Blueberry Wine Fermented to Dry

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BeeMad

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Well, my very first wine, a gallon of blueberry, has fermented to 0.990 from 1.100 SG in a week and a half. According to the ABV calculator, it should be about 14.6% ABV, but it really doesn't have any alcohol smell, and it also doesn't have any blueberry taste, either, despite the deep purple color. I'd really like to create a tasty blueberry flavor, so I'm thinking that I should rack the wine onto another batch of crushed blueberries and simple syrup (or a variety of honey I have that combines nicely with blueberries) and add in the acid I left out at the beginning. I added 1/4 tsp. tannin at the beginning, but am wondering if I should add more. I don't want the ABV to rise anymore, so am thinking I should stabilize beforehand. Is my plan sound? I appreciate any and all guidance on this!
 
You don't mention how many pounds/gallon of blueberries you used. That's an important point. I would never use less than 5 lbs/gallon.
Secondly Blueberry wine is rarely going to have a lot of flavor until back-sweetened some. No need to use more blueberry juice unless you went very light on the lbs/gal.
As far as acidity - What were the readings and details of this recipe?

Best way to get the best guidance is to provide all those details when you ask your question.

A young blueberry wine is very hard to gauge - until it's at least 6-9 months aged it's going to have a lot of bite and not much flavor. Just me, but I never add any more juice to the wine - all my fruit juice addition is done up front and I don't back-sweeten until about a week before bottling. I bottle no sooner than 9 months from fermentation.

By the way - RARELY do you need to add acid of any kind to Blueberries. Most folks have more acid than expected just from the blueberries.
 
You don't mention how many pounds/gallon of blueberries you used. That's an important point. I would never use less than 5 lbs/gallon.
Secondly Blueberry wine is rarely going to have a lot of flavor until back-sweetened some. No need to use more blueberry juice unless you went very light on the lbs/gal.
As far as acidity - What were the readings and details of this recipe?

Best way to get the best guidance is to provide all those details when you ask your question.

A young blueberry wine is very hard to gauge - until it's at least 6-9 months aged it's going to have a lot of bite and not much flavor. Just me, but I never add any more juice to the wine - all my fruit juice addition is done up front and I don't back-sweeten until about a week before bottling. I bottle no sooner than 9 months from fermentation.

By the way - RARELY do you need to add acid of any kind to Blueberries. Most folks have more acid than expected just from the blueberries.
Thanks for the feedback, Scooter68. I remember you as the one with all the blueberry plants.
Here you go:
5 lb blueberries
3 lb sugar
Initial acidity was 3.3, which is why I didn't add any. It moved slightly up the last time I checked to 3.4, but I haven't checked in a couple of days.
It appears that I need to rack it off the fruit now and let it age a while before I do anything more.
 
At 3.4 you would only add acid 'to taste' and I would not do that with a new wine. Wait until you've aged it fully. I mistakenly rushed my first wine, a blueberry wine, into the bottle at 5 months. It was drinkable but when opened the last bottle, at one year it was like a different wine. (It was only a one gallon batch)

So age it and while it's aging, start a few more batches.

Good luck with them all.
 
I'll be sure to do that. It still hasn't stopped bubbling, so this thing wants to go as far down as it can. I'll get it into a secondary in a day or so and set it aside for a while. Thanks again!
 
If your SG is .990 then that bubbling is CO2 - degassing. That could continue for a month or more. Just rack it off the lees and keep a good airlock in place. By the time it's done aging the gas will be gone as well as the 'bite.'
 
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If your SG is .990 then that bubbling is CO2 - degassing. That could continue for a month or more. Just rack it off the lees and keep a good airlock in place. By the time it's done aging the gas will be gone as will the 'bite.'
That makes sense since I disturbed it when taking the gravity reading. I'll rack it today. Thanks!
 

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