Malo or not?

[Stevelaz]

I am doing Chilean Juice buckets, 18 gallons, and i am at about day 25 since pitching yeast. I was thinking of trying mlf on this batch. However, i just checked the sg for the last time, 0.990, and gave it a taste. I really think it taste quite good for for this point in the process. No where near ready, but good! Am i correct that it will only get better and therefore should skip the malo? Last year taste was terrible at this point...

 

[Boatboy24]

I've only been doing wine from grapes for a few years, but I've never NOT done MLF on a red. That's not to say it is never skipped, but most reds get it.

 

[qyhcat]

I used to do kits, now on my first fresh juice bucket. After reading about prevention of having a good later malo and softening on taste i decided to try it out. Im just barely through my second weeks on it so still long way to go.
If i dont like taste afterward then at least i tried.

 

[pgentile]

From my understanding if you are going to bulk age carboy, barrel or bottle there is a more than likely chance that if you don't introduce the MLB with most red wines that a wild one will take hold and it will go through MLF.

My first juice bucket last year, chilean malbec, I never pitched any MLB but around month four in bulk aging it went through what appeared to be activity for about three months. Luckily it has turned pretty darn good. All red buckets and grapes since then I have introduced vp41 or inoculated with another wine that was going through MLF. Just don't want to take the chance of wild and possibly latent MLF.

But there are many here who understand and could explain this aspect better than I.

 

[Stevelaz]

did you k-meta your wine and it still went through malo?

 

[ibglowin]

Very, very doubtful unless you put your wine into a barrel that has had MLB inoculated wine in it before or you have MLB all over everything in your wine making area (again very doubtful). More than likely it was just slowly finishing out and degassing.

From my understanding if you are going to bulk age carboy, barrel or bottle there is a more than likely chance that if you don't introduce the MLB with most red wines that a wild one will take hold and it will go through MLF.

 

[heatherd]

@Stevelaz are you making red wine? What varietal(s)?

If red, then they would likely benefit from MLF.

I typically use VP41.