MLF on Wine Kit

[crushday]

I know that the recommendation is NOT to do a MLF on wine kits. I'm wondering if anyone has ever tried it anyway. If so, what were the results? According to an article (http://winemakersacademy.com/malolactic-fermentation-wine-kits/) on Wine Maker's Academy, performing a MLF on a kit wine will produce "a flat and uneventful wine."

However, do you think it's possible to do a MLF on a smaller portion of a kit (up to 50%) and blend it into the remaining portion (3 gallons) during the bulk aging process? Or do two like kits, one MLF and the other not and then blend?

Trying to think outside the box. Someone out there has the answer...

 

[cmason1957]

You have the answer. It's are often acid balanced by adding malic acid. If you remove the malic acid (and that is a big if, you can get Mlf to start) you will end up with a dull, flabby wine.

That having been said, feel free to try. It is your wine after all and I wish you the best of luck with it.

 

[Johnd]

In a kit that I did in 2016, used the pressed skins from a grape wine that had undergone coinoculation with MLB, so the skins were laden with MLB. Just for fun, the wine was checked with chromotography along with the grape wines and the malic acid spot never disappeared from the test results. On this forum, it has been suggested that MLB will act upon the naturally occurring malic acid in your kit juice, but not upon the man-made acid that is added, perhaps that is the explanation, I do not know. In the end, the kit wine made with the pressed skins was and still is a very good kit wine.

 

[mainshipfred]

I've tried it twice when I first started but had aleady sulfited the wine and had no luck. But if it can be done I've always questioned the flabby thought. Again if it can be done why couldn't you just add tartaric afterwards if you wanted to balance the acid.

 

[Ajmassa]

@George_Burgin So be the brave one and inoculate mlb to a kit! Just seems like a lot of work to do something basically already done- having a balanced acid profile.
And I assume ya gotta adjust by taste afterwards if ya managed to convert some/all malic, since TA levels are skewed - having non traditional amounts of different acids- giving a balanced taste profile at different levels then what we are used to for grape wines.
But we won’t know for sure till you do it!

 

[Countrygent]

Watching with interest as I may have accidentally co-inoculated a kit with MLF using some pomace left from a frozen bucket fermentation that I thought might tweak up the kit. My thought was the same as Fred ... if I have reduced the acid I can correct before bottling? I’ll taste, take ph and TA and see where it is at. Presumably when the constituent acids are different - ie. more tartaric, no malic, the wine produced might be something different from the usual non-MLF’d kit profile? Not that I know, just wondering.

 

[StToddy]

Your winemakers academy link also warns that malolactic bacteria interacts with sorbate to produce rotting geranium odor (which is both disgusting and unfixable). The danger for some kits is, even if you don't add sorbate yourself, it may come pre-mixed in the concentrate for stability - and so in that case you could find out the hard way.

 

[Countrygent]

Worth knowing. Rotting geranium is probably a rarely enjoyed?

 

[dmguptill]

Your winemakers academy link also warns that malolactic bacteria interacts with sorbate to produce rotting geranium odor (which is both disgusting and unfixable). The danger for some kits is, even if you don't add sorbate yourself, it may come pre-mixed in the concentrate for stability - and so in that case you could find out the hard way.

In that case, the wine wouldn't ferment though, since it prevents yeast growth.