Here come the berries

[Mcamnl]

My wife and kids are going out blueberry picking today and are going to get enough for me to try a batch of wine. I have looked at the abundance of recipes but haven't found quite what I am looking for. Can I take my blackberry recipe and just use blueberries instead? The basic recipe looks like this just with blueberries instead. For 6 gallons.

36 lbs of previously frozen and thawed Blackberries
10 1/2 lbs – White Table Sugar
1 – Red Grape Concentrate
1/4 tsp – Liquid Pectic Enzyme or 3tsp powdered
2 tsp – Acid Blend
6 tsp – Yeast Nutrient
1/4 tsp – K-Meta
3 tsp – Yeast Energizer
5 3/4 Gallons – Water
1 Sachet – Lalvin 71B 1122

SG would be adjusted to 1.085 at start. Berries would be saved for f-pac.

 

[Arne]

I have not done either blueberry or blackberry, but it looks to me like it should work. Give it a try and let us know how it goes. Good luck with it, Arne.

 

[captainl]

I think most people are using less blueberries per gallon due to them containing sorbate. Someone on here said you could use 3 lbs per gallon before running into problems. I just made a batch with a little les than 3 lbs per gallon. I also added 1 lb per gallon chopped raisins. Make a yeast starter. I had to add twice the amount of acid blend than I originally figured. It also fermented much slower than normal wines...almost 3 weeks to dry. I also added more nutrient halfway when it started to slow down. It picked it right up. As far as taste goes, its my first blueberry but I am very impressed. I'm not much for fruit wine...I like the bigger reds, but this blueberry was good.

 

[captainl]

I'm thinking ill try to increase the blueberries per gallon next year. But I would anticipate problems and be ready to fix them.

 

[Rodnboro]

Look for jswordy's recipe in the recipe section for Blueberry Bliss. I swapped him for a bottle and it was good. He uses 3lbs. per gallon and adds blueberry flavoring. I have a few more blueberries to pick and then I'll start mine.

 

[SBWs]

I'd use Lalvin K1-v1116 yeast in place of the Lalvin 71B-1122. I've found it works well with blueberries.

http://shellybellywines.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/full-bodied-blueberry/ My Blueberry recipe, derived from a Jack Keller award winning recipe off his blog. It uses steamed juice, I'd say one pint of steamed juice equals about 1 pound of berries. It is very good, I'm having a hard time coming up with blueberries this year, weather (heat) is not making for a good berry year so far. I was hoping to make another batch don't know if it will happen this year unless i break down and buy some berries.

 

[Deezil]

I wrote an article that works well for berries, but basically...

1. Thaw the berries, hit them with Pectic Enzyme
2. Take an acid measurement.
3. Adjust volume (by adding water, grape juice, apple juice, etc) to bring acids into check - you shouldnt need acid blend, unless maybe the berries are waay ripe
4. Measure SG, and adjust (honey, sugar, etc)

What i dont like about recipes is they try to set everything in stone, when the fruit isnt always the same..
You can use the same 4 steps for any flavor - its based on quality > quantity. Want more wine? Find more fruit

I havent actually made a blueberry yet (friggin birds!) so i dont have much input on which yeast to use

My 2 cents

 

[tonyandkory]

We have never made a straight blueberry wine but have made blue polm and black and blue ... never used more than 3lb/gal... you will need something to add body.
Usually add some white grape concentrate also.

Deezil is right ..... follow what the fruit you have dictates