Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
procedures and I based the following on the use of Lalvin's
malolactic culture, it's a good guideline for malolactic
fermentations generally.
• Wait until secondary fermentation has completed. It can
be considered complete after the wine sits for three months
without dropping any precipitate at the bottom of the
fermenter and it is clear.
• About a week before adding the malolactic cultures, move
the wine to an area with a temperature between 64 and 75
degrees. It must remain at this temperature throughout the
fermentation.
• Rack the wine into a new, clean secondary fermenter. Do
NOT add sulfite in this racking!
• If you have a sulfite test kit, you can test that the sulfite is
under 20 ppm. If it is above 20 ppm, you can reduce it to that
level via the addition of hydrogen peroxide as described in the
chapter on wine chemistry.
• Add the packet of malolactic culture directly to the wine.
• Fit with an airlock. (The fermentation generates carbon
dioxide.)
• Malolactic fermentations complete in one to three months,
but because they proceed so slowly, it is hard to gauge. You
could assess the progress using commercially available paper
chromatography kits for malic acid detection, but these cost
from $50 to $200 and their shelf life is only a few months.
