Strawberry MLF???

[yakhunter]

My strawberry wine from this Spring has suddenly come back to life! I have tiny little bubbles coming up that makes me think of Malolactic fermentation, but as far as I know, that does not happen in Strawberry wine. Am I wrong?

This was an all-fruit wine, though I did have to add some sugar. It is in the 3rd carboy now with only a tiny layer of sediment, like less than half an inch. It has been absolutely deadsville for months.

Any idea what is going on? SHould I worry about it? Anything I should do?

Thanks in advance!

 

[jamesngalveston]

take a sg reading for a few days..
maybe its co2 coming out...

 

[yakhunter]

I'm freaking out a little now…

The crystal clear strawberry wine has gone rogue. It is now bubbling like crazy. Not the air-lock, but tiny little MLF like bubbles. It looks like champagne bubbles coming up. Very active.

It has also gone cloudy on me. Something is up. Could there be some bad bacteria in the lees that is ruining my wine? Am I panicking for nothing?

I will take another SG tonight.

 

[ShawnDTurner]

No need to freak out. Test to see if MLF is underway! Do you have the testing supplies? Cheers

 

[Pumpkinman]

When you added sugar, did you stabilize it first with sorbate? If not, it could be fermenting again.

 

[yakhunter]

@Shawn, I do have MLF test strips so I can test it, but I did not know there was Malic acid in Strawberry wine. Would the test strips work the same for Strawberry wine as for grapes, and should I be targeting the same concentration?

@pumpkinman: I have not added sugar. This is nothing but strawberries, yeast and a little love.

 

[seth8530]

As far as I know the test strips should work the same since they test the acids inside of the wine.

 

[jamesngalveston]

i would say it is mlf....i have a blackberry thats under mlf now...mother nature at its best.....

 

[Turock]

There is no malic in strawberry--predominate acid is citric.

If you added sugar without adding sorbate, then you have a referment going, as Tom said. You said you added sugar--when did you add sugar?

 

[mmadmikes1]

It happens with Strawberry. Fermentation starts AGAIN. no BIG. LET IT FINISH. It wont hurt it. BTW nature at its best is a great line

 

[yakhunter]

I did NOT add any sugar. It was DRYYYYY at last taste too. Astringent even. I will try again soon, see if the flavor changed.

Is there a "citro-lactic fermentation?"

 

[Turock]

Did you take an SG reading on it? Sometimes when the ferment has not quite gone to dry and then you have some temp changes, it will finish its ferment. Never heard of citric-lactic fermentation. Take an SG reading and let us know what it is.

 

[yakhunter]

Strawberry What the?...

SG was at 1.001 and it is still "fizzing" still smells like AWESOME strawberry Jam, and still tastes drier than my old man's martini. Might be a little more sourness than I would like or expect, but might also be my paranoia.

Here some pictures to show why I named this wine my Strawberry what the? and Blobbo, Son of "What the?…." There were taken months ago in the sencondaries.

 

[seth8530]

Wow, that is a LOT of sediment lol

 

[yakhunter]

It was a nightmare, Seth. I had to use a colander to strain it because the "glop" was too thick for the paint bag. Five gallons of wine left about 1/4 of a bucket (7.5 gal) of sludge. It took me forever.

 

[GreginND]

There is a little malic acid in strawberries so it is possible you could be seeing some ml fermentation. But if your SG is still above 1.000 then it is more likely you are seeing sugar fermentation. Have you added any sulfites to this batch?

 

[jamesngalveston]

There is malic acid in strawberrys...after reading on this it can be very high in overlyripe, and depending on the variety....
the riper the berry the more malic
there is also tons of varieties, some having little malic acid some have huge amounts...
how would you know....have no idea....

 

[yakhunter]

Thanks guys! I have no idea what variety they were, but pretty ripe.

I have not added KMeta since the initial dose when they were fruit, before pitching yeast.

 

[yakhunter]

Update

Well it has been over a week since I took the last SG reading, and it is still at 1.001! It is still bubbling away like crazy, so something other than fermentation seems to be going on. Maybe it is MLF, but I did not inoculate, so any MLB would have had to have been there naturally. Weird.

Taste-wise, it does not seem all that different. Still dry nearly to the point of astringency. Hard to get any taste through that, but there is nothing unpleasant. it still smells like a wonderful strawberry jam.

Any Ideas? I'm not sure testing for MLB would help as I don't know the initial concentration.

 

[seth8530]

You could do a ML test and it could help indicate what your acid profile looks like thus implying whether or not ML is going on... Another possibility is that their is a barometric pressure change thus allowing more bubbles to come out of solution.