. You didn't start with that. So your MLF has to be working to see these results.
Malvina
think in terms of 90 days at 72 degrees . THEN get concerned. However there are ways to shorten this time frame.(it has been working for about 5 weeks now). I can still see the little bubbles in both of them, even without a flashlight.
think in terms of 90 days at 72 degrees . THEN get concerned.
Malvina
While you are not in any rush you can't leave the wine for 18 months at 75 degrees and you can't leave it that long without So2. What I was trying to say was when doing a MLF after the Primary Fermentation there is plenty of CO2 to protect the wine and you can keep the temps in the 70s to get the ML done quickly. You can do MLF in the high 60s but it takes longer assuming you don't have a problematic wine. A few degrees difference adds up to weeks in difference of completion time. While not getting into an esthetic argument. the quicker you get it done and protected with So2 the better. Another thing that really helps but flies in the face of the Fairy Dust Sprinklers is to culture your ML bacteria a few days before inoculating. By doing this and keeping Temps of the wine not the air temp of the basement at 72 you can get MLF over in 4 -6 weeks. One other thing not all ML bacteria are equal. VP 41 and Enolferm Alpha are best for speed and have parameters that can handle wines which stretch the limits of ML Bacteria. Some others are really crummy.I'm not really in any rush, I'm probably going to let them sit in the carboys at least 18 months. Right now our basement is 75 degrees.
One other thing not all ML bacteria are equal. VP 41 and Enolferm Alpha are best for speed and have parameters that can handle wines which stretch the limits of ML Bacteria. Some others are really crummy.
Malvina
Dang, they are sure proud of that stuff!
While you are not in any rush you can't leave the wine for 18 months at 75 degrees and you can't leave it that long without So2.
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