Where to buy malolactic bacteria cultures in the UK

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CaptainProg

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Can anyone recommend a good source of freeze-dried malolactic bacteria in the UK? It seems cultures are readily available in brew shops in the USA but searching eBay or Amazon in the UK for things like "CH16" or "malolactic bacteria" draws a blank. Am I searching for the wrong thing, or do home winemakers in the UK genuinely not bother with specific strain innoculation?

To my mind, it's easier to innoculate and be fairly confident that MLF has taken place, than to have to faff about with paper chromatography to work out whether or not it happened naturally.
 
I know of 4 products available on the UK market, but stock seems to be erratic and there are very few stockists. I have no relationship with any of these suppliers except as a customer.

WYeast Activator- 4007 Malolactic Cultures and White Labs - WLP675 Malolactic Bacteria are sold by brewuk.co.uk, but both were out of stock at the time of writing. These are both in liquid form. I usually use WYeast 4007 for my cider which is mainly from Bramleys.

Vinoferm Malocid Malolactic Culture is sold by home-brew-hopshop.co.uk. I have used this successfully in the past and will be using it again this year.

Murphy and Son, who are suppliers to the brewing industry, stock Lalvin 31 MBR, but in a quantity for 250litres, which is more than I need, with a price approaching double that of the other products. If I felt it would keep till next year, I might try it.
 
Although the use of malolactic culture is common elsewhere, it clearly is not common in the UK, because nowhere is stocking it here in 2024. This year, I have bought malolactic bacteria from Bulgaria, via eBay. I shall report back on how well it works, some time in 2025.
 
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