Post-racking off gross less, floaties on top

[Michael Zeller]

Hi, I'm hoping to receive a little guidance on my first batch of wine from grapes. Here's some background on where I'm at in the process:

I started with 100 pounds of Barbera grapes with Brix 23.125, pH 3.56, TA 7.125 and OSG 1.0925.

I started primary fermentation, added nutrients, and once going well, started MLF to run concurrently with primary. After about a week, once pH stabilized and CO2 bubbles stopped, I pressed the must into 5 gallon carboys.

Readings after press were Brix -1, pH 3.6, TA 7.45, and FSG 0.996.

I let the wine settle and racked off the gross lees after 2 days, and added 1.66g Free SO2 / 5 gallon for 0.8 ppm molecular SO2. Also, I added an oak Wine Stix at this point.

My next planned step is to rack off the fine lees in 3 weeks.

I checked the wine this morning and it looks like something is floating near the top. Any ideas what this could be and any steps I should take at this point? Thank you for any feedback!

 

[salcoco]

looks like some more lees. get a turkey baster and suck them out the top of carboy.

 

[stickman]

I'm surprised you added SO2 after racking, did you run a test to see if malolactic fermentation was complete?

 

[cmason1957]

I wouldn't worry about that stuff floating, it will go away when you next rack. But that adding of SO2 without a check for MLF completion may cause you grief long term. I think I would do a check for mlf completion now, wait two weeks or a month and then check again for comparision. Assuming MLF is stalled out, you may want to consider lysozome to inhibit MLF at this point.

 

[Johnd]

Agree with @stickman , the only glitch in your process was adding sulfite prior to verifying that MLF was complete. With coinoculation, it normally takes a few more weeks for MLF to complete.

 

[Michael Zeller]

Thank you @salcoco, @stickman, @cmason1957, and @Johnd - I appreciate the feedback!

Sounds like I jumped the gun on adding SO2! So far the wine tastes fine, and the pH/TA seem to be in a good spot (tested again last night). I don't have an MLF test kit, so I'll need to get a sample tested and probably add lysozome to make sure there aren't issues down the road.