mixed berry

[Medieval]

Hi All,
My first all fruit wine

17 pounds mixed berries

8 pounds blueberries
9 pounds of mixed berries (blackberry, strawberry, rasberry)

I'm trying to stretch this to 5 gallons but 17 pounds of fruit from many recipes doesn't seem to be enough (or is it) as some blueberry recipes from jack keller only used 2lb of blueberry per gallon.
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request108.asp

I used two cheesecloth bags one with 8 pound blueberry other with the 9 pounds of mixed berry. 96oz apple juice and 64 oz concord grape no preservatives juice. Letting it sit in bucket for 24 hours with pectin enzym.

Thats what I have right now, it's somewhat based off of jack kellers mixed berry recipe here (except I used concord grape juice and less amount of apple juice so far)
Mixed Berry
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request229.asp

He used some grapes and couple other berries so I replaced his grapes with concord juice.

The recipe calls for citric acid but I only have acid blend and because I can't measure PH I don't have any idea what the PH would be with these specific berries.

I have a couple questions that maybe the more expirenced with fruit wine.

1) How do you think this will taste and should I add some water or more juice to get 5 gallons.

2) Can I replace acid blend with citric acid without altering the other types of acids or should I just ommit the acid all together.

 

[Tom]

Hi All,
My first all fruit wine

17 pounds mixed berries

8 pounds blueberries
9 pounds of mixed berries (blackberry, strawberry, rasberry)

I'm trying to stretch this to 5 gallons but 17 pounds of fruit from many recipes doesn't seem to be enough (or is it) as some blueberry recipes from jack keller only used 2lb of blueberry per gallon.
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request108.asp

I used two cheesecloth bags one with 8 pound blueberry other with the 9 pounds of mixed berry. 96oz apple juice and 64 oz concord grape no preservatives juice. Letting it sit in bucket for 24 hours with pectin enzym.

Thats what I have right now, it's somewhat based off of jack kellers mixed berry recipe here (except I used concord grape juice and less amount of apple juice so far)
Mixed Berry
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request229.asp

He used some grapes and couple other berries so I replaced his grapes with concord juice.

The recipe calls for citric acid but I only have acid blend and because I can't measure PH I don't have any idea what the PH would be with these specific berries.

I have a couple questions that maybe the more expirenced with fruit wine.

1) How do you think this will taste and should I add some water or more juice to get 5 gallons.

2) Can I replace acid blend with citric acid without altering the other types of acids or should I just ommit the acid all together.

1. 17# for 5 gal is very low I would add10# more. Figure 6# per gal PLUS more for a f-pac

2. What is the starting gravity?

3. did you do a TA test?

4 never add acid blend without testing 1st

5. acid blend is different than citric acid..

6. I would add 2# of raisins for "body"

7 how far into fermentation are you?

 

[Tom]

BW,

You will need 2 fermenting buckets. This will not fit in 1 bucket

 

[Medieval]

Hi Tom,

I didn't start fermentation yet or add any sugar at this point it's sitting for about 12 hours in just the fruit, 96oz apple juice and 64 oz concord juice. I'll take SG reading before adding any sugar when the berries break down a little because they were frozen.

 

[Medieval]

I should have just made the blueberry recipe..... Kicks self

Thats what I have so far.. What type of raisins do you recommend?

 

[CrashPat]

I Disagree with Tom on a few counts, it is you first wine after all, I think you should keep it simple.

I've made a few wines that are similar to this in the past few years. I'm not a pro by any means, but I would consider this:

In my batches, blueberry always gives a certain 'sweetness' to the wine, blackberry is a very mellow flavor, and raspberry is tart. Strawberry is a weakness, but I think you will be OK ignoring it, especially with the apple and grape juices.

I prefer my wine dry, with the exception of Pomegranate which I prefer sweet. All others I drink dry (including the blue/razz/black I made 2 years ago), so this is going from that:

Use a yeast similar to Montrachet or Lalvin ICV K1V-1116
Add a tablespoon of acid blend. I think you can use citric or tartaric, or whatever. I don't think it matters, you already have a mix of fruit. The blend should be perfect.

Water this to to 5 gallons. Add sugar to 1.085. If you do not have a hydrometer, buy one. You cannot guess with fruit.

Relax, have a homebrew. Or a microbrew. In 2 weeks, rack. Again in a month. Let sit for 4 months, bottle. Drink, be merry.

Don't bother with F-Pack, I'm not a fan of sweetening fruit wine generally, I prefer to make it taste good before adding a bunch of sugars, and I can make more if I don't need to boil a bunch of fruit.