Recent content by ChrisL

Hi All, I was wondering if anyone out there has ever made cheese in the same location as their wine? My wife and I want to start making cheese, but I am also concerned that the bacteria we use to create mold on the cheese could contaminate my upcoming batches of wine. Anyone know what sort of...

Thanks everyone for all the input. The wine's pretty tart right now, so it definitely needs some sort of adjustment. I've been keeping it right around 72 degrees. If I go with cold stabilization, do you happen to know if I can use cream of tartar found at the store for seeding or should I order...

Hi Stickman, It's about 2 months old. I started MLF on it initially, but had trouble completing it (due to my liberal application of sanitizer I think ha). I tried to restart MLF with reinoculation and OptiMalo, but that didn't work, so I'm planning on just killing off the ML bacteria with...

Hi All, I have a red wine that has a high TA (.93) and a pretty high pH (3.7), and I'm thinking of trying cold stabilization or adding potassium carbonate to lower its acidity. However, I have heard that this will raise the pH in wines that have starting pHs above 3.6. I'm considering adding...

Great-- thanks again for your help. Will probably hold off for a few weeks and retest to see if there's any progress. Sincerely, Chris

Thank you both for your input. I was especially wondering because I racked at 30 days to get the wine off the oak cubes I added. I made sure to stir before racking since I know it's important to keep some lees for the bacteria to feed off of, but I was wondering if I may have left too much or if...

Hi All, I was wondering if anyone has some insight into what signs you should expect to see in your airlock during malolactic fermentation? I'm about 40 days into malo, and until now the solution in the airlock was being pushed outward into the chamber furthest from the wine, which I assumed...

Hi Justin. As far as books go, I'd recommend From Vines to Wines by Jeff Cox. It's detailed enough to give you a good knowledge base, but also accessible for people who are new to winemaking. It takes you through both the grape growing and winemaking processes.

Great-- thank you both for your responses!

Hi Everyone, I'm making 3 gallons of malbec from frozen grape must, which I fermented, pressed, and racked off the gross lees into a carboy two weeks ago. After racking I introduced malolactic bacteria and added about an ounce of oak cubes. Today, I noticed that there is a small bit of...