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Well, I was all worried about it, but I ended up doing it anyway. I decided to try it with the wine I have the least invested in, 10 gallons of Catawba. When I was sanitizing the kegs and running sanitizer through them, I found that 5 psi of the CO2 gave it enough pressure to seal the lid...

Well, after pressing it the PH was at 3.04. I ended up ordering the Lalvin 31 malolactic bacteria that boatboy was suggesting. That one is supposed be good down to PH of 3.1. I'll just try that and hope for the best at this point.

All of my carboys are full and I need to rack my wine. I was planning on going out to buy a couple more carboys, but I don't think I'll ever again be doing this much wine at one time (26 carboys), so I don't feel good about buying more. Then I got thinking about using our corney kegs for...

Thanks to Morewine's Guide to Red Wine Making, I learned that I was using my refractometer wrong! My ferementation is also done. I was wondering why your Chamborcin purchased just a few days after mine would be done fermenting. :-)

Huge relief! I was starting to wonder if there could possibly be something in the air in my basement that could cause stuck fermentation, although I sort of thought that was a crazy idea at the same time.

HA!!!! I don't think so.... Nice try. :ft :)

HA!!!! I don't think so.... Nice try. :ft :h

Yes. I'm sure I'm not the first person to do this and I'm probably not the last. Someone thinking they have a stuck fermentation may end up seeing this and benefit from it.

I probably shouldn't admit this, but it's a huge development in my wine making experience. I thought I was being diligent about looking stuff up; I have wine making books that I've been reading and I've been looking stuff up online....but I missed something big. I could do a shorter version...

Waiting one year on your first batch is impressive! I don't think many people can accomplish that with their first wine. I certainly haven't done that. I'm trying the make so much I couldn't possibly drink it in a year approach this year.

Sounds great! What brand of Cabernet bucket was it?

That sounds good. Did the PH's end up going up on their own, or did you have to do other adjustments? I can't really compare notes with the similar juices from the same place since my SG is at 1.030 (from 1.095). I just turned the temperature up in the basement from 67 to 70. Your PH's and...

It looked like artwork to me.

I'm sure it's an excellent explanation to those who understand it. You weren't trying to explain it to me anyway. You did put a lot of effort into the detailed explanation.

:? I haven't taken a chemistry class since high school. I can't remember any of it. Trying to figure out how to best use the chemicals with zero chemistry knowledge.

I don't know. I'm very confused too, which doesn't help with other people's confusion. I have a bottle of "Acid Reducing Crystals" which contains potassium bicarbonate. Now that I'm looking at the bottle, it doesn't say anything about cold stabilizing, by the way. Books and online things...

I was picturing (picturing only, no chemistry knowledge to back it up) the excess acid being in the crystals left at the bottom of the carboy after cold stabilizing with potassium carbonate or bicarbonate. I was thinking you rack the wine off the crystals, excess acid is left behind in the...

From what I read, I think the cold stabilizing is to help the tartrate crystals form at the bottom of the carboy, then you just rack the wine off the tartrate crystals. When you put a bottle of wine that wasn't cold stabilized in the refrigerator, the crystals form anyway. Does the Potassium...

Now that I have a PH meter, I will be sure to make PH and TA adjustments prior to fermentation on everything. I realized the importance of PH when it was time to start thinking about doing MLF with my first red wine. Also, a couple of my white wines from last year ended up being a little...

That makes sense. I'll just leave it and see if it works without adjusting the PH.