First try at blueberry gives me headaches

[WhiteCheesy]

I have been lurking and learning for about 6 months. I have had successful batchs. So far all of my wine so far has been from concentrate kits that i have ordered from someplace.
I current have a blueberry concentrate kit.

Pitched on Nov 16
Ec-1118
Starting sg was 1.120 corrected
The kit said it would make a sweet desert wine.
Added Pectic enzyme as stated in instructions.

Kit instructions said to wait 4-8 weeks to rack off into acid blend and sorbate when fermentation had completed.

Checked on it at 4 weeks and sg was 1.050.
Airlock had stopped showing any signs of activity. Swirled mixture for a few days to try and reactivate the yeast. No signs of life. Racked off to get some oxygen to it and resealed. Still no signs
Just got done starting a new fermentation in a quart mason jar with 2/3 cup 105 deg water with new ec-1118, 1/4 tsp nutrient and 3 tablespoons sugar. Then topped the mason jar with some wine after seeing some activity. Let the starter sit for a day and im not seeing any activity in my starter.
The only thing left that i can think of is to test acidity. The wine smells good and tastes fine when sample was taken. No off smells just really really sweet.

Advice or something i missed would be appreciated.

 

[wineforfun]

Did you ferment in an open bucket or an airlocked container?

Did you use any nutrient at the beginning and if so, how much?

1.120 is pretty high to start with, going to make high alcohol drink.

When you "racked it off into acid blend", was that from primary(bucket) to secondary(carboy), or secondary to secondary?

 

[WhiteCheesy]

Did you ferment in an open bucket or an airlocked container?

Did you use any nutrient at the beginning and if so, how much?

1.120 is pretty high to start with, going to make high alcohol drink.

When you "racked it off into acid blend", was that from primary(bucket) to secondary(carboy), or secondary to secondary?

Sorry i wasnt more clear. Fermenting was done in a sealed fermenting bucket with airlock. I havent added any acid blend yet as i dont beleive it is finished fermenting. Just put that in there to note that the kit states 4 to 8 weeks. I racked it off the less into a clean fermenter with nothing in it. One of the things i read was racking it off can restart the yeast if it was lack of oxygen. The kit never called out for nutrient during initial pitching.

 

[wineforfun]

Sorry i wasnt more clear. Fermenting was done in a sealed fermenting bucket with airlock. I havent added any acid blend yet as i dont beleive it is finished fermenting. Just put that in there to note that the kit states 4 to 8 weeks. I racked it off the less into a clean fermenter with nothing in it. One of the things i read was racking it off can restart the yeast if it was lack of oxygen. The kit never called out for nutrient during initial pitching.

Ok, well most all of us ferment in an open bucket to allow oxygen to get in during the fermenting stage..............then put it under airlock when racking to a secondary carboy. This also allows for easy access for your daily stirring.
You need nutrient up front always, unless this kit somehow had some mixed in there.
If SG stuck at 1.050 then I would rehydrate some more EC-1118 and pitch it back in. Continue on in an open bucket not an airlocked vessel.

 

[Arne]

What is your ambient temperature. This time of year people seem to have problems with ferments not finishing and a lot of times if you warm it up and keep it in the mid to upper 70's or so it will finish out. Arne.

 

[WhiteCheesy]

Temp was at 70 deg. Ill try pitching another starter and move it to a warmer spot

 

[grapeman]

I have been lurking and learning for about 6 months. I have had successful batchs. So far all of my wine so far has been from concentrate kits that i have ordered from someplace.
I current have a blueberry concentrate kit.

Pitched on Nov 16
Ec-1118
Starting sg was 1.120 corrected
The kit said it would make a sweet desert wine.
Added Pectic enzyme as stated in instructions.

Kit instructions said to wait 4-8 weeks to rack off into acid blend and sorbate when fermentation had completed.

Checked on it at 4 weeks and sg was 1.050.
Airlock had stopped showing any signs of activity. Swirled mixture for a few days to try and reactivate the yeast. No signs of life. Racked off to get some oxygen to it and resealed. Still no signs
Just got done starting a new fermentation in a quart mason jar with 2/3 cup 105 deg water with new ec-1118, 1/4 tsp nutrient and 3 tablespoons sugar. Then topped the mason jar with some wine after seeing some activity. Let the starter sit for a day and im not seeing any activity in my starter.
The only thing left that i can think of is to test acidity. The wine smells good and tastes fine when sample was taken. No off smells just really really sweet.

Advice or something i missed would be appreciated.

Sounds like it is a sweet desert wine to me if it is 1.050. Also if it instructs you to rack it to re-oxygenate it, you should transfer the lees at that point. They are the source of the needed yeast.

To get it to move a bit lower you need to make a good healthy starter and gradually add more of the wine to it as a buildup. Sounds like you are moving in the right direction but if you happened to already added the sorbate you can forget getting it lower in sugar as that will inhibit the yeast.

 

[WhiteCheesy]

Sounds like it is a sweet desert wine to me if it is 1.050. Also if it instructs you to rack it to re-oxygenate it, you should transfer the lees at that point. They are the source of the needed yeast.

To get it to move a bit lower you need to make a good healthy starter and gradually add more of the wine to it as a buildup. Sounds like you are moving in the right direction but if you happened to already added the sorbate you can forget getting it lower in sugar as that will inhibit the yeast.

I haven't used sorbate as i was hoping to restart it. If i can get it a little lower i will leave it. Thanks for the help.

 

[HillPeople]

I've never done a blueberry kit, but we do make a lot of blueberry/honeyberry/maple syrup wine. I've always mashed the berries using about 64 lbs. berries, added water to make ~25 gal., added 2 gal. maple syrup, added sugar to bring the SG to 1.096, added pectic enzyme, acid blend to TA-7 and pH 3.6, and fermented with K1-V1116 in an open container with towel down to 1.040. Added yeast nutrient, racked off into 30 gal. Flextank with airlock at about the 1.010 stage. At .992 SG racked into clean Flextank with sparkolloid. Let it sit like that for 4 months or so under CO2, adjust the SO2 to 60ppm, let it sit another 2 months, then bottle using a 1 micron filter.
It's dry, pretty Cab-like, and is one of our most requested wines. We could sorbate and backsweeten, but I've never done that. Just personal preference for dry wine.
This may or may not help you, but it sounds like you have a stuck ferment, which is rare with 1118. Your starting SG is high but the ferment shouldn't have stopped so soon. It's almost always temperature related, or some parameter being out of kilter. Don't give up!

 

[Double Daylo]

I have had luck throwing a little energizer into the wine if I have problems with yeast getting going.

 

[jswordy]

OK, so you are starting high at 1.120 and ending at 1.050. Sounds to me like it has finished normally and left residual sweetness. A good start for drier wine is 1.085 and finish at 1.000 or a little less.

If you do some subtraction, you can see the fall is roughly the same between the two. Starting at a high SG gives you a sweeter wine than a lower SG, roughly the same alcohol content. There is nothing wrong, nothing to fix or correct. Your yeast has done its job.

Proceed to settle and rack.

If you wish a drier wine, start another blueberry or compatible grape batch and ferment it dry, then blend. You'll wind up with a pleasant semi-sweet. Compatible grapes can make for a very nice blend.

One thing about blueberry, I have made lots of it and you have to have some sugar in it. I just don't like a dry blueberry at all. So you either start high and leave sugar, or you ferment dry and add sugar. Your choice!

UNDER EDIT: Just went back to your OP. "The kit said it would make a sweet dessert wine." Yep, that is what you have!

 

[WhiteCheesy]

OK, so you are starting high at 1.120 and ending at 1.050. Sounds to me like it has finished normally and left residual sweetness. A good start for drier wine is 1.085 and finish at 1.000 or a little less.

If you do some subtraction, you can see the fall is roughly the same between the two. Starting at a high SG gives you a sweeter wine than a lower SG, roughly the same alcohol content. There is nothing wrong, nothing to fix or correct. Your yeast has done its job.

Proceed to settle and rack.

If you wish a drier wine, start another blueberry or compatible grape batch and ferment it dry, then blend. You'll wind up with a pleasant semi-sweet. Compatible grapes can make for a very nice blend.

One thing about blueberry, I have made lots of it and you have to have some sugar in it. I just don't like a dry blueberry at all. So you either start high and leave sugar, or you ferment dry and add sugar. Your choice!

UNDER EDIT: Just went back to your OP. "The kit said it would make a sweet dessert wine." Yep, that is what you have!

I was worried about leaving it alone since the yeast i have said it was good to about 18 percent alcohol tolerance i didnt want it to restart after bottling. When i was researching bottling my last batch of wine i started reading the horror storys of wine blowing up in the bottles . I do use potassium sorbate and sodium metabisulphite before bottling. Im probably just being way to much of a worry wort.

 

[jswordy]

I was worried about leaving it alone since the yeast i have said it was good to about 18 percent alcohol tolerance i didnt want it to restart after bottling. When i was researching bottling my last batch of wine i started reading the horror storys of wine blowing up in the bottles . I do use potassium sorbate and sodium metabisulphite before bottling. Im probably just being way to much of a worry wort.

Your yeast has mostly died and gone dormant due to alcohol poisoning. That is why you have residual sugars. This is the oldest way of making wines probably ever. It is how they were made prior to the "Chemical Age." Sorbate will be great insurance, and especially if you hurry it, but if you do your winemaker's duties and take the time to make it a nice settled, clear and degassed wine, it will sit long enough to ensure a restart is not likely.

I have a Welch's recipe that does the exact same thing, called the Super-Sugar Method. I have also done muscadine with residual sugar using a recipe that is very very old, passed on to me by an old woman.

I think the concept that a wine has to go to 1.000 or below got ingrained by kit companies and has become a kind of urban legend. The key is to aim for the wine you like. If I can set my SSG at a spot where the finished wine will be in the sugar range where I like it, then I don't have to go through all the back-sweetening and etc. But it is a slightly more advanced technique than kit makers aim for. Kits, after all, are aimed at minimizing possible mistaken outcomes.

 

[physics911]

Blueberry wine is a PITA. At least it was for me, and what I read from others during my research. I practically had to beat mine with a stick to get it down to 1.000. But, that was all my fault for starting at too high of a gravity, and too low of a pH. I named the rocket fuel I made "The Blue *****", and it is just sitting quietly in a corner until such time as it mellows out, you know, in about 100 years.