Blueberry Wine Suggestions

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jimhill

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Hi everyone,
My 2015 Blueberry wine turned out good, but I had some problems with it fermenting down to dry. Here is what I did and some changes for 2016 I am considering.
I used 26 lbs blueberries, 20.5 lbs sugar, 6.5 gal water, 8 tsp yeast nutrient, 9.75 tsp acid blend, 6.75 tsp tannin, 10 campden tablet eq. Montrechet yeast., and 2 tsp pectic enzyme. Must temp at start was 80F. Starting sg at 1.110.
In short my fermentation rate was slow and steady, but the wine finished at sg of 1.016. (sweet). I have been reading this site as well as other sources.
My proposed changes for 2016. Use less sugar for a lower starting sg. and use EC1118 instead of the Montrechet. I am planning to also step feed the yeast nutrient instead of adding it all up front. I also plan to test for pH (am going to purchase equipment). Also use more fruit per gallon.
As I am new to wine making, any suggestions from this crew will be very welcome.
 
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The only issue I can see is if your yeast died before converting all the sugar. Montrachet is rated up to 15% and based on your starting SG it should have finished unless it ran out of nutrients or perhaps your SG was off. Depending on how much sugar released from your berries and when it was released I wonder if your available sugar was actually over what that yeast could handle. I'm sure more experienced heads can give you more info on this too.
 
Thanks Scooter, Yes, that is what I was thinking. That is one reason I am planning to start with a lower sg this year. Also others on this site, and Jack Keller, suggest having a more moderate alcohol content than 15% will yield a better wine. Jim
 
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I did not respond to your post yesterday because I am no expert in fruit wines. However, the changes you propose to make all seem like positive steps to me. I would be surprised if you did not get all the way to dry this year with those changes!
 
Blueberry wine closer to 12-13% tastes pretty fantastic. But, if you used a more tolerant yeast like 1118 as mentioned, I don't see why you can't do a "big bad blue". Adding about 4-6 oz of raisins or a can of grape concentrate per gallon will be greatly appreciated by your yeast and help beef up the body. You can use this to make up some of the sugar content, but would probably need to adjust the acid.
 
Blueberry wine closer to 12-13% tastes pretty fantastic. But, if you used a more tolerant yeast like 1118 as mentioned, I don't see why you can't do a "big bad blue". Adding about 4-6 oz of raisins or a can of grape concentrate per gallon will be greatly appreciated by your yeast and help beef up the body. You can use this to make up some of the sugar content, but would probably need to adjust the acid.

Thanks Matt,
I will definitely try these suggestions. I plan on making at least 3 batches of blueberry, and do a little something different on each batch.
Jim
 
Lalvin K1V-1116 is my go to yeast for making Blueberry wine.

From there web site: The K1V-1116 strain tends to express the freshness of white grape varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Seyval. The natural fresh fruit aromas are retained longer than with other standard yeast strains. Fruit wines and wines made from concentrates poor in nutrient balance benefit from the capacity of K1V-1116 to adapt to difficult fermentation conditions. Restarts stuck fermentations.
 
Lalvin K1V-1116 is my go to yeast for making Blueberry wine.

From there web site: The K1V-1116 strain tends to express the freshness of white grape varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Seyval. The natural fresh fruit aromas are retained longer than with other standard yeast strains. Fruit wines and wines made from concentrates poor in nutrient balance benefit from the capacity of K1V-1116 to adapt to difficult fermentation conditions. Restarts stuck fermentations.

Yes, I am starting to move towards the same yeast because of those same reviews, reports. I tend to go for the higher ABV. My blueberry last year had no problem in fermentation except for being exceptionally fast to finish - less than 7 days from start to finish at .990.

I don't put a lot of faith in my "vinometer" sort of use it to see what ball park I'm in rather than expecting any high accuracy of ABV measurement. Montrachet with starting SG of 1.095 read out at 12-13% for me. But the blueberry flavor was less than expected. Will up from 4lbs/gal to probably 6lbs this year or higher IF I get any blueberries this year. (Too warm too soon and I suspect a later freeze will zap most of my fruit trees and bushes if the warm continues much longer.)
 
My blueberry is still cranking away after 10 weeks. Is this crazy the rest of the fruits I've used are usually done in 3 weeks. Can I spark it up by adding yeast energizer now?
 
I don't put a lot of faith in my "vinometer" sort of use it to see what ball park I'm in rather than expecting any high accuracy of ABV measurement. Montrachet with starting SG of 1.095 read out at 12-13% for me. But the blueberry flavor was less than expected. Will up from 4lbs/gal to probably 6lbs this year or higher IF I get any blueberries this year. (Too warm too soon and I suspect a later freeze will zap most of my fruit trees and bushes if the warm continues much longer.)[/QUOTE]

Get it bottled. Stick it on the shelf for a couple of years. The alcohol should mellow out and the blueberry should come thru a bit more. Might not take a couple of years, try a bottle after 6 months or so. Good luck with it, Arne.
 
Good news! Did not lose the blueberry crop this year! And I've added more plants (Expanded my Second blueberry Patch) up to 29 plants with some late producers so that will spread out the picking time for me. Figure once all the bushes are about 3-4 years old should be getting approxiamately 10-15 lbs per bush or about 290 - 435 lbs of berries. Enough freeze, eat as I pick (My favorite thing) and plenty for wine. Even half to wine would what about 30 gallons of wine with 7 lbs per gallon. Yeah that would be a good number :h
 
Hi everyone,
My 2015 Blueberry wine turned out good, but I had some problems with it fermenting down to dry. Here is what I did and some changes for 2016 I am considering.
I used 26 lbs blueberries, 20.5 lbs sugar, 6.5 gal water, 8 tsp yeast nutrient, 9.75 tsp acid blend, 6.75 tsp tannin, 10 campden tablet eq. Montrechet yeast., and 2 tsp pectic enzyme. Must temp at start was 80F. Starting sg at 1.110.
In short my fermentation rate was slow and steady, but the wine finished at sg of 1.016. (sweet). I have been reading this site as well as other sources.
My proposed changes for 2016. Use less sugar for a lower starting sg. and use EC1118 instead of the Montrechet. I am planning to also step feed the yeast nutrient instead of adding it all up front. I also plan to test for pH (am going to purchase equipment). Also use more fruit per gallon.
As I am new to wine making, any suggestions from this crew will be very welcome.


I'm a newbee.. how many gallons is this? I says 6.5 gallon water but surely there is a good amount of juice from 26lbs of berries.. I brewed a 3lbs gallon and I got almost a half gallon of pure juice..If memory serves.
 
Key thing to remember is that just as with grapes, and all fruit really, the water to sugar ratio as well as the flavor will affect the out come. We've been having a lot of rain as our blueberries have been growing and as a result the flavor is not as intense as when we had dryer weather in the weeks leading up to picking. So you could get lots of 'juice' but less flavor in that juice.

Every year is different and that makes this all a bit more challenging. I a dry year 6 lbs of berries per gallon of must might be a great wine. In a wet year you may need 8-10 lbs to get the same flavor. And that is why the grape winemakers and drinkers refer to a particular years wine as better than another.
 
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Whitehrs, I was not ignoring your question, but was out of town and could not remember password. I too am new to this addiction. Unlike many, I usually begin with 5 gal. water, and then add fruit and sugar. Depending on the fruit, as scooter says, I use between 4-6 lbs. This year I am using on the higher side. But I am still learning. Many others on this forum are well seasoned and extremely knowledgeable. Listen to them before me. I have spent hours in the last few months just reading posts on different subjects. To answer your question, I just transferred a batch of strawberry into carboys. 5 gal water, 25 lbs. fruit, and 15lbs 4oz sugar yielded about nine gallons. I filled a 5gal carboy, a 3 gal carboy, a gallon jug, and a magnum bottle. I like to top off with my wine, and I like making plenty. Now just trying to improve. The people on this forum are very helpful and great. Good luck. Jim
p.s. beginning with blueberry next week
 
I used 6.5 gallons of all blueberry juice. No water. Should be bottling late summer/early fall.

PierreR,
Any trouble fermenting to dry using straight juice? I've read that as you push past around 4-5#/gal blueberry wine can have trouble finishing fermentation. I did 6#/gal last year and it fermented dry without any problem. It turned out to have PLENTY of blueberry flavor, a very nice wine, and in contrast to my blackberry I'm not seeing a compelling reason to go with straight juice on blueberry this year.
 
Interesting post as Stressbaby - I have a one gallon batch made with 8 lbs of blueberries and it seems to stopped fermentation after 1 week with SG at 1.000 approx. It went rapidly from start to finish and actually could have been moved into a Carboy a couple of days ago but I left it after I pulled out the fruit bag and squeezed out the last juice from it. Now I have a 4 L carboy and 3/4 qt of juice (Stored in the Fridge until I decide how to 'finish' it. Figuring I can use a lot of the quart after the first true racking.
But your point about the unfinished fermentation with high levels of pure juice sounds reasonable. My last batch of blueberry had only 5 lbs and it finished nicely albeit a little light on flavor until back sweetened.
Going to see how this turns out in about 2 weeks when I'm ready to do the first racking to get rid of the seeds and lees.
 
Whitehrs, I was not ignoring your question, but was out of town and could not remember password. I too am new to this addiction. Unlike many, I usually begin with 5 gal. water, and then add fruit and sugar. Depending on the fruit, as scooter says, I use between 4-6 lbs. This year I am using on the higher side. But I am still learning. Many others on this forum are well seasoned and extremely knowledgeable. Listen to them before me. I have spent hours in the last few months just reading posts on different subjects. To answer your question, I just transferred a batch of strawberry into carboys. 5 gal water, 25 lbs. fruit, and 15lbs 4oz sugar yielded about nine gallons. I filled a 5gal carboy, a 3 gal carboy, a gallon jug, and a magnum bottle. I like to top off with my wine, and I like making plenty. Now just trying to improve. The people on this forum are very helpful and great. Good luck. Jim
p.s. beginning with blueberry next week


No problem. I'm just learning.
 

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