As per usual I am sure these questions will lead to more questions, but the two main thoughts at the moment are MLF and oak.
I noted in another post that my juice buckets taste more unbalanced than a kit will going into secondary. The acidity is sharp. I am thinking this is an opportunity to discover the changes MLF will make and I wonder if I should do 1 or all three.
These were brough to my LHBS last Monday night. I picked them up Tuesday morning. One showed fermentation signs that night, the other two the next morning. I pitched my own starters at 10 grams to combat the included strains. They fermented quick and I had to cool them, hot days, but I think aggressive fermentation was the bigger factor. They were done last Friday, and I airlocked until yesterday to get more off the skins and seeds. The Carmenere was not on skins and it was just shy of a carboy where the other two with skins left me with a gallon and a liter after topping up the Carmenere.
If I move onto MLF do I leave it alone until that is finished, or can I add oak during that stage? My Cab Shiraz Montepulciano had french oak added and It has a wonderful vanilla flavor. I expect I should play around with American and French oak at the least to find a preference.
I will likely have to do an online order and BOSA grapes has most anything I could want, so I just thought I would see where everyone weighs in before I get started.
I noted in another post that my juice buckets taste more unbalanced than a kit will going into secondary. The acidity is sharp. I am thinking this is an opportunity to discover the changes MLF will make and I wonder if I should do 1 or all three.
These were brough to my LHBS last Monday night. I picked them up Tuesday morning. One showed fermentation signs that night, the other two the next morning. I pitched my own starters at 10 grams to combat the included strains. They fermented quick and I had to cool them, hot days, but I think aggressive fermentation was the bigger factor. They were done last Friday, and I airlocked until yesterday to get more off the skins and seeds. The Carmenere was not on skins and it was just shy of a carboy where the other two with skins left me with a gallon and a liter after topping up the Carmenere.
If I move onto MLF do I leave it alone until that is finished, or can I add oak during that stage? My Cab Shiraz Montepulciano had french oak added and It has a wonderful vanilla flavor. I expect I should play around with American and French oak at the least to find a preference.
I will likely have to do an online order and BOSA grapes has most anything I could want, so I just thought I would see where everyone weighs in before I get started.