A Blueberry Wine Adventure

Blueberry Wine
Batch size: 6 gallons

Ingredients:
20 pounds frozen blueberry's (Costco)
Sugar
Pectic enzyme
Muslin bag(s)
Potassium Metabisulphate
Potassium Sorbate
Tannin
Opti-Red
DAP
Fermaid-K
Lalvin 71b-1122

8/3/2015
Thawed and bagged 20 pounds of frozen blueberry's into 2 separate muslin bags (I think thats what they are).
Dissolved 10 pounds of cane sugar into 2 gallons of water over low heat and added to bucket.
Added water to about 6 gallons.
Dosed with 1/4 tsp KMeta.

8/4/2015 (12 hours later)
Dosed with 3 tsp pectic enzyme.

12 hours later
Removed 1 gallon into a milk jug and put in freezer (to be used for back-sweetening/blending later)

Dosed:
6 grams Opti-Red
3 grams Fermaid-K
1/4 tsp DAP
1 tsp tannin
1 packet Lalvin 71b-1122

OG: 1.09
PH: 4.0

Should I add acid blend to this before fermentation gets underway?

Yes I would try to get that ph down into a better range.

But please tell me that you did not already add the potassium sorbate???

I would plan on on fpak or concentrate, etc. once fermented. I think you may find the flavor light with only 20lbs. of fruit used.

I ended up adding about 3 tsp acid blend just after yeast pitch. This brought the ph down to 3.7, and this morning it was 3.6.

Sour_grapes - No, the sorbate you saw was in the master ingredients list. It will not be dosed until the appropriate time.

Wineforfun - I was planning on back blending with a gallon of the original must, but I may also consider an fpak. What is an appriate amount of blueberries per gallon? I thought I was on the heavier end.

brottman said:

Wineforfun - I was planning on back blending with a gallon of the original must, but I may also consider an fpak. What is an appriate amount of blueberries per gallon? I thought I was on the heavier end.

Click to expand...

Most recipes will call for 3.5-4, so I would put you in the ballpark, but on the lower end. You are close enough to roll with it, and then you can always adjust in the end, if need be.
I just got done making a blueberry with 4.5lbs. per gallon. Bottled 6 weeks ago. Haven't tried it yet but hoping it has alot of flavor and body.

8/5/2015

Fermentation is underway, but I may have made a mistake in adding too much acid blend. PH is now 3.5 but holding steady so far. Do I need to buffer with potasium bicarbonate?

No! That pH is just fine. Especially if you plan to finish the wine sweetened. It should be balanced.

pH can move around during fermentation. Wait until it has finished and aged for some time before making any decisions about further manipulations.

I was very reticent to post to this since I seem to often be the contrarian around here, but I do my acid work at the end of the process, pre-bottling. I just find I can hit the nail on the head easier afterward than I can in primary. Blueberry also benefits greatly from blending with a small amount of a low-flavor wine or the addition of a small amount of wine grapes in the primary before fermentation. It adds vinosity and structure without altering the blueberry flavor. Try a bench test pre-bottling to see if you like that adjustment in a glass. Myself, I wouldn't go without it anymore.

Also, a blueberry/red wine blend of about 50/50 is a heavenly mix of flavors. (Same with blueberry/muscadine.) I call mine Bell Bottom Blues, and use second pressing wine mixed with blueberry wine, or ferment the berries right in with the second-pressing grapes.

Second-pressing wine... (sorry for the wineglass condensation, this is the humid South after all...)



...married to blueberry juice or wine...



This took second place in two states, I can't remember which ones.

Thanks Jswordy! I do appreciate your advice and will definitely try that at bottling time.

I don't understand why everyone is insisting on watering down the blueberry. I've been making it for five years now and have never added any water. If it needs adjusting in the end I'll blend another wine with it to hit the target but certainly not water.

Runningwolf said:

I don't understand why everyone is insisting on watering down the blueberry. I've been making it for five years now and have never added any water. If it needs adjusting in the end I'll blend another wine with it to hit the target but certainly not water.

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Dan,
What do you mean by "watering it down"?

If you mean by adding water up front to get the desired volume, a lot of us don't have the means to get enough blueberries to work with straight juice. I know for me, it would be quite costly to buy enough blueberries to come up with even a gallon of straight juice.
This is why I bump up the poundage of fruit as much as possible to get the most flavor I can.

Dan, are you typically making a sweet wine or a dry wine with blueberry?

I make four different blueberry wines. Mostly all sweet.

If making it sweet, a concentrated and higher acid must would be just fine. A dry blueberry wine is out of balance if you do not add some water.

8/10/2015

SG is down to 1.05. Seems a bit slow, so I gave it another dose of Fermaid-K. Bubbling through the airlock seemed to pick up a bit after a good stirring. I was gone for 4 days, so this is the first attention it has gotten since.

8/11/2015

SG now 1.03. I will pull the bags of blueberries out tomorrow morning (about 7 days in), as I will be leaving for another 4 days. During those 4 days, I will leave it in the bucket and let ferment to dry. The plan is to rack to carboy when I get back home in 4 days.

8/12/2015

Pulled fruit out thus morning. SG 1.015. When I return home in 3 days I'll rack to carboy.