Add Super-Super Food for yeast growth in nutrient deficient must and in all starters.

Dose: 6 lbs/1000 gallons. or 1/2 oz (1 Tbl.)/5 gallons when adding yeast.

Add when adding M/L bacteria and in all starters. Especially important when using nutrient hungry yeast like Premier Cuvee (Prise de Mousse).

Dose: 1/2 oz/5 gallons when adding M/L. 1 g/L in starters.

The following is a re-cap of some really good advise from The Wine Lab,

Napa Valley called "Lessons From Harvest 1996".

Last year, surprises were the norm. Wave after wave of searing heat. Unripe fruit dehydrated on the vine. Green Chardonnay with soft seeds. Merlot with hard tannins. Both shriveling prematurely to 25+ Brix. Others were mature but sailed past optimal sugars.

Then came a cool spell, but many vines had already shut down. Ripening came slowly and painfully. Potassium uptake climbed, acids dropped, pH’s soared. Well that's what Tartaric Acid is for. With the high potassiums, it falls out anyways, taming the pH in the process. However, reds not tested were sometimes left too high in pH during ferment, encouraging various spoilage mechanisms.

In the Central Coast, bad heat spells meant lower grape nitrogens, and a lack of other nutrients as well. Certainly, stressed vines that cannot bring water up through their tissues cannot move nutrients into the grapes. This brought grapes that needed even more nutrient supplemation than normal.

Severe vine stress, nutrient-deficient grapes, and unexpectedly high sugars spawned a record number of stuck fermentations. When fermentation is under stress, even a small increase in an inhibitory factor can tip the balance away from yeast survival. Musts that might have finished fermenting at slightly lower alcohols, or with a more vigorous yeast, or with greater nutrient suplemation, instead struggled until the combination of negative influences overcame them.

Timing of M/L inoculation also becomes more critical. Even the most benign M/L bacteria can compete with growing yeast for nutrients and vitamins in a deficient must. Conversely, nutrient-hogging yeast can deplete a must so thoroughly that M/L bacteria have no chance until the yeasts die and release stored nutrients.

If problems are expected, it may be best to wait until after yeast fermentation to inoculate for MLF. In a healthy fermentation by a vigorous byanus strain (Prise de Mousse/Premiere Cuvee group), early inoculation, plus Leucofood, is usually preferable.

Add M-L at beginning of fermentation when**:

• stuck ferment is not anticipated
• using byanus yeast (Premiere Cuvee etc)
• adverse conditions will prevail later (alcohol> 13.5%, temp < 60F/16C)
• pH is low (3.1 or less)
• MLF is usually hard to finish but yeast ferment is not.

Add M-L after fermentation when**:

• trouble completing yeast ferment is anticipated.
• not adding yeast
• using less vigorous strains
• fermenting below 60F/16C

In any year, no-SO2 red fermentations are always at high risk for attack by aggressive Lactobacilli from vineyard or winery. They make acetic acid from sugar, stopping yeast fermentation and killing M/L bacteria. Adding 30-35 ppm SO2 at crush prevents this dreadful spoilage, if SO2 is mixed throughout the must, and pH is reasonable (less than 3.6 after soaking overnight).

But, when trying to restart a stuck yeast ferment, Lactobacilli can become acclimated, encouraged by now-low SO2, warm temps, O2, and late-added nutrients. All too frequently, reds stuck for other reasons subsequently spoil from Lactobacilli while waiting to go dry.

** Super-Super Food or Leucofood is always needed with M/L.

Do not add M/L inoculum until your SO2 content is

below 10ppm free (30 ppm total). Suggest waiting for two days

of vigorous ferment to scrub out the SO2 before adding M/L.

If doing wild yeast ferment, add M/L with cultured yeast after about 4*Brix of fermentation.