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Merlot has a resistance to enzymatic break down more than most varietals , so mlf can take longer . Adding more optimalo and stirring the lees into suspension should be your first intervention . If gently stirring it up once a week after that doesn't help it finish in another 5 weeks , you...

Looking at your chromatography results , you have lactic acid present in your samples , that indicates mlf is occurring as lactic isn't there without mlf . So it's happening , but the so2 you added is one of the factors slowing down progress . Another is you splash racked it to get your free...

you might think about adding a little optimalo nutirent / stirring up the lees . works well for slow mlf. try that be fore repitching with a strong strain like 41 , its usually a nutrient issue not a viability or acclimatisation issue even with difficult vareitals like merlot (which has a...

Use a percarbonate cleaner or soda ash . Un scented oxyclean , barrel clean etc.

your best plan of attack is just to wait and innoculate them all at the same time . a few weeks difference between the first and last batch isn't going to hurt anything , provided you practiced good sanitation and minimise airspace . then hydrate the mlb add your mlf nutrient to your wines and...

the smaller the barrel the larger the surface area to wine ratio , so you get faster evaporation. a 60 gallon winery barrel evaporates (depending on ambient humidity) approximately one bottle a month. if you are storing your small barrel in a place without much humidity , combined with the...

Yes thats right , I do that to manage the risk of it refermenting. adding it after the wine is rack and clear and sulfited reduces the yeast population, , if you left the wine sitting on the lees bed before you add the juice you might get a refement even with the sorbate and sulfite added...

there are "real" corks and then there are Real corks they are sold in grades from 5 to 1 and in different lengths and diameters . for my best wines I use # 9 1 3/4" number ones or number 2s , solid natural corks . I pay between $350 and $700 for one thousand . you can pay upto a dollar each...

life is too short to drink bad wine.

this is similar to what the germans call the suss reserve technique . how I do it is I drain off and freeze some of the juice before pitching the yeast in the fermenter. I keep this reserve juice in the freezer untill the main wine has been racked , sulfited and is clear and stable. then I...

That's not a good idea , using multiple yeasts in the same fermenter can result in stuck ferments or h2s as the stress of competition is very hard on yeasts. Better to split the batch ferment separately the blend the wine together once dry

I would disagree , this is probably one of the most enlightening threads I've read here. There should be less tolerance of falsehoods and scientifically poor advice spread on the forum. When misinformation is spread , the purveyor should be called on it.

The easiest way is to get it started in a half gallon of wine for a few days then divide the liquid into the other containers you want to innoculate . Check out the fear no mlf thread in the science section http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f86/fear-no-mlf-43014/

Alan is pretty right on track , There is a lot more internet noise about sulfites than there is good science . Sulfites are an issue with 10% of asthmatics and the occupationaly sensitized . Beyond that it's less than .0001 percent of the population who are naturally sensitive . The cdc has...

Whiskey barrel staves are usually kiln dried from new harvest wood and the poorest choice for wine . Wine barrel staves are air dried and seasoned out in the open , the sun rain air has 2-3 years to leach out the harsh tannins and make them suitable for wine . Whiskey barrels will ruin your...

There is nothing natural about mixing grain and grape .

You could add a little nutrient or stir up the fine lees once a week

different yeasts have different levels of efficiencies at converting sugar into alcohol. yeasts that have higher alcohol tolerances also tend to be more efficient at converting sugar into alcohol, where as other yeasts convert sugar into higher percentages of co2 . before you can come up with...

cork was used , in fact you can still buy cork bungs but they weep and get microbial problems wooden bungs were used too , but they have the above problems and they swell making it hard to get them out and potentially damage the hole stave, taping alternate sides is the method to get a wooden...

before he was famous , I had David Suzuki as a professor , his doctorate was studying fruit flies.