Blueberry Wine - Update! (And Questions)

[MSIMSON]

Greetings community!

Last July, I started my first batch of wine - a 5 gallon blueberry wine from about 20 lbs of blueberries. After about 30 days, in late August 2013 I had finished my secondary fermentation and transferred to my glass carboy for bulk aging.

Before I sealed it up last August, I added K-Meta, Sorbate and a small amount (72 oz) of blueberry concentrate - to sweeten somewhat and increase volume.

I haven't touched the wine in almost 250 days - since August 20th. Now I'm ready (hopefully) to bottle. Here are my questions:

The wine is NOT clear. In fact, it seems quite cloudy. I don't personally have a problem with this, it seems like wine made from actual fruit as opposed to fruit juice kits is more difficult to clear. I haven't added a clearing agent and I don't plan on to. Any problem with it being cloudy after all this time?

Also, do I need to add more K-Meta or Sorbate before I bottle?

What do I do if I want to sweeten the wine?

I've prepared the bottles tonight, they have C-Brite Sanitizer solution in them for the night. I'll give them a thorough rinse tomorrow before bottling though obviously.

Thanks in advance! This has been such a helpful and welcoming community!

 

[GreginND]

You should not need more sorbate but you will want to add more sulfite. It is ok to bottle the wine if it isn't clear if you are not bothered by that. Just know the it will likely drop more sediments in the bottle. You can always try decanting it when you serve it.


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[Julie]

I'm not sure on how fast fruit kits clear but as far as fruit wines, I don't have problems in getting them to clear fairly quickly. My concern with bottling a cloudy wine is it may change the flavor profile as it ages in the bottle. You really should have racked every three months when aging. This helps the wine to clear. Blueberry can be a bear to clear, have you added any pectic enzyme? This may help your wine to clear. I don't mean to criticize you and I apologize but you should never bottle a cloudly wine that is just sloppy.

 

[Turock]

It's not good practice to sorbate cloudy wine, as it can't prevent refermentation when so many yeast cells are present. A cloudy wine is very unstable. Stability comes from removing sediment and unwanted esters that fall free from the wine during the bulk aging process. Getting those things racked off the wine is what gives the wine stability. I would never bottle a cloudy wine.

If you want to try to clear it more, add a dose of pectic enzyme to it and move it to a warmer area if it's in a cool basement. Very often this will encourage clearing in a couple weeks.

 

[MSIMSON]

So I bottles yesterday! I finally opened it up and was pleasantly surprised at how good it tasted! I half expected it to be vinegar but it wasn't!

I added one campden tablet to ward off bacteria and bottled it up! (I only added one because I have no way of measuring my SO2 level and didn't want it to get too high.) I ended up with 22 bottles in total. (21 left, now haha!)

It was a little more tart than I was hoping for but it I still really like it. Brought it to Easter dinner and the family liked it too!

Bottles are currently in my basement to age some more (on the sides.)

Thanks so much for your help everyone!

 

[Chilled]

I believe it is recommended to keep the bottles upright for 2 to 5 days after bottling. This lets the cork expand and seal properly before laying the bottles on their side.
Tons of very good info on this forum.