Blueberry wine

[JimmyT]

Hey everyone, I'm going to be starting a blueberry wine soon and looking for some pointers. I've looked through the recipe section and nothing really appealed to me. Most of the recipes call for adding water and so far I've been using all juice from the fruit. I was recently given 50lbs of blueberries that are busy being frozen! I was wondering how many pounds per gallon is typically used? Any acid issues with blueberries? Clearing issues? Yeast recommendations?
I was also thinking about saving back some berries to make an fpack. How much should I save back for that? Thanks in advance!!!!

 

[cdevrard]

Hey Jimmy,

I currently have a blueberry-dragon blood variant going on right now, and did another straight blueberry batch a while back.

The straight blueberry was GOOD. I used 2 lbs. fruit per gallon and got a really nice bb flavor. I'll probably step that up on the next batch to 3 lb per gallon though. My starting SG was way too high @ 1.110 (hey I was a noob) and I did get it to go almost dry. In fact I didn't backsweeten at all. The rec'p called for red grape concentrate at bottling. I skipped it.

The DB-BB is still perkin' but is tastes great. My acid was too high though, be careful if you go that route.

BB can be hard to ferment. I'd recommend making a yeast starter to ensure a robust start.

Good luck!

CE

 

[GreginND]

For a straight blueberry wine I aim for 4-6 pounds of fruit per gallon. Blueberry has quite a bit of flavor, so you don't need pure juice IMHO.

 

[JimmyT]

I was thinking about going the dragons blood variant but my wife isn't too big on the tartness of the dragons blood. That's what is pushing me to a straight blueberry.

Greg, do you back sweeten yours at 5-6 lbs/per gal with an fpack or just sugar? Or at all? Also which yeast would you recommend? I just picked up a few packs of QA23 and was thinking about using one of those. I just used it on a dragons blood/dragonet variant and it worked well throughout the ferment.

 

[Nancii]

Interesting thread. I also have a small bag of blueberries waiting for me to do something with them. I bought a 1 gallon kit to play around with recipes and ideas, I'm thinking about using that. I don't have anywhere near 50 lbs!

 

[Bergmann]

Ok, Ok No disrespect to danger Dave, But dragon blood is a skeeter pee variant. Since dragon blood already has blueberries in it, how does one make a blueberry variant of dragon blood. A blueberry variation of sheeter pee, yes, Deagon blood No. Again No disrespect to Dave, but the fellow who devises sheeter pee deserves his due also.

Blueberry wine is by far one of the best I my humble opinion. It can at times be quite acidic depending on the crop. Straight blueberry juice is totally unnecessary. As it really does not enhance the flavor but does the acidity. I have found that a target of 5 pounds per gallon seems to produce the best overall results.

 

[cdevrard]

Ok, Ok No disrespect to danger Dave, But dragon blood is a skeeter pee variant. Since dragon blood already has blueberries in it, how does one make a blueberry variant of dragon blood. A blueberry variation of sheeter pee, yes, Deagon blood No. Again No disrespect to Dave, but the fellow who devises sheeter pee deserves his due also.

Blueberry wine is by far one of the best I my humble opinion. It can at times be quite acidic depending on the crop. Straight blueberry juice is totally unnecessary. As it really does not enhance the flavor but does the acidity. I have found that a target of 5 pounds per gallon seems to produce the best overall results.

My bad. I didn't think Skeeter Pee had any fruit in it, but then is is a long time since I read that thread. And I have never made a straight up SP. I want to though. Totally understand your point . SP was first!

To the OP, the tartness that you taste in your DB may abate over time. How long did you age it? I know mind mellowed out over a few months. Anyhow good luck on your BB batch and keep us informed on how it goes. Loves me some BB!

 

[JimmyT]

My current batch of db is 4 months old right now. I originally racked down from a 6 gal carboy to a 5 gal and bottled 5 bottles. To tart for me as well at that point. At 3 months I racked down to a 3 gal, a 1 gal and bottled 5 more bottles. I back sweetened the 1 gal jug up to 1.025 from the original 1.010 and it's really sweet but very good to me but my wife claims it's still has to much of a tart edge for her. I just think the lemon aftertaste is putting a weird taste in her mouth or something.

 

[JimmyT]

Another quick question, does anyone add oak to there blueberry and if so what kind? And how much is a good starting point?

 

[ceeaton]

My current batch of db is 4 months old right now. I originally racked down from a 6 gal carboy to a 5 gal and bottled 5 bottles. To tart for me as well at that point. At 3 months I racked down to a 3 gal, a 1 gal and bottled 5 more bottles. I back sweetened the 1 gal jug up to 1.025 from the original 1.010 and it's really sweet but very good to me but my wife claims it's still has to much of a tart edge for her. I just think the lemon aftertaste is putting a weird taste in her mouth or something.

JimmyT - Made a DB 12-01-14 and until a month ago, I noticed the lemon edge was a little too much. Then, after bottling it, it's really mellowed out and the lemon isn't the predominate taste (made with frozen quad berry mix). It is only back sweetened to 1.006. Next time I'll back the real lemon off to 24 oz or so, and double the berry mix (thinking of blueberry instead of quad berry) and add more tannins for mouth feel.

As far as oak goes in a blueberry, I made a 3 gallon batch and would also love to know what kind and how much oak to try adding. Has been bulk aging for about a month at this point.

Craig

 

[homesteader26]

Would love to see a straight blueberry recipe as well ... I think that was the original thought .... Lots of blueberries #50. I will have access soon to a lg supply of them and am in search of a good recipe to use as well.

 

[JimmyT]

Well I forced my own hand with trying to do a 6 gallon batch with 5lbs per gal. I took 35lbs and set them out to thaw in the bags they were in when I realized "holy crap that's a lot of fruit". I took all the bags and stacked them into my 7.9gal fermenter and realized that I need a bigger bucket when I hit 30lbs and it was already to the top of the bucket. I already wanted to get a 20 brute but wasn't planning on getting one until I planned out a triple batch off something else first. I searched lowes and Home Depot and luckily my local Home Depot had 9 in stock so I picked one up. I ended up just doing all 50lbs since I had enough room for it all now. It's terrible my 6 gallon batch turned into a 10!!!!!
I ended up adding 1.5oz of French oak powder, and 3 cans of grape concentrate. This batch smells and taste absolutely amazing right now. I hope the final product is remotely close to the starting product.
I took 2 or 3 recipes and made my own from that. My starting sg was 1.086 and pH was 3.3 after adding 3tsp of acid blend. Hopefully it's balanced since I didn't use as much acid blend as the recipes called for but went with what the pH meter said and my taste buds. It doesn't have an acid bite but is really smooth so hopefully I don't have a flabby wine when it's done. I'll keep you updated on how it turns out!

 

[sour_grapes]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gciFoEbOA8"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gciFoEbOA8[/ame]

 

[ramsis23]

I've added hugarian oak cubes in the secondary for a blueberry. It turned out fairly well and would do it again.

 

[wineforfun]

My bad. I didn't think Skeeter Pee had any fruit in it,

SP doesn't have fruit in it, hence the name "pee". It is made with just the lemon juice. Now you can make variations of it using fruit, but that is not what the original recipe is.

And yes, Dave took Lon's recipe and tweaked it to make Dragon Blood. Dave has never said otherwise and in numerous posts makes sure to give Lon credit and tells others to do the same.

 

[ceeaton]

I've added hugarian oak cubes in the secondary for a blueberry. It turned out fairly well and would do it again.

How long did you leave them in? Did you just do it by taste? I've read here that the oak tends to fade over time in the bottle, is it best to over-oak and just possibly have to age over a longer period of time? Thanks, Craig.

 

[homesteader26]

Sourgrapes that was a good one!
Good luck with your big batch! I can't wait for the blueberries here to be ready - so many plans with fresh fruit but we need winter to end!!

 

[Turock]

I've had blueberry wine made with all fruit and very little water addition--it didn't even taste like blueberry. There are some fruit wines that NEED the water dilution, and blueberry is one of them.

 

[ramsis23]

Memory serves, I had them in the secondary for about a month. I then bulk aged it for about 5-6 months. It did start out over oaked but quickly mellowed in flavor. I really enjoyed it. I also back sweetened a bit to bring out the blueberry flavor. Normally I prefer mine dry, but this needed a bit to bring out the flavor.

 

[ceeaton]

Hmmm, sounds like a good plan. I was planning on ageing it until at least the end of summer, so some oak until I can taste it a little too much then 5 or 6 months in bulk, then back sweeten and bottle. Am I jumping the gun thinking it might be drinkable by December? (It's a 2:1 Niagara:Concord base w/3 lbs blueberries per gallon, plan to sweeten with RW Knudsen "Just Blueberry" juice and simple syrup if necessary)