Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
I've got about 16.5 pounds of blueberries in the freezer and a half gallon of Knudsen's organic blueberry juice. I've settled on attempting a blueberry port and will use the recipe from Keller's site as my basis. Here it is:
6 lb. blueberries
1/2 pt. red grape concentrate
1/2 c. light dry malt
1-3/4 lb. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. pectic enzyme
1-1/2 tsp. acid blend
1/2 tsp. yeast energizer
1/2 tsp. wine stabilizer
4 pt. water
crushed Campden tablet
wine yeast
Wash and crush blueberries in nylon straining bag and strain juice into primary fermentation vessel. Tie top of nylon bag and place in primary fermentation vessel. Stir in all other ingredients except stabilizer, yeast and red grape concentrate. Stir well to dissolve sugar, cover well, and set aside for 24 hours. Add yeast, cover, and daily stir ingredients and press pulp in nylon bag to extract flavor. When specific gravity is 1.030 (about 5 days), strain juice from bag and siphon liquor off sediments into glass secondary fermentation vessel. Fit fermentation trap. Rack in three weeks and again in two months. When wine is clear and stable, add red grape concentrate, wine stabilizer and crushed Campden tablet, rack again and bottle. Allow a year to mature. [Adapted from Raymond Massaccesi's Winemaker's Recipe Handbook]
I'm going to attempt a 3 gallon batch. Instead of using the measured sugar as written, I'm going to target an SG of 1.110-1.120, in hopes that I'll finish somewhere between 15 and 16% (I'm going to use EC-1118). From there, I'm going to give it some brandy and let it sit on a mix medium French and American oak.
Now my questions: 1) anyone tried Keller's recipe and care to share your thoughts? 2) I'm not sure about the backsweetening with grape concentrate, but am looking for some input on that. I don't want this to be too "grapey". I guess I could use another concentrate 3) where the recipe calls for 1/2 tsp of wine stabilizer, I assume that means K Sorbate. 4) any other suggestions?
Thanks! I'll be sure to post some pics as I get this going.
Jim
6 lb. blueberries
1/2 pt. red grape concentrate
1/2 c. light dry malt
1-3/4 lb. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. pectic enzyme
1-1/2 tsp. acid blend
1/2 tsp. yeast energizer
1/2 tsp. wine stabilizer
4 pt. water
crushed Campden tablet
wine yeast
Wash and crush blueberries in nylon straining bag and strain juice into primary fermentation vessel. Tie top of nylon bag and place in primary fermentation vessel. Stir in all other ingredients except stabilizer, yeast and red grape concentrate. Stir well to dissolve sugar, cover well, and set aside for 24 hours. Add yeast, cover, and daily stir ingredients and press pulp in nylon bag to extract flavor. When specific gravity is 1.030 (about 5 days), strain juice from bag and siphon liquor off sediments into glass secondary fermentation vessel. Fit fermentation trap. Rack in three weeks and again in two months. When wine is clear and stable, add red grape concentrate, wine stabilizer and crushed Campden tablet, rack again and bottle. Allow a year to mature. [Adapted from Raymond Massaccesi's Winemaker's Recipe Handbook]
I'm going to attempt a 3 gallon batch. Instead of using the measured sugar as written, I'm going to target an SG of 1.110-1.120, in hopes that I'll finish somewhere between 15 and 16% (I'm going to use EC-1118). From there, I'm going to give it some brandy and let it sit on a mix medium French and American oak.
Now my questions: 1) anyone tried Keller's recipe and care to share your thoughts? 2) I'm not sure about the backsweetening with grape concentrate, but am looking for some input on that. I don't want this to be too "grapey". I guess I could use another concentrate 3) where the recipe calls for 1/2 tsp of wine stabilizer, I assume that means K Sorbate. 4) any other suggestions?
Thanks! I'll be sure to post some pics as I get this going.
Jim