i added MLF culture and nutrient at the end of fermentation. Actually, after week 2 of skin contact. The temp was in the 70s and we pressed
3 days after innoculating. it has been another 3 weeks since and each week we have tasted the wine we taste no fizziness at all that I would normally associate with MLF. There are no bubbles in the demis or the airlocks. The temp of the room is now mid 60s. We have 5 secondaries that all taste the same. With each day they are less tart tasting, however. Is MLF happening? I haven't racked yet, and was hoping to wait for MLF to finish. How can I tell. - thoughts?
You can get ML chromatography test kits or Accuvin test strips from major winemaking stores if you want to be sure, bubbling (or lack of) is often not a good indicator as it could just be last bit of sugar in your must. If the wine tastes less acidic, chances are the ML is progressing fine.
Were your grapes really ripe?? Chances are if they were they didn't have much malic acid to begin with. MLF might have finished already. Like the previous post said, you could check that. Hopefully you didn't add any SO2 before the secondary.
Bob
snipped-for-privacy@veriz> i added MLF culture and nutrient at the end of fermentation. Actually,
They were very ripe, as a matter of fact. I didn't know that had anything to do with the amount of malic acid. To answer you other question, no, I didn't put anymore SO2 in at press. I'm going to give it another week and rack off the lees. Last year I have equally ripe grapes and didn't add MLF. We racked off the lees at about 4 weeks after press - that worked out fine.
So what is the connection of ripeness to Malic acid?
This is copy and pasted from Chapter 9 of Lum Eisenman's Home WInemakers manual.
"Tartaric and malic acids make up about 90 percent of the total organic acid content in grapes. Malic acid is found in many different varieties of fruit, but only grapes contain significant amounts of tartaric acid. The amounts of tartaric acid and malic acid are about equal when grapes start to change color and soften (veraison), and the quantity of tartaric acid remains roughly constant throughout the ripening period. On the other hand, the quantity of malic acid decreases as the grapes ripen, and the loss of malic acid results in a gradual decrease in the total acid content during the ripening period. In hot growing regions, much of the malic acid is gone by harvest time. Depending upon the grape variety and the growing conditions, grape juice contains 1.5 to 5 times more tartaric acid than malic acid.
In cold viticulture regions, ripe grapes have an acid content ranging from 0.7 to 1.3 percent. Such high acidity often results in excessively tart wine. To avoid excess tartness, winemakers in cold growing regions use special procedures to reduce wine acidity. The situation is quite different when grapes are grown in warm regions like the interior valleys of California. Here, the acid content of ripe grapes often falls between 0.4 and 0.8 percent. Grapes grown in such warm climates often have too little acidity, and wine produced from grapes low in acidity is often bland and flat tasting. Besides producing bland wines, fermenting grapes low in acidity often results in other problems, and adding acid to grapes grown in warm regions is a standard winemaking practice. Large acid additions are best made before fermentation is started.
The acid c> They were very ripe, as a matter of fact. I didn't know that had
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