To MLF or not to MLF?

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

saddlebronze

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2011
Messages
372
Reaction score
21
I have a batch of Lodi Zin and a batch of petite Syrah from grapes and I am wondering if I should do MLF. Both have the H2S problem right now, but racking will solve that. I am nervous about leaving them naked without meta right now and they actually taste nicely balanced so I don't know what MLF will give me. What say y'all?
 
saddlebronze said:
I have a batch of Lodi Zin and a batch of petite Syrah from grapes and I am wondering if I should do MLF. Both have the H2S problem right now, but racking will solve that. I am nervous about leaving them naked without meta right now and they actually taste nicely balanced so I don't know what MLF will give me. What say y'all?

http://www..ca/winemaking/h2s.htm

1. What is causing your H2S problem?
2. I am assuming your wine is fermented? If so, inoculating is going be somewhat more difficult.

Malolactic bacteria is a finicky creature. Things to avoid are high alcohol, high sulfite, low temps and low ph.

Hope that helps.

Lawrence
 
I am not sure what is causing the problem, I racked and it is better, but not all gone will rack again and see.
 
I would reach for the copper sulfite as a last resort.

If you are smelling Sulfur/rotten eggs but the wine tastes fine, most likely that you should have added nutrients during fermentation.

That said, I would splash rack first, you need to test you SO2 levels, don't add sulfite blindly, if you are apprehensive about not adding meta at this point, you can add the minimum amount so you won't effect the MLF, just remember, thousands of wine makers put their wine through MLF without adding meta until it is complete.
Back to the sulfur smell, if you splash rack and the smell is still there, I'd get Redulees, many folks here including myself have "fixed" a wine with strong H2S smell using this.

As far as why put the wine through MLF is it tastes nice and balanced, here are some points about MLF that I posted on other threads, for those of you that have already read this info that I posted in other threads, I apologize for being redundant:


MLF can happen on it's own, most wine makers prefer that it doesn't, if spontaneous MLF happens in bottle, you can end up with a sparkling wine at the very least, and bottles that burst, not to mention that a wild strain of MLB can be a very undesirable strain that produces off flavors and aromas.

If a spontaneous, but undesirable, strain of malolactic bacteria becomes implanted in the winery, then all subsequent wine made in that facility may be in danger of exhibiting the negative characteristics associated with that particular strain of bacteria.

Malolactic bacteria converts malic acid, the bitter, green apple tasting acid, into Lactic acid, resulting in a natural softening of the wine creating a much smoother wine with more body and mouth feel.

It is usually used on reds that you plan on aging for a while (bottled and stored), and on most reds that have a higher acidity to them.

Grapes produced in cool regions tend to be high in acidity, wines from these grapes will really benefit from MLF, making the wine more palatable, balanced and giving the wine greater roundness.

I don't think that there is an "etched in stone" list of which red wines should be put through MLF, I for one haven't had a red wine that I've put through MLF that I haven't enjoyed yet.

I put all of my reds through MLF, I tend to age my wine, even if you make 100 gallons of wine a yr, that should render approx. 480 bottles of wine (750 ml ), unless you are drinking a bottle a day (not a problem here..lol), your wine is going to be aging in bottle, making the chances of spontaneous MLF and bottle bursting greater.
Some winemakers feel that when bottled wine goes through spontaneous MLF, "The wine may lose its fruit integrity and take on the unpleasant lactic aroma of cured meats".
Not a characteristic that I'm looking for in a wine.

The biggest issues that I've seen with putting wine through MLF for the first time are:

Wine makers new to MLF tend to purchase inferior MLB, you can get a cheaper MLB, but this is one of those times when the old saying "you only get what you pay for" is true. Why spend as much time and money making wine only to drive yourself nuts by purchasing a cheap MLB.

Another big issue is the fact that wine makers new to MLF think that they will always see a very aggressive MLF with the airlock bubbling feverishly and bubble coming to the top of the carboy as if it were an aquarium, this is hardly the norm for MLF, most times the process is mild, and as with Alcoholic fermentation, airlock activity, or lack of, is not indicative of active or stalled fermentation.

The single biggest and most common issue is time and patience, wine makers new to MLF feel that they should see active fermentation and completion in a matter of a few weeks, although possible, MLF can take several months to complete.

What is the rush?

If you resign to the fact that you are going to age your wine a yr at the minimum, trying to rush this process seems very silly, don't drive yourself nuts, I've seen more daily MLF updates with the wine maker getting very frustrated that they don't see any activity, or they've waited 2 weeks and it should be done... don't rush it, let it take its course, you'll will be much happier in the long run.

Very few White wines are put through MLF, many whites need that nice crisp acidity to balance the sweetness, we can talk about that if you are interested.
 
Very informative...I've read up on the mlf. Started my cab franc fermenting at a ph of 3.26. Added mlb about 6 days ago and ph is at 3.72. With that being said I'm assuming mlf is going on?
 
After primary fermentation was complete. what was your PH? PH will jump as the Malic acid is converted?
 
Back
Top