Mlf

[Tom]

Been some disscussion on this as to what it does. I have been asked to find out a few things on how other people do MLF.
1 When do you add? (in secondary when wine is finished?)

2 Oak during MLF ?

3 How many MLF Whites and which ones?

4 when do you clear?

 

[St Allie]

this is going to sound like a dumb question

what's Mlf?

Allie

 

[Tom]

Malolactic Fermentation

 

[St Allie]

ok .. after googling that,

nope have never done it, so I will watch this thread with interest

Allie

 

[Luc]

Been some disscussion on this as to what it does. I have been asked to find out a few things on how other people do MLF.
1 When do you add? (in secondary when wine is finished?)

2 Oak during MLF ?

3 How many MLF Whites and which ones?

4 when do you clear?

Tom,

Malo-Lactic fermentation is a bacterial fermentation so it will only occur if you did not use sulphite. Sulphite will inhibit or kill the bacteria.
With MLF the bacteria will consume malic acid and produce lactic acid.

I have only had spontaneous MLF so I did not add it to my wine. But generally speaking I would add it when alcoholic fermentation has ceased.

Personally I would always oak when all ferementation is done and the wine is aging.

As MLF consumes the malic acid it is not recommended in white wines. White wines need the sharp crispness from the malic acid. MLF will produce the mellow lactic acid which does not suit a white wine.

As MLF will cause some turbulance in the wine (some CO2 is produced) the wine can cloud up.
So just like oaking, clearing would be done when all fermentation has ceased.

Hope this helps.

Luc

 

[smurfe]

A Chardonnay is the varietal I see most do a MLF on. Of course a Chard is a bit different than other white wines. I personally have never done it.

 

[Wade E]

Mostly do kits myself and MLF is not done on kits, I will be ong some juices this year though and i will do MLF on them and then post fermentation tannin additions.

 

[Racer]

Been some disscussion on this as to what it does. I have been asked to find out a few things on how other people do MLF.
1 When do you add? (in secondary when wine is finished?)

2 Oak during MLF ?

3 How many MLF Whites and which ones?

4 when do you clear?

Nice topic! I always wait till the yeast fermentation is complete before I add mlf bacteria to the wine.

My preference is to add oak right after pressing the grapes (for red wine) so the oak will integrate better.

I havent done mlf on a white wine yet. I have liked the chardonnays that I've done from fresh grapes so much that I havent had the ambition to try an mlf on them yet.

I try my best to let my wines drop clear on their own so if I do try to help them clear it isn't for 6 - 8 months before I get to thinking about it.

 

[Manimal]

I've made a few wines that I think would have been greatly improved by MLF but was a little intimidated at the time by the prospect, as I wasn't sure how to approach it. Also, ML cultures are not readily available at my local shops (they could special order it for me, I'm sure) so I've never picked some up on the fly to experiment with. I really do think that learning how to use MLF effectively would take my winemaking to the next level, so it's high on my list of things to try.