Blueberry port (thread #X)

I created this thread as I didn't want to hijack the previous thread that I found very interesting to read.

I found two 1L bottles of blueberry syrup (evaporated juice) with which I thought would be nice to make a small batch (1-1.5 gallon) of blueberry port. I diluted the syrup at 2:3 ratio with water, adjusted acid, and added all the typical stuff (e.g. pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient, etc.). Here are the post-adjustment specifications:

Total volume: 5 L (1.32 gal)
Starting S.G. = 1.126 at 68*F
pH = 3.15
TA = 6.8 g/L
Yeast: Red Star Premier Cuvée (just inoculated)

I want it to still be a bit sweet when the yeast dies off at about 16%-17% alcohol, hopefully. I am panning to further fortify with 192 proof ethanol post-fermentation, but I will decide on that later. I am aiming for about 19%-20% final alcohol.

I normally wouldn't add oak to non-grape wines, but since it will be much stronger than typical fruit wine, I wonder how it would work together with oak.

Any of you who made blueberry port before, would you say that oak adds to the complexity and generally complements the taste of blueberry port, or no? If so, what degree of toasting would you recommend and how much?

I understand that our tastes may be different, and so I will try to experiment myself, of course, but I just want to know what is the safest, yet noticeable threshold to start at, if at all.

Thanks!

Hey, I can't comment on just blueberry port, but I made a blueberry pomegranate port. I added French medium plus toast cubes. It added a nice layer of complexity. I can't say how much I used in weight but IIRC it was about 10 cubes for the gallon and felt it could have used more.

Thanks for letting me know it is, at least, acceptable for this type of wine. Unfortunately, I would have to use chips, as this is the only oak form that I have on hand, but I will try medium toast. Perhaps, for the volume of 1.3 gallon I would use about 20 chips, I guess.

We oak a lot of our country wines, especially the dark berries. One of the issues you might possibly run into using a juice concentrate is a lack of body, we like to add some extra light dried malt extract to boost the body of these portish style wines, makes a big difference when you start upping the alcohol levels, without some body they start to be watery and that is no way to make a port. WVMJ

WVMountaineerJack said:

We oak a lot of our country wines, especially the dark berries. One of the issues you might possibly run into using a juice concentrate is a lack of body, we like to add some extra light dried malt extract to boost the body of these portish style wines, makes a big difference when you start upping the alcohol levels, without some body they start to be watery and that is no way to make a port. WVMJ

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Cool! I definitely see what you mean. Thanks for the tip.

I'll see if indeed I need to boost the flavor up later on. Depending on how much sugar the yeast converts to alcohol (I am hoping that it will process up to about 17%), I will backsweeten with fresh undiluted concentrate that's left on me. It should do the trick.

I wonder if I am seeing the first signs of trouble here, but my fermentation appears to be getting sluggish. It has been 9 days since I pitched the yeast at original S.G. of 1.126 and it has been losing 0.020 on the scale consistently every 2 days. When I checked today (again, after 2 days) the S.G. went down from 1.057 in the last reading down to only 1.050. I am hoping for the wine to get close to at least 1.010 in the end, particularly when the yeast is said to be able to tolerate up to 18% alcohol. There were no huge temperature swings since the start and the wine is still in the primary, no K-meta added either.

Would the addition of extra yeast energizer and/or nutrient be called for at this point to boost the fermentation before it halts completely ahead of its time, or would you advise against it? Do you have other suggestions?

Thanks! I am just trying to prevent the possibility of a stuck fermentation before it happens.

acorn said:

I wonder if I am seeing the first signs of trouble here, but my fermentation appears to be getting sluggish. It has been 9 days since I pitched the yeast at original S.G. of 1.126 and it has been losing 0.020 on the scale consistently every 2 days. When I checked today (again, after 2 days) the S.G. went down from 1.057 in the last reading down to only 1.050. I am hoping for the wine to get close to at least 1.010 in the end, particularly when the yeast is said to be able to tolerate up to 18% alcohol. There were no huge temperature swings since the start and the wine is still in the primary, no K-meta added either.

Would the addition of extra yeast energizer and/or nutrient be called for at this point to boost the fermentation before it halts completely ahead of its time, or would you advise against it? Do you have other suggestions?

Thanks! I am just trying to prevent the possibility of a stuck fermentation before it happens.

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. Yeast nutrient schedule is a must do in port wine, keep it warm remember when fermentation slows it's no longer producing the heat it was in the past good luck sounds yummy!

I'm late getting on this, but in my opinion, oak made a huge difference for my blueberry port. I can't imagine not using oak with this wine. I used a medium toast French oak. It is what I use most of the time.

Boatboy24 said:

I'm late getting on this, but in my opinion, oak made a huge difference for my blueberry port. I can't imagine not using oak with this wine. I used a medium toast French oak. It is what I use most of the time.

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Thanks for the reassuring comment. I did add about 20 medium toast french oak chips per my 1.3 gallon batch. I figured I would add more, later if I need to.

I checked SG today and it was 1.040 down from 1.050 two days ago (1.126 original). Because I am going nuts about wine getting little to no activity over several days and the possibility of its premature oxidation, I decided to transfer 1.2 gallons split equally into two separate 1 gallon jugs, so that there is room left for any additional juice concentrate and spirits.

I got two more questions at this point:

1) About half of oak chips got lost in the transfer process. How long do you leave your oak in the (port)wine, and should I add some new ones to replace the old ones, in this case?

2) If my fermentation gets stuck (which it seems like it's on this track, even though I added a 1/4 tsp/gal of yeast nutrient), can I use different yeast strain to restart? If so, is there going to be any clash between the two?

Thanks.

First off, it's a port, don't worry about oxidation. Second, let's get this fermentation to the finish line! I would make sure the wine is at 70* +. If you have the wine in two separate glass jugs with stoppers and airlocks you should be good. You yeast is probably just a little stressed with the high initial SG. I left my cab sit at 1.004 with a dose of Malolactic culture for about two months and the wine surprisingly went to .994. Time is your friend and since yours is still active, I wouldn't be too concerned. I'd actually go to a 1 gallon jug and a 750 ml or 1L bottle to limit headspace. Worry about the addition of fortifiers or concentrate for later. Sorry for the blabbering.

ColemanM said:

First off, it's a port, don't worry about oxidation. Second, let's get this fermentation to the finish line! I would make sure the wine is at 70* +. If you have the wine in two separate glass jugs with stoppers and airlocks you should be good. You yeast is probably just a little stressed with the high initial SG. I left my cab sit at 1.004 with a dose of Malolactic culture for about two months and the wine surprisingly went to .994. Time is your friend and since yours is still active, I wouldn't be too concerned. I'd actually go to a 1 gallon jug and a 750 ml or 1L bottle to limit headspace. Worry about the addition of fortifiers or concentrate for later. Sorry for the blabbering.

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Thank you for the advice. My room temp is somewhere around 78*F-80*F, so I definitely rule the lack of heat out. The fermentation has slowed down conderably after around 1.050, but I will let it do its job. I am worried now that after transferring from primary there is still no activity in the airlock after 12 hours. Right now the wine should have about 12% alcohol, so I hope it continues to ferment, however slowly, to at least 15%. I'll get rid of the headspace soon if/when I see any positive vital signs.

Checked the S.G. earlier this week. The fermentation got stuck at just under 13% alcohol. I don't feel like restarting it just for a couple more %, so I'll just use more brandy.

Anyway, does anybody know what is the typical final S.G. value/range in sweet port wines (or % residual sugar)?

Thanks.

acorn said:

Checked the S.G. earlier this week. The fermentation got stuck at just under 13% alcohol. I don't feel like restarting it just for a couple more %, so I'll just use more brandy.

Anyway, does anybody know what is the typical final S.G. value/range in sweet port wines (or % residual sugar)?

Thanks.

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usually between 8 and 10 percent residual sugar.

pjd said:

usually between 8 and 10 percent residual sugar.

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Oh that's perfect! After fortifying with brandy up to 19% alcohol, the SG decreased from 1.035 (unfortified) to 1.020, and when I used Clinitest tablet to measure % (I had to dilute the sample at 1:2 wine to water ratio to get in the color range of the test) I got around 9% RS. On top of it, it tastes good, so no adjustment will be needed. Now I just age it and let it clarify, and then off to bottles.