Next step: MLF?

I am still playing around with a batch of blackberry I made a few months ago. I checked, and it has a post-ferment TA of about 1.4%. Pretty nasty stuff!

I did try an experiment. I removed about 750ml of wine and put into a bottle. I added some cream of tartar, capped it, and put the resulting brew in the fridge. A few weeks later, there is do discernable precipitate in the bottle.

If I can't cold stabilize in a freezer, is my next step to try MLF on the wine? According to Jack Kellar's web site, blackberries are mostly malic acid. If I do MLF on 2/3 of my current supply and then mix back in the 1/3 when MLF is done, then I should have a TA of about .46, well within what country wines should be.

Can I start a natural MLF, or do I need to get a culture from a wine shop? Are there any national brands that have a live culture in them that I could use (like making homemade yogurt)?

On another note, I should have adjusted my TA pre-ferment. With a TA of 1.4, what would have been the best way to do this? Adding a bicarbonate is only recommended to adjust by about .3% What about stepping up a notch and adding a strong solution of potassium hydroxide to neutralize the acid?

If I could get some really concentrated KOH, then I could do this on my wine right now. Right now all I can get is 10%, so I would need to add about the same volume of base to my wine, so the volume would almost double.

Thanks!

Alex.

Reply to
Alex Brewer
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ML won't get you far enough in the direction you need to go. You need to hit this wine with potassium carbonate, then chill it to drop out the excess potassium. I'd hit it pretty hard. Drop the TA by about 0.5 or so, at least. Then cold stabilize and repeat as necessary. Try it on a small sample first, then if you like the result scale it up for the whole batch.

Tom S

Reply to
Tom S

Watch out with strong acid and bases, their effects are extremely strong!

Do what Tom suggests, and if it still seems acid try a MLF, but go by taste as well as an analytical target

Reply to
Robert Lee

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