MLF and Oak

[Longtrain]

I have Syrah and Malbec Chilean juice pails soon finishing their primary fermentation. I have White Labs 675 MLB, which I plan to add on transfer to carboys. I want to add oak to these wines, can oak be added with the MLB or best after MLF finishes and some racking has taken place?

Thanks. Tony

 

[Boatboy24]

What kind of oak? Chips, dust, cubes?

I just racked my Chilean wine to secondary over the weekend and added oak chips to get some enhanced mouthfeel, along with the MLB. It seems to be doing just fine.

 

[jimmyjames23]

From experience its best to test PH, rack, degas a little, add the MLB and perform the entire MLF without the oak. When your chroma says the Malic acid conversion is complete stop MLF and then add the oak of choice.
I oak MLF'd once. It came out astringent and the MLF took 4 months. Effectively wasting 3 months compared to the above method.

 

[Longtrain]

Thanks, White Labs FAQ's says to add MLB at ~ 5 brix, so, both the Malbec and Syrah were just a bit below that level.
The wines were transferred to carboys with the MLB added, filled the carboys well, no need to top off and there still is some fermentation going.

Going to give it 3-4 weeks and then test and see where I am on whether the MLF has finished.

Oak after MLF has completed.

Tony

 

[manvsvine]

Oak doesn't interfere with mlf .

In the case of barrels it actually provides a more mlf friendly environment and less temperature swings.

If someone had a slow mlf it's not because of the oak , there is another issue going on , ie so2, cultural viability, temperature or a lack of nutrients . It's impossible for the oak to be the cause.

I rack my wine off the gross lees , put cubes in the receiving carboy (1-2oz) when the carboy is half full I add optimalo , then when it's full I pitch my cultured mlf. Six weeks later I test for mlf completion . It's pretty much always done by then.

 

[Longtrain]

I've got no room for oak at the minute, so I'll wait this time.

Another question, my Sauvignon Blanc juice will probably be going to the carboy tomorrow, based on the SG today. When should I add K-meta to that carboy, since no MLF on that one? How much? 1/4 tsp?

Thanks for the help, I'm enjoying the juice route, much different then kits do far.

Tony

 

[manvsvine]

http://morewinemaking.com/public/pdf/so2.pdf

1/4 tsp is about 50ppm

I'd add it to the receiving carboy then rack the wine in.

 

[Boatboy24]

Longtrain:

What is the SG on your Sauv Blanc? I'm assuming you're going into secondary fermentation. I'd not add any sulfite until fermentation is complete. Leave it in the carboy, topped up with an airlock until you have at least three days in a row with no change in SG. Then sulfite.

Jim

 

[Longtrain]

Below 1.004, moved to carboy, still chugging along nicely. Sulfites once stable.

 

[robie]

I agree with manvsvine, oak will not cause any problem if added during MLF.

 

[geek]

I rack my wine off the gross lees , put cubes in the receiving carboy (1-2oz) when the carboy is half full I add optimalo , then when it's full I pitch my cultured mlf.

That's what I'm thinking of doing when I start the MLF on mine in a couple days.

I'd add it to the receiving carboy then rack the wine in.

So you dump the needed kmeta in the empty receiving carboy and then bring the wine in....hmm, never thought about doing it this way as I always added my kmeta once the carboy is full for non-MLF batches.