After measuring all the “vital data” for our newest batch of wine, we realized that our Total Acidity reading were a bit high, and decided to try for malolactic fermentation this time. Of course we should have anticipated this option much earlier and ordered or bought the necessary bacterial culture. Unfortunately, the local wine supply store did not have what we needed, and we only had a short window of time to add the bacteria (toward the end of the yeast fermentation). The closest store we could find that had it in stock was in Bethlehem, PA. While Tina made the trip to buy malolactic bacteria, Jeff and Lars went to a friend’s farm to pick pears:
All in all it turned out to be a productive weekend, we got 9 bushels of pears, and we were able to inoculate our fermenting chambourcin grapes with malolactic bacteria.
