Correcting a "stuck" or Incomplete MLF

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Pumpkinman

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Malolactic Fermentation has been covered so many times that I almost decided not to post this, but I felt that a first hand "fix" would be worthy of a post.

After fermenting 4 juice buckets this fall, I thought that I would have plenty of time to put them through MLF before the temps started to drop, of course, no one expected the kind of weather that we've been getting, but I knew that with these wines being located in my cellar, I'd only have about a month, maybe 6 weeks before the temps dropped significantly.

I rehydrated the MLB Lalvin MBR 41 with Acti-ML, and used Opti'Malo Plus to ensure that the MLF would be a very healthy fermentation.
The temps unexpectedly dropped fast and after two months I ran a chromatography test that indicated that the 4 batches of wine in question were no where near complete, the batches of wine that were located in my office, on the other hand, were complete.

Even though the temps in my cellar are cold enough to slow down any spoilage to a crawl, I didn't want the wine to go much longer without either being protected by the co2 that is usually released during a fermentation, or being stabilized with meta, it was time to take some sort of corrective action.

I decided to try to increase the temp of the wine, I figured that I'd try this before trying to add more MLB.
Fortunately I have a few real large seedling heating?germinating mats, 4 ft x 2 ft.
I put all four 6 gallon carboys on the bottom shelf of a wire rack and "weaved" one heat mat around 2 carboys, and used the other mat for the remaining two carboys.

8 hrs after plugging them in, the first thing that I noticed was the liquid in the air lock had been pushed to one side, a good indication of pressure, hopefully from co2 being released, using a flashlight, I then noticed the telltale bubbles moving up the side of the carboys, and finally, I felt the carboys, they were no longer ice cold.

I've been monitoring them for temp for 3 days, I don't want the temp to exceed 75°, so far they've been holding steady between 68° - 71°.
I'll run another chromatography test in a week to check on the status.

The purpose of the post is just a reminder to some of the members that experienced problems with their MLF and got stressed when they ran into issues, to try to relax and start with the small fixes such as applying heat.
It's in our nature to look for the "big Fix", most jump to re pitch the MLB, there is always time to re pitch it, and maybe more importantly, use the best products that you can afford, I'm a firm believer that had I used some of the cheaper products, I might have not been able to "recover" so easily.
 
Thanks Tom. I've yet to try a MLF so I've been following all posts on it. Every bit helps

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Kim,
MLF is a lot easier than it has been portrayed, the key is using good products and keeping an eye on a few key elements, no worse than alcoholic fermentation.
 
Kim,
MLF is a lot easier than it has been portrayed, the key is using good products and keeping an eye on a few key elements, no worse than alcoholic fermentation.

It's always seemed a little scary to me.I will try one this year. When I'm ready to try one expect a PM from me!
 
Kim,
I'd be happy to help you!
MLF really has gotten a bad rep, if you can ferment wine, you can successfully put a wine through MLF. I've only had a problem with MLF twice, once because I didn't research the specific MLB prior to pitching it, and this time due to my cellar being below the temperature tolerance of the MLB.
Just for the record, My carboys are all maintaining temps between 68° - 71°, I can visible see activity in the carboy (small bubbles traveling up the side of the carboys), I predict another week and MLF will be complete.
 
Juice pails are fine - these are usually just "As is", with what-they-are printed on a label and slapped on the bucket. Sometimes they'll do acidity adjustments or something small - maybe pitch yeast on you sometimes too.

But kits are different, these are balanced to work out, even if you 'know nothing'. They tweak the must, all the way around, and run a bunch of tests to make sure its basically fail-safe. Running an MLF on these, throws all that tweaking they did to balance the wine in the end, out of balance.
 
Do all sources of the MLF bacteria package them only for professional wine makers making 50 or 60 gallons of wine (at more than $30 a pack). Does anyone sell them for someone making 5 gallons?
 
Bacchus is the only strain I know of, that comes in a 5-gallon batch size.

Oh, I guess there's a Wyeast 4007 too, but I'm not at all familiar with that.
 

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