Chat with Chik Brenneman

Jeff, for reds, bulk age in carboys before kegging. Make sure you rack them once or twice while aging so you can get a little oxygen into them to help tame the tannins. For white, send them right to the keg and drink.

Bob, 35 ppm SO2 is fine for lower pH juices. We are primarily adding the SO2 to prevent browning.

Lori, this is completely expected and normal. The whole cluster will add a little fruitness to the wine and just let is continue to ferment until dry. You may have to keep it warm through.

Stirring frequency depends on how stubborn the MLF is, especially with Zinfandel. Stir at least once a week until MLF is complete

Keir, you are correct but I will add that as long as your pH is less than 3.7 you should be OK

We are finding that potassium hydroxide appears to be the best cleaner, with at least a five minute contact time. Use 70% ethanol or an iodophor for your santizer. I clean and sanitize between each wine/juice I work with.

David, just rack normally off the lees. Especially if the lees are stinky. You will not see the copper sulfide that precipitates

depends on how you are measuring for MLF completeness. If you are using paper chromatography, I wait about a week. If I am getting an exact number (<100 mg/L) from a commercial lab, I sulfur right away. please note the sensitivity of the paper chromatography method is about 100 mg/L

Tartaric acid is preferred.

Interesting. question. we are doing smoke taint research here at Davis and I just tasted two lots we are pressing today. In a mild case, it just may taste like a heavy toasted barrel. We have some lots here that went to the extreme and literally smell and taste like an ashtray (Not sure I want to admit I have tasted an ashtray in my past). something in between might give off a creosote or tar character. Good luck!

I have used these in the past, but never really saw any differences other than in my checking account balance. My preference is to keep things simple.

your’re already in Tim! are you seeing the stream?

Deacidification using potassium carbonate or bicard is fairly predictable. I have never heard baking soda being suggested. I think you should be concerned about overall tartrate stabilization, which the potassium products will address.

Good racking technique goes a long way. Most wine makers will bump SO2 5-10 mg/L prior to bottling, but scavenging oxygen is not the real reason. Mostly this is for bottling (microbial) stabilization and to a lesser extent, oxidation prevention. The sulfite ion at wine pH is very low and has not been demonstrated to scavenge oxygen, but rather the peroxy radicals that the oxygen creates

Marshall, I have seen this too. If the room temp was 70 degrees, the fermentation temperature was likely above that so a faster ferment would be expected. don’t beat your self up for leaving town. Life happens. as long as you like the wine, that’s the important part.

You haze is likely protein. personally, I would use bentonite.

Depends on what the definition of ‘stuck’ is. If the malic acid is under 500 mg/L I would stir the light lees to encourage it to get at least under 200 mg/L, then sulfure. for greater than 500 mg/L you should determine why it stuck, Ethanol? Yeast choice for primary? Residual SO2? Dr Kunkee always told me the MLF is a blessing. after 25 years or so of this, I decided, that if it doesn’t go easy, it won’t go at all. that said, try the Chr. Hansen product CH16. It is forgining to ethanol and <30 mg/L SO2.

For red, it looks like you are on the right track. For whites, you shouldn’t need 80 ppm to inhibit the MLF. check your pH and use the sulfite calculator for 0.8 mg/L molecular. In general all your whites whould be under 3.6 pH where ~35 mg/L should be sufficient.

follow your homebrew instinct. That’s what I do. I inject gas until I get what I want, but remember you have to keep the gas hooked up to maintain the bubbles. I have experiented with using corn sugar and bottle conditioning. 24 g/L in the tirage syrup will give you 6 atmonpheres of pressure in the bottle. Remember to use sparkling glass, not beer bottles.

Jeff, I always have sparkling water at home, kegerator is set at 38F and have my regulator at 30 psi for that keg. I could see this as a good level for a sparkling wine as well. Cheers Dave Green

not really. I go both ways on this. At home I do not purge, at the university, we purge just as part of the protocol to keep dissoved oxygen less than 1 ppm at bottling.

taste and taste often until you get what you want. Then get it out of the HDPE. Make sure your SO2 levels are maintained too!

Rack it a couple of times and use oak chips. Make sure you taste and taste often. When you get what you want get the chips out of there. They can go too far if you are not careful. The racking should take care of the MOX question.

Boy oh Boy…I was waiting for this question. Almost dodged it for this session. Extended maceration really doesn’t improve color. It does contribute to color stabilization, but all you are extracting at this point is seed tannin which can contribute to bitterness. So as a geenral rule, I won’t leave wine on the skins and seeds for greater than 14 days. If you like ext maceration, taste the wine often and press when you get what you wnat. Temperature should be around 60 F, but also make sure you are protecting your headspace. Any hint of aldehyde (sherry-like) should be an indicator to press and move on.

Hi Bk, yes these transcripts will be available to all members on our website afterwards. We will be doing these monthly with different guests, so we hope to see everyone again next month. This has been a great turnout. We will announce the guest shortly!

In a perfect world, I predicted the final post MLF pH/acidity correctly so no adjustment is needed. But the woprld isn’t perfect, so I wait until MLF is complete, conduct an acid trial and add it then. This should be done as close to the end of MLF as possible. Adding acid prior to MLF can drop your pH even more, which may be inhibitory to the MLF bacteria.

I am never averse to blending and seeing how it works out. Remember, you don’t have to follow the rules.

sounds like a surface yeast. Spray a little SO2 solution and tighten your stopper.