Okay, I'll try to keep this brief but my questions is kind of complicated. I have6 gallons of chardonnay in a 6 gallon carboy. It was made from grapes and the primary fermentation went great. Racked it at about 1.00 sg and added the MLF cultures.
I did a ton of reading on this and after sifting through all the conflicting info, I decided not to add any Campden tabs, etc until after the MLF has done it's thing. This juice is raw other than the yeast (D47) and now I don't want to add any and risk stopping the MLF before it has a chance to finish it's magic. The MLF package said it can take 1-3 months.
After about a week in the secondary, I couldn't help but to sneak a taste. It tasted great for being so early in the process. It even seemed like the MLF was already doing it's work.
A week later, after much reading on the topic I decided to give the lees a stir. About 4 days after that most of it had settled so I took another taste. At this point it had a strong eggy, acidic smell and it tasted pretty much the same. I panicked thinking I ruined the batch but waited another couple of days and realized that by stirring it must have released allot of S02 from the lees, much of which was still suspended in the carboy.
At this point (now about 2 weeks into secondary) I added my oak chips (3 oz) and I'm just hoping it will all settle out with time.
If anyone has any experience with Chard, I could sure use some advice.
1. Should I rack again to reduce the lees soon?
2. Should I continue stirring occasionally or just let it sit?
3. How will I know when the MLF is finished? Will it stop bubbling all together?
4. Should I wait until the MLF is finished before adding and Campton tabs?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. There is so much conflicting information on this MLF process and the whole stirring on "big" lees or "fine" lees that I'm really confused. I just don't want to ruin my first batch of wine.
Thanks for reading!
Bob
I did a ton of reading on this and after sifting through all the conflicting info, I decided not to add any Campden tabs, etc until after the MLF has done it's thing. This juice is raw other than the yeast (D47) and now I don't want to add any and risk stopping the MLF before it has a chance to finish it's magic. The MLF package said it can take 1-3 months.
After about a week in the secondary, I couldn't help but to sneak a taste. It tasted great for being so early in the process. It even seemed like the MLF was already doing it's work.
A week later, after much reading on the topic I decided to give the lees a stir. About 4 days after that most of it had settled so I took another taste. At this point it had a strong eggy, acidic smell and it tasted pretty much the same. I panicked thinking I ruined the batch but waited another couple of days and realized that by stirring it must have released allot of S02 from the lees, much of which was still suspended in the carboy.
At this point (now about 2 weeks into secondary) I added my oak chips (3 oz) and I'm just hoping it will all settle out with time.
If anyone has any experience with Chard, I could sure use some advice.
1. Should I rack again to reduce the lees soon?
2. Should I continue stirring occasionally or just let it sit?
3. How will I know when the MLF is finished? Will it stop bubbling all together?
4. Should I wait until the MLF is finished before adding and Campton tabs?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. There is so much conflicting information on this MLF process and the whole stirring on "big" lees or "fine" lees that I'm really confused. I just don't want to ruin my first batch of wine.
Thanks for reading!
Bob