Blueberry/Black Currant

[whino-wino]

I was meandering through the "Organic" section of the grocery store the other day and came across this:

Checked the ingredients to make sure there was no sorbate or anything....

Took it home and tasted it....it's actually so good I'm not sure I want to make wine with it, but I've got an empty primary and I just can't sleep with that thought so.......


Here's what I came up with:


3 - 46oz bottles blueberry/black currant juice
1/2 tsp yeast energizer
acid blend to .65 tartaric (about 1.5 tsp if you're curious)
Sugar to S.G. 1.080 (took exactly 2 cups)
1/8 tsp K-Meta
pectic enzyme (will add later)
Red Star Pasteur Red wine yeast (will add tomorrow)


Now, I've never made blueberry wine from bottled juice before. Do I need to make this a bigger batch and add some water or should I leave it as is? If I go bigger that's no big deal sinceI can always adjust everything else accordingly but I'd have to do itsoon as I plan on pitching the yeast tomorrow. Once that's done I'm all in....

 

[Bill B]

whino,If you like the taste of the juice as it is, then I would not add any water as it is already has water added.I would make a smaller batch tobegin with you can alwaysmake a bigger batch later. I made a Pom/white grape from Welchs and it is one of my favorite wines.I added no acid blend. I added yeast nutrient and pectic enzymeat fermentation pitched the yeast and let it go. Some may think that you can't ferment juice that has been PASTEURIZED but I have made over 15 gal of wine from Pasteurized juices. Good luck I may look for this juice myself.l

 

[whino-wino]

There's nothing at all wrong with pasteurized juice. If there was, Mosti would have a lot of upset customers.

 

[whino-wino]

After some consideration I would have to agree that I should do it as is. If you think about it, it does not list any added sugars on the ingredients yet the S.G. was about 1.060 before I added any sugar to my recipe. My guess is that it is mostly Apple/grape juice with some blueberry/black currant thrown in for flavoring because I can't see blueberry or black currant having that high of a sugar content.

 

[NorthernWinos]

I would use it as is...Actually, I usually throw in a can of frozen concentrate to bottled juices to boost the flavor/sugar even more....

I thought that these bottled juices list ingredients as/per what it has most of.

Pelican made a wine with Old Orchard Pomm/Blueberry frozen concentrate...added a little Red Grape Concentrate...It was quite fine.

I like the sound of this one....
Where do you shop?????

 

[K&GB]

whino, I made a blueberry wine from Knudson's Just Blueberry (pure blueberry juice from concentrate)and it started with an SG of 1.060.

 

[whino-wino]

whino, I made a blueberry wine from Knudson's Just Blueberry (pure blueberry juice from concentrate)and it started with an SG of 1.060.

Hmm. That surprises me. I didn't think that blueberries were that high in sugar. I know apples and grapes are. Guess you learn something new all the time. Thanks for the info.

 

[whino-wino]

I like the sound of this one....
Where do you shop?????

I got this in Bemidji at Leuken's Family Foods (the one on the North side of town by the Mall). They have a fairly large organic foods section by the produce dept. That's where I found this. There were several other juices from the same brand there but I decided on this one. You won't find these in their juice aisle. You have to look in the organic foods section.


I also found some very good organic apple juice at Harmony Foods in Bemidji. It's about $15 for a gallon so I don't buy it often, but it comes in its very own 1 gallon glass carboy! It has chunks of stuff floating in it and does not look very appetizing, but it tastes awesome fresh and makes a superb apple wine. If you go in there it's located on the floor immediately to your right when you walk in the door.

 

[grapeman]

Apples are about 13% sugar. Black Currant is about 10% and Blueberry is about 11%, so they aren't much less sweet than apples which even pure juice runs about 1.065. Just add enough sugar to bring it up to about 1.085.

 

[NorthernWinos]

I like the sound of this one....
Where do you shop?????

I got this in Bemidji at Leuken's Family Foods (the one on the North side of town by the Mall). They have a fairly large organic foods section by the produce dept. That's where I found this. There were several other juices from the same brand there but I decided on this one. You won't find these in their juice aisle. You have to look in the organic foods section.


I also found some very good organic apple juice at Harmony Foods in Bemidji. It's about $15 for a gallon so I don't buy it often, but it comes in its very own 1 gallon glass carboy! It has chunks of stuff floating in it and does not look very appetizing, but it tastes awesome fresh and makes a superb apple wine. If you go in there it's located on the floor immediately to your right when you walk in the door.

I figured Leukens'...that's where I found some Just Cherry Juice as well as some Cranberry Juice that I made some wines with a couple years ago...they do have a nice selection in the Organic Section.

I saw that apple juice at Harmony Foods and really got scared of it...It sure looked thick with floaties...When I moved the jug and stuff swirled around...I put it back....

 

[K&GB]

Ooops! Sorry Whino. I forgot that I mixed in some Concord Grape with my Blueberry before I took that SG measument. Probably 1/4 of the content was grape juice. I'm sure that boosted the sugar content.

 

[whino-wino]

Pitched the yeast on Friday, here's what it looked like last night:

I had the temp turned up due to the extreme cold we've had the past week or so. Now that it's warmed up into the 20's the temp in this room got a little warm. I took a reading on the wine in the primary and it was 77° so I turned the thermostat down. I hope I didn't get too warm there, the S.G. was dropping a tad bit fast. It's already down to 1.020 today so I'll probably have to rack it tomorrow. If it gets down to 1.010 by tomorrow that would mean it dropped .070 in three days! I think as long as I stayed under 80° though it will be alright. I'm a tad concerned but the only way to find out is to finish the job and see what happens. If it goes bad I'll know where I went wrong.


The room I do my fermenting in is adjacent to my furnace room downstairs, so it's always a bit warmer than the rest of the house. I need to keep better tabs on the outside temps. When you have swings in temperatures ranging from -38 to 28 it can really have an effect on the temps inside the house.

 

[whino-wino]

I saw that apple juice at Harmony Foods and really got scared of it...It sure looked thick with floaties...When I moved the jug and stuff swirled around...I put it back....

This is the stuff:

Here's the ingredients:

Notice that it's pasteurized and that's all. They don't even use ascorbic acid. It does have "floaties" though. The picture is kind of blurry, but you can see the sediment collected on the bottom of the jug, as well as a reflection of my head:

I'll be making this one as soon as the blueberry/black currant is in the secondary, might even be tomorrow....

 

[Wade E]

That will all settle out. Its like using a good fresh pressed cider to make wine. I wouldnt sweeten a finished wine with it though as youd have a clearing problem all over again. Make sure you use a little extra pectic enzyme with this just to be sure.

 

[whino-wino]

I've made several batches from this same juice in the past. It makes the best apple wine next to using fresh apples that I've ever tasted. I tend to do all of my wines dry although I did do 2 last year that I backsweetened. Needless to say my wife loves them but I do not. I'll just have to make a "sweet" wine from time to time to keep her happy.

 

[Wade E]

Ya gotta keep them happy or the wine making area will get smaller and the noise will get louder!