"LG1111" > wrote in message
...
> For the first season, I've been able to conduct really successful MLFs. I
> found that the "trick" was to use the powdered Chris Hansen ML bacteria,
> use a
> healthy dose of ML nutrient, and do it at a 78-80 degree temperature.
> Now,
> after about 6-8 weeks, a ML chromatogram shows no malic acid spots, but
> there
> are still occasional tiny bubbles in the carboy. The wines haven't been
> sulfited yet.
>
> Should I expect the bubbles to COMPLETELY stop? I suspect that this won't
> happen, and I'm anxious to do a final racking and add some sulfite. So
> that's
> my first question: Do I have to wait for the MLF to COMPLETELY stop?

When my wines get to that point, I hit it with SO2, top up and bung tight.
If your wine is in a carboy, be careful about that last part though. Bung
it too tight and a temperature shift can blow the bottom out of the carboy.

> Secondly, I have a couple other batches of wine in various stages of their
> primary fermentations or completely finished which were never innoculated
> with
> ML and which were sulfited from the beginning. Just for the heck of it, I
> ran
> a chromatogram on those as well and while they have very obvious malic
> acid
> spots, they also have pretty prominent lactic acid spots. Does this mean
> that
> I have incomplete ML fermentations on those, or does lactic acid occur
> naturally?

That's a very good question that I can partially answer. I suspect that you
have spontaneous ML going on in that wine - especially if the pH is above
3.5.

Tom S