Newbie tries to make Blueberry Wine

[Vaughn]

Okay, I'm gonna try it. I'm going to try to make a fruit wine.

I got all the ingredients I need to make a gallon of wine. But before I get started, I need to ask you experts out there a few questions...


1. Crushing - I have had my blueberries in the freezer for a week. After they thaw, what is the prefered method to crush? Would a blender be okay to use?


2. Camden - I don't have camden tablets, but I do have Pot-meta. What would be the equivalent amount of Pot-meta tomake one camdentablet?


3. What is the conversion of Pounds of sugar to volume? In other words, I don't have a scale, so howdo I use my measuring cups to get 1.75 pounds of sugar?


4. I think I understand the acid testing. Exactly when do I do the acid test? Before the yeast?


5. The recipe I have does not mention a starting SG. What would you recommend?


6. Would you recommend heating my ingredients together to aid in disolving sugar and extracting juice from the berries?


Thanks for the help! I will try to post pictures so you can see if I am doing things right (besides, if my wife knows the pictures will be posted on the web, she will clean so that none of you think that we have a messy house.)

 

[masta]

Here is a link to a great newsletter article that will answer most of your questions...read down to the Featured Article:


http://www.finevinewines.com/April_2005.htm


1 cup of granulated sugar equals 8 oz

 

[Joseph1]

1. Crushing – Far too many years have passed since I last made blueberry wine. At that time I used a potato masher. Since you are not dealing with seeds, I would think a blender would work fine. The goal of crushing is to break the berry and release the juice, freezing will have done some of that for you.<?amespace prefix = o ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />

2. Campden – 1/16 teaspoon of metabisulfite is about equivalent to one campden tablet. Personally, I prefer using a 10% sulfite solution when dealing with small quantities.

3. Sugar – 2 ¼ cups of sugar is about one pound. 2 level tablespoons is about one ounce.

4. Acid – Test before adding yeast. I have always balanced the must before adding metabisulfite (Campden) and the yeast.

5. SG – A starting SG of 1.090 to 1.095 will result in an alcohol content of 12% – 13%. If your goal is to have a sweet blueberry wine the starting SG can be higher.

6. Heating – I would heat some of the water being added to the must and dissolve the sugar in it to create a syrup. I would not heat the other ingredients.

Remember to use pectic enzyme. It will aid the transfer of fruit flavor and color and help the clearing process. Blueberry can sometimes be difficult to clear and sometimes it will clear without a problem.
As I had indicated, it has been a long time since I made blueberry wine. Other Forum members, with more experience, may have better suggestions. I really should make another blueberry wine; my notes indicate that my last one was very good. I look forward to your pictures.

 

[AAASTINKIE]

My first blueberry wine is documented here:


http://www.finevinewines.com/wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2 61&amp;PN=1



or look under wine photos, AAA’s Blueberry wine ( READ ONLY PLEASE)

Edited by: AAASTINKIE

 

[Vaughn]

An update on the blueberry wine...


I started at about SG 1.090, now, 6 days later, I'm at SG 1.030. The fermentation seems to be going at a snail's pace, but I figure I'm just used to seeing 6 gallons of must churning out CO2. At day 6, things were going VERY slow. So, I put a little energizer in the must, pulled out the bag of spent berries (looked and felt like used coffee grounds), and whipped it up a little using a steal wire egg beater (to get a little Oxygen in the mix). That got things going again.


Would it be okay to transfer this to the secondary at this point?


Edited by: HollowOakWine

 

[MedPretzel]

I'd wait a couple of days at least to see what your energizer is doing. Just as a precaution, you know. I'd hate for it to foam all over the neck of the carboy and lose your precious wine!

 

[Hippie]

I agree with Martina. Also, since you took out the fruit pulp, (good idea) you can leave it covered and airlocked in the bucket and wait to rack at about SG 1.010-1.000. Good job!

 

[MedPretzel]

Mr. Hippie,





I believe your name now allows you to have that John Lennon Avatar again...

 

[Hippie]

LMAO.

Granted, Grasshopper.

 

[MedPretzel]

LMAO.

Granted, Grasshopper.

Too bad you can't hug people on the internet!!!!

Thank you Senior Grasshoppah (aka Mr. Lennon)!!!

 

[MedPretzel]

Well, I started my 5 gallons of blueberry wine today. Uff, in 92 degree weather, the 78 degree basement felt so good.

So much for my "cutting down the amount of wines" I'm making.

I posted the recipe in the recipe section.





I added all the ingredients except for the yeast, and am letting it sit overnight before I add it. It smells pretty good!





Pictures to follow (probably tomorrow).

Edited by: MedPretzel

 

[Vaughn]

I started this topic, I guess I better update it.


Thanks to everyone that gave advice and pointers on the blueberry wine. I have stablized my gallon of wine and it's clearing...slowly. As a matter of fact, the wine has moved very slowly. Fermentation from July 9th to July 30th (from SG 1.08 to SG 1.00) seemed to take forever. However, I small taste has proven to me that my patience (what little I have) has paid off. As a matter of fact, I like the dry form of this so much, I don't think I want to add the grape-juice concentrate as the recipe calls for. If I do decide to do this, can I assume that all I need to do is wait for it to clear and bottle?

 

[Hippie]

If you do add the concentrate, stabilize with sulphite and sorbate. If you do not add it, you still need to stabilize with sulphite. If the wine is holding at 1.000, use both. Yep, after stabilized, just use that hard-earned lesson, patience, and let it clear and degass and then you can bottle in a few months.


Good job!