bubbling after fining??
 

I have 2 batches of completed whites. A gewurtztraminer and a
sauvignon blanc, both made from fresh juice. I initially treated the
musts with lysozyme at the time of the initial yeast addition. The
fermentation went well, I cold stabilized for about 3 weeks in
sub-freezing weather, and then I brought them inside in a 55 degree
cellar. At that point, there was absolutely no bubbling. By the way,
the wines were always adequately sulfited. The wines were slightly
hazy so I fined with Super Kleer (Kieselsol and Chitosan)in a room of
about 65-68 degrees. Within 3 days, the wines were perfectly clear,
but at that point, I noticed occasional tiny bubbles. I racked one of
them off of the fining lees, but left the other one on the fining lees.


At this point, I suspect that I might be getting a spontaneous MLF, in
spite of the sulfite and the initial lysozyme. So, to the batch that
has already been racked, I added another dose of 1 g/gallon of
lysozyme, but so far I'm still getting the occasional bubble. Any
suggestions about what to do next??

The other possibility is that this is just dissolved CO2.

I have other batches of whites that are also a bit hazy and I suspect
that the same thing will happen with them. Should I add lysozyme
before fining?

Thanks for your help

Lee

What yeast did you use??? Was it one of the "D" Lalvin yeasts??? Just
curious. Anyway it could be CO2. I guess the only way to know for sure
is a chromo test. Do the bubbles come from the bottom of the container
and travel up the side of the glass??? Or do they mysteriously appear
on the top?? Do they from a ring around the neck of the carboy???


Bob

Lee,
If you are sulfited above 30 PPM I doubt it's MLF. It could be your
carboys are warming up and giving off the CO2 in saturation from the
wine. Did you check for RS? It could be that too. I have had wines
start up again that were over 0.25% residual sugar.

Joe

I think I'm zeroing in on my problem, and I'm planning on posting
another message. I've noticed that on these completely fermented
wines, if I take a syringe and just suck back 10 cc of wine and then
re-inject it into the wine, and so this over and over, then I get a
huge amount of bubbling and frothing. In other words, I'm sure that
it's just dissolved CO2, and I guess I'll just drain off a gallon, so
that there's room for bubbling, and then I stir it like crazy until the
bubbling stops.

Lee