Hi, i am going to attempt to make blueberry and blackberry wine since they are in season. This will be my first time. i know the process of making wine from grapes. i know there are recipes out there for small batches, but i wanted to make the wine on my own. I have 15 lbs. of each fruit, how many gallons of wine and must will this produce? what ratio of water and sugar do i add? what size and when are the sulfite additions. what level of acidity, brix, ph, and is there anything else i should be testing for? can i crush the fruit with a grape crusher and press like grapes? What type of yeast, acid, and any other type of chemicals or ingredients should be added if needed? What in general do i need to do to make a good blueberry and blackberrywine? I searched around but really cant find that much information. All the information you can give will be truly appreciated. I froze the blueberries but i put the blackberries in the fridge so i need answers fast please.
blueberry and blackberry wine???
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NorthernWinos
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Freeze the blackberries too.
Take a deep breath and search out some recipes.
15# of fruit is good...a few more pounds would give you 5-6 gallon batches of each.
Freezing will release the juices, so no need for a crusher, etc.
Sugar added depends on the sweetness of your berries...so have your hydrometer hand [if you don't have one get one.]
As for the acidity, ph, etc...it will vary and you will have to test, or 'wing it' by using a proven recipe.
Others will chime in with recipes and suggestions.....
Take a deep breath and search out some recipes.
15# of fruit is good...a few more pounds would give you 5-6 gallon batches of each.
Freezing will release the juices, so no need for a crusher, etc.
Sugar added depends on the sweetness of your berries...so have your hydrometer hand [if you don't have one get one.]
As for the acidity, ph, etc...it will vary and you will have to test, or 'wing it' by using a proven recipe.
Others will chime in with recipes and suggestions.....
As for Blueberry wine you have enough for a 6 gallon batch and you will want to add approx 7 tsp. of acid blend and enough sugar to get an SG of 1.085 which will probably be around 10 lbs. You will also want 6 tsp of yeast nutrient and 3 tsp of yeast energizer as Blueberries are sometimes a bear to ferment. I would add 1/2 the nutrient and all the energizer at the beginning and the other part of nutrient around an SG of 1.035 just to feed the yeast and help it finish its job. When starting, add 1/4 tsp of k-meta or 4 campden tablets crushed very well into a fine powder, add berries in fermenting bag and then pour 1 gallon of boiling water over berries. Then add about 4 gallons of water and wait at least 12 hours before adding pectic enzyme and another 12 hours before adding the yeast making sure the temp is around 72*. As far as yeast goes I would go with Red Star Montrachet.
As for the Blackberry you will want about 4 lbs per gallon so you are looking at a 3 1/2 gallon batch as you stand. You will want to use Lalvin 71B-1122 as it will eat up some of the malic acid which Blackberries are very high in. You may not need to even add any acid to this batch at all. You will need about 2 lbs of sugar per gallon and follow the same schedule as with the Blueberry wine.
As for the Blackberry you will want about 4 lbs per gallon so you are looking at a 3 1/2 gallon batch as you stand. You will want to use Lalvin 71B-1122 as it will eat up some of the malic acid which Blackberries are very high in. You may not need to even add any acid to this batch at all. You will need about 2 lbs of sugar per gallon and follow the same schedule as with the Blueberry wine.
i froze the blackberries an am going to take my time. thanks alot for the posts, they are very helpful. can i keep the skins in the juice instead of a straining bag? do u press the skins or just ring them out in a bag?should the blackberry be put through MLF? should a yeast starteer be made before pitching it? should the sulfite additions be 50 ppm x 3? anymore recipes and helpful advice would be greatly appreciated, im still learning this fruit wine thing.
You can leave the fruit loose in the must and will get better extraction that way but also makes it a little more work later but not much. Either way I would use a strainer or bag at end to squeeze out all the goodness after removing fruit. The Blackberry may benefit from MLF, just dont add any more sulfite once the wine is started. 50 ppm is all thats required to kill off wild yeast and over doing that will make it real hard to get fermentation started.
A yeast starter is always a good idea, always.
A yeast starter is always a good idea, always.
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Unless you are experienced as a winemaker, I would Not do the MLF on the blackberry wine. It really isn't needed and if you have sulfites in the wine it will not begin. If you don't add any sulfites then you run the risk of spoilage- which you don't want. I really don't think thebenefits outweigh the risks. Just make the blackberry like normal using good sound ripe fruit and you won't need MLF.
for the blackberry and blueberry wine, do i crush the fruit, or just pour boiling water over them to extract the juices? Do i add water to the blackberry recipe? and when and how is the best way to make a starter for these two wines. ThanksEdited by: Doober
By freezing the fruit it helps breal down the fruit and usually even splits the fruits skin open which will let the pectic enzyme get in there and do its job. I would use a fermenting bag myself and right before putting the bag in the primary I would squeeze the bag to break open any that werent split before. I would add 3/4 of a gallon of water to each 4-4 1/2 lbs of blackberries. i would make a starter for these wines the day before and here is a great link to making a yeast starter.
How-to: Yeast Starter
How-to: Yeast Starter
Wade, i had to add 2.5 lbs more of sugar to get the SG to 1.086 and i also had to add 13 tsp of acid blend to raise the acidity to .60 on the blueberry and had to add 1 lb of sugar to the blackberry. just to let u know. i was wondering why i added more water to the blueberry then the blackberry, how do u know how much water to add to a fruit?
All these adjustments will be different from fruit to fruit as each fruit has different acidic and sugar levels. Even 2 fruits retrieved from 2 different places will vary and even the same fruit picked at the same place but at different times will vary. This is why no recipe out there is truly accurate and should be adjusted by the vintner accordingly. This is why we stress tp people attempting to make a fruit wine for the first time should have the means of testing these musts. As for the blackberry requiring less water it is because you need more fruit which in turn will render more juice to the equation.
well, the wines went under way and the blackberry is in the secondary. How long should it sit on the gross lees and finish fermenting. 2 weeks maybe? The blueberry wine is fermenting much slower. its been 6 days now and the sg dropped to 1.046. how long do u usually wait to put it in the secondary? how long can it be in contact with the fruit? why does it ferment much slower? how long does the blueberry sit in the secondary with the gross lees?
OOps, missed this 1. Good call by reviving it! I usually transfer to secondary at an SG of around 1.030 and remove any fruit between 7-10 days to make sure the fruit does not go bad. As far as the wine in secondary I typically wait till the wine is done fermenting then rack off as these lees arent as bad and can actually improve your wines mouthfeel and body. Fruit wines can ferment faster or slower and typically fruits that ferment slower are either caused by cooler temps or sometimes not enough food for the yeasties to eat. If you are at cooler temps then this can actually benefit your wine and let the fruit taste not be hidden so much by a fast fermentation. If its due to lack of nutrient then you might want to add some more nutrient to keep it plugging along. Some yeasts do require more nutrient then others such as red Star Montrachet and Lalvin RC 212. They have a tendency to throw off a sulfur smell when stressed due to lack of nutrient. Did you add both nutrient and energizer to these batches in the beginning? Nutrient and energizer are not the same thing so if you added 1 and not the other you may be starving your yeast of nitrogen or other nutrients that the yeast desperately needs to do its thing.
Edited by: wade
Edited by: wade
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