Another Blueberry Wine thread

[captainl]

Prepared and started it last night. I'm about to pitch the yeast this evening.

2.85 gallons total mass right now
6 lbs blueberries
2 lbs chopped raisins
4 lbs sugar
as appropriate:
super ferment
acid blend
k meta
pectic enzyme

For those interested the SG went up 9.6 gravity points from sugar extraction in the last 20 hours. So now I have an SG of 1.100. Is this too high? I don't really want to water it down due to the minimal amount of fruit.

Acid level measured .30% so I added more acid blend. It should be around .45 to .50% right now but I haven't measured it post correction. I plan to correct post fermentation as long as .45 to .50 is not to far out.

Will this ferment ok? Using ec 1118.

Thanks

 

[GrandpasFootsteps]

This sounds just like the blueberry I have ready to bottle. I assume this is for 1 gallon? 1.10 isn't bad. I had my acid titration at around .50-.60. I started mine at SG 1.11 and I stopped my fermentation at 1.010 so I could have a sweeter wine. After it stopped, I made an f-pack from saved blueberries mostly just for flavor not sweetness and dumped it in there. I made 3 gallons using around 15 lbs of blueberries. I tasted it in January and it is delicious but I haven't gotten around to bottling it yet.

 

[Runningwolf]

I wonder if your sg really went up from sugar extraction or if it's the C02 from the fermentation giving you a false reading. I have never had a wine do that but thats not to say thats whats happening. I'll be interested ih hearing if anyone else has had this happen. I did add some raisins to some Chilean wine but I never checked the sg afterwards until it was nearly finished.

Did you add your Super ferment in the beginning? Another product you can use is goferm in the beginning and then when your wine gets down to about 1.02-1.01 you can add the super ferment to help ensure a complete, unstuck fermentation. I usually do this when racking to a secondary or adding my mlf culture. Keep us posted on how this turns out for you.

 

[captainl]

I'm currently at 2.85 gallons. After I pull out the mesh bag and rack off the sediment I'm hoping to fill two 4L glass bottles plus a little left over. I know its relatively weak on the lbs of blueberries but other recipes ranged from 2 to 3 lbs per gallon had good things to say.

No fermentation yet. K meta last night, pectic enzyme this morning and then yeast tonight. Maybe I didn't mix it well enough when I took the reading last night? I was shooting for an SG of 1.090. Now I'm at 1.100 which seems a little strong but I imagine it should be fine. I'll f pack it later to get some more blueberry flavor.

I did add super ferment at the beginning. Is that a bad thing? I was under the impression that it is a yeast energizer and nutrient in one. I'll look into go ferm. How is it different?

 

[captainl]

Any recommendations when to remove the mesh bags with blueberries and raisins? It's still frementing but I'm about to take an sg reading.

 

[captainl]

The SG is down to 1.024. I'm probably going to remove the fruit tomorrow and recheck the SG. I'm hoping this blueberry is just a "slow" fermenter, as my ep shiraz that I started a day after is down to 1.000 already. My acid might be a little low too so I might recheck and add acid if necessary.

Is there anything wrong with checking acid and adjusting mid-fermentation?

Ambient temps are around 75.