Monkeyhead
Junior
Starting a new hobby. When I moved into my house in 2014, there was already a rabbit eye blueberry bush approximately 30 years old according to my neighbor. I harvest nearly 50 plus pounds of blueberries annually. I could get more, but I is only me harvesting. I also planted raspberry bushes, blackberry bushes, strawberry plants and a cherry tree. I started canning my own jams, and I just have way too much fruit, so this year I started to make my own wine. I am on my first batch of blueberry wine with a recipe from a guy who does YouTube videos. It didn’t start fermenting so I started searching the web, watched videos and went to a brew store miles away. I ended up diluting the mist and apparently theat kicked the yeast into gear. I guess making a desert wine with 15% ABV was not in the works. Still learning and getting educated with all the posts and questions. Now I need to make or buy a wine rack for all this frozen fruit I have on hand. hahaha. I will have many questions soon to come, so please don’t be annoyed. Thank you and looking forward to meeting new friends.
, and that said, not at all certain that country wines (wines made from fruit other than wine grapes) really support alcohol levels around 15% ABV. There are many "secrets" about wine making and one is balance. You want the intensity of flavor from the fruit to be balanced with perceived sweetness, acidity, tannin, mouthfeel (viscosity) and the heat from the alcohol. Much above 12-13% ABV tends to dominate the flavor profile of most fruits and given that most country wines use a great deal of water to dilute the flavors, it really is a challenge to make a higher ABV wine. Drink an other glass rather than make an out of balance wine.
