Joe,

It depends what the "waxy" stuff looked like. If I was a betting man,
and I am, I bet he had a clear waxy film which I don't think was
anything bad. I've had it before, especially on new wines, and it was
nothing. It went away with racking. We need to know what the wine
smelled like. I think new winemakers have a tendency to panic, at least
I did, on every little thing and I have a feeling he just over-sulfited
perfectly good wine. Bottom line, trust your nose, follow the basic
guidlines and don't panic.

Bob



Joe Sallustio wrote:
> How much wine are you talking about? If this is a gallon, I don't
> think you can use hydrogen peroxide to deal with this, it sound like
> you would have over 200 PPM free and hydrogen peroxide is usually used
> to removes 10's of Pm's.
>
> If this is 5 gallons you can try peroxide but just rack it at least
> once before anything else. That will probably drop it by at least 10
> PPM if you dangle the hose and it's less drastic.
>
> Let us know what you have to start with and maybe we can give you the
> least drastic option.
>
> I can tell you that sounded like mycoderma and the solution that works
> best on any film forming infection is to do the following:
>
> * Insert something in the carboy to overflow it, a plugged wine thief
> works great. Just wrap a paper towel around the neck and let the
> infection roll over the side.
>
> * Wipe the open inner surface of the carboy clean, then wet a paper
> towel with sulfite solution (I keep a bottle of 1% and citric around)
> and re wipe.
>
> * Make sure your sulfite level is correct for the pH of the wine, if
> you don't have a way to measure pH use 50 PPM as a ballpark.
>
> *Don't stir in the sulfite, pour the liquid in slowly to let it
> overdose the top of the wine, it may lighten the color but don't worry.
> If you missed any mycoderma this will probably kill it.
>
> Exposure to air and low sulfite usually bring this on, see if you can
> determine how it happened.
>
> Joe