question on some chilean wine.....

[muskie003]

wanted to run this one by you guys, as I've never had this one before...

i'll try to provide as much info as possible. have three carboys of Chilean red that I started in may (2 malbec, 1 carmenere) - so about 3 months along. haven't shown any activity at all for a least a month if not longer. went to check it out today and I got quite a bit of activity. probably about 3 bubbles thru the airlock per minute, and a lot of effervescence visible in the neck of the carboy. they've been sealed since may. nothing new introduced. no sudden spike in temperature. started with a solution containing lalvin rc212. went from bucket into glass very close to 1.000 sg (+/- 0.002).

should I be worried?

this is usually about the time (3 month mark) where I'd give it a little kmeta just to be safe. should I do that now still or should I wait til whatever is going on there stops?

never had this happen before as I said, just wanted to see what advice u guys had on the matter

 

[Julie]

what is your sg now? I would rack and add k-meta. It is probably just needs to be de-gassed.

 

[DoctorCAD]

Happened to my Chilean Carmenere, turned out to be a spontaneous MLF. DO NOT ADD SORBATE!!!!!!!!! I did and ended up with 6 gallons of geraniums.

 

[muskie003]

haven't checked the SG yet. didn't wanna open it until I had some further info. so if I had something similar to the spontaneous MLF, is it necessarily a good or bad thing?

 

[Boatboy24]

My first thought was that it didn't finish fermenting, and something has inspired it to finish. Second is a spontaneous MLF. On both Malbec and Carmenere, I think MLF would be a good thing.

 

[JohnT]

I tend to agree with boatboy. You say it is close to 1.00 so I can assume that there is most likely a LITTLE bit of residual sugar in the wine.

I would taste it, and if ok, let her go for another week or two before adding k-meta.

 

[DoctorCAD]

If the bubbles are tiny, it probably is a MLF. MLF is good on Chilean reds, just need to monitor it to see when it is done, I don't think it affects the SG, as it is only converting one form of acid into a different form.

 

[muskie003]

thanks for the advice and steering me in the right direction guys!

 

[Floandgary]

Fermentation is likely done by now. Agree with Julie,,, keep things simple and rack-over/add K-meta. What you're seeing is probably CO2 releasing. If you were to shake the carboy around a bit (after racking,,,, don't want to stir up sediment) it would be like shaking a pop bottle! CO2 releases!