Chardonnay Yeast & ML Fermentation

You're going to need more space than that. Even fermenting twelve gallons of juice in _three_ five gallon carboys is a recipe for a mess. I'd say you need four carboys - at least at first.

I have to decide how I want to deal with this

That's all good, although I prefer a heavier toast level than medium. A handful in each fermenter is a good place to start.

Definitely.

I've been using CY3079 lately, with ML inoculum _early_, as soon as the yeast takes off. I like the results.

Just leave them in, and leave the wine on all the lees. When fermentation dies down, top the carboys (and jugs) up nearly full and keep them under airlock. After ML is complete, be sure to sulfite the wine. You will probably want to leave the wine on its lees for close to a year for the desired effect, but keep a vigilant nose for H2S stink until the fermentation and ML is completely finished.

Tom S

Hi Tom and thanks for your reply.

Last year I did one 5g carboy of juice and pulled-out about a gallon, which I used to top-off later. It worked fine but I was using EC1118 with Seyval juice, and it was very low foaming so I didn't have a mess. Is CY3079 a low foaming yeast strain?

The only regret I had was I had to buy an additional five 750ml bottles of commercial wine to top off. I racked three times over an eight month period before bottling. This time I don't want to have to use commercial wine to top-off. I want to use my own must and end up with 10g of wine in the end. The trick is, figuring out how much must to purchase at the start!

From experience with my last batch, I figured an additional gallon should be sufficient for loss with racking. But... you state I should leave the must on its lees for a year with no racking! I didn't consider that. I was worrying about spoilage due to the dead yeast cells remaining in the must for such a long period. I guess this is okay?

So, you suggest four 5g carboys each with three gallons in them? At what point can I rack and combine them? Unfortunately, I don't have a ton of space to do this. The carboys will be in the living room area until it gets cooler and I can place them in the garage.

Since I love oak, I think I'll order a darker toast of bean. Nice to know I can just leave them in the carboy and re-use them, if necessary.

Thanks for sharing your experience... this group was a great help to me last year!

-Paul

As I understand it if you want alot of diacetyl in your wine ( the stuff responsible for buttery flavors , the byproduct of MLF) you would ferment first to dryness THEN start MLF otherwise the yeast during the fermentation of the sugar will eat the diacetyl and a less buttery flavor will result if sugar and malic fermentation are done simultanously.

Bob

Not particularly. My favorite low foamer is Epernay II. It has a tendency to stick at ~12% alcohol, so I didn't recommend it for you.

As long as the fermentation activity has ceased, leaving the wine on the lees is _always_ a good thing! The French anthropomorphize the effect, claiming that the lees "feed the wine". Whatever it is that happens, I know that extended lees contact is a good thing.

When the Brix reaches ~ 2 or 3°. IOW, just short of dryness. Be careful while doing this. The dissolved CO2 will possibly all try to come out of solution at once, making a big, foamy mess. A good way to avoid this is to pick up each carboy and give it a vigorous swirl. That will tend to safely release most of the dissolved CO2 in the carboy.

After the first few months, the beans will be pretty much spent. It's OK to leave them in anyway.

Our pleasure. :^)

Tom S

So I've heard, but I like running ML and the primary concurrently. The heat of the primary helps along the ML, so it finishes more quickly. That lets me sulfite the wine earlier and bung it tight, so I can sleep easier.

There's still enough butter left in the wine.

Tom S

I'm with ya Tom but if you REALLY like ALOT of butter I don't see any reason that you can't wait until MID/LATE in the secondary to inoculate with the ML culture . The wine should be safe through MLF then you could sulfite.

Bob

That's true, but the other side of it is that running an MLF concurrently with fermentation runs the risks of higher VA production (sugar metabolisation), bacterial inhibition (through yeast SO2 release), completion of malic consumption before the end of fermentation (leading to lower diacetyl levels), and a semi-aerobic MLF (also leading to lower diacetyl levels).

I'm not advocating either way (these things don't necessarily happen), just saying that both methods have their advantages/disadvantages.

Ben