Blueberry wine

[Bowine]

After tasting my first ever gallon of homemade wine and realizing I could actually do it and it was DRINKABLE, I proceeded to start 4 gallons more. That's 4 individual gallons. Strawberry, blueberry, mixed berry, and apple (again). they took off great, and are fermenting well. That is , except the blueberry. I dont see any signs of fermenting and its been 48 hours since I pitched my yeast. Ph was good. (down the middle) Should I retry with more yeast or am I being too impatient?

Edited by: Bowine

 

[masta]

Blueberry can be tough to get started and is a slow fermenter. I have never made a blueberry but from past posts I know plenty of oxygen and yeast nutrient and energizer is needed.


There are many past posts on this topic and please try a search and you will find plenty of reading on the subject.


Search

 

[Bowine]

Thank you . I will.

 

[Waldo]

What was your starting SG Bowine? Must Temp? What yeast did you use? I would recommend giving it a couple more days and check your SG again. If it hasn't changed I would make a good starter, let it work for a couple of days and then add it to your primary. make sure you use a little nutrient in your starter too.

 

[Bowine]

Starting sg was 1.170,and the temperature was 70 degrees. Used K1V116
yeast. Thank you for the advice. I'm new at this, and can use all the
help I can get.Edited by: Bowine

 

[Bowine]

Thanks Waldo ! The starter worked. It's slow, but is</span> fermenting. I think I used too much sugar in my recipe, and my s.g. was too high . Its down to 1.14 now. Again , thanks.

 

[pkcook]

Bowine,


With a starting SG of 1.170 this will likely produce avery sweet wine with lots of residual sugar and a high alcohol content (depending on your choice of yeast).The calculator I use shows with this starting SG finishing out at SG1.000 will produce 23.1% by volume. Wow! Most strains of yeast I have used or read about will max out at about 18%. With a finishing SG of 1.040 (very sweet) you will have about 17/18% alcohol by volume.


Keep us posted on the progress and good luck.

 

[Bowine]

The blueberry is in the secondary now. I discovered one problem when I
racked it. I was well short of a gallon. That would explain the high
s.g. I topped off and the fermentation took off. I had to sit with it,
because I was afraid it was going to get into the airlock. I guess as a
beginner, I will make a lot of mistakes. Thanks to everyone for your
advice. The other wines are doing great. I'm addicted (almost
obsessed) with wine-making.

My fiancee' says I am</span> obsessed. Oh well, she doesn't mind too much. She loves wine too, and enjoys helping me.

 

[MedPretzel]

good job, bowine.

Blueberry takes quite a long time to age when the SG is high (you will know when you taste your wine when it is "finished" as it will be what we call "hot.").


If you are daring: You might consider taking out 1/2 gallon, dilute it, and top up your secondary with the dilution. I'm not sure what your SG is now, after it has been fermenting for a while, but you might get a nice 1/2 gallon batch of quicker-drink wine than your original, large batch.


I have about 25 bottles bottled from August (circa), and they are hot as the dickens. I wanted to call it "Rocket Man Fuel" for a long while because of it, but after 1/2 year in the bottle, it shows signs of mellowing out a little. Mine started out at 1.100 and ended to ferment to dryness. I did not add sugar to sweeten it up.


You can see the tasting notes on www.mywinerecipes.com and search for "Blueberry-Black" under the Wine Names field. Perhaps you could enter in your wine recipes there too, so that we all can make them!

 

[Bowine]

I'll try to dilute it as you suggested. This was supposed to be a
dessert wine, and I dont want the alcohol content to be too high.
By the way. does "hot" mean high alcohol, or are you referring
to taste?

 

[MedPretzel]

taste. The higher the the alcohol, the higher the "hotness" (imagine drinkingmoonshine).





I warn you, though, Bo, that this is sort of a daring suggestion.


You've been fermenting 2 weeks, and the SG is currently probably close to 0.990, I can imagine.


Don't worry about it now, but for the next blueberry you make, keep the SG at 1.080 at most and ferment to dryness (SG 0.990). Then sweeten.





The dilution might be a good thing for 1/2 gallon, or you could try the "add a similar wine to top up" method. For that I would choose a nice chardonnay or even a cheapo livingston wine. I usually choose white wines to do my topping up with, but you might want to consider a cab-sav or merlot.





Anyone else have some suggestions?





What's the SG at the moment?





M.

 

[Bowine]

The s.g. is 1.030. ( I just checked) It is still very sweet
, but has a bite to it. I'll let it finish and work from there. Topping
with other wines sounds better to me. Thank you for your help!

 

[Fruit n Nut]

Bownie,


Give the Blueberry a shot of nutrient it may just give an added push towards the end of fermentation afterall those yeasties could do with a feed, they must be knackered getting your wine down from 1.170 to 1030 a gravitydrop of 140( 19.02%)

 

[Bowine]

Good idea. I'll do it. Thanks

 

[Curt]

Bowine,


If you have an old past ripe nasty banana in the freezer waiting to be made into banana bread thaw it out, squish it up and add it to your wine. Bananas are a favorite of the yeasty beasties.