Blueberry wine

I never make blueberry wine- as they are expensive and not easy to find around here! But I did get a few last weekend and I will have enough to make only one gallon of wine. Here's what I'm going to do:

Blueberry Wine
8/29/13

3 pounds blueberries
1.5- 2 pounds sugar
½ teaspoon acid blend
½ teaspoon pectic enzyme
½ teaspoon yeast nutrient
1 campden tablet
pinch tannin (more if needed)
wine yeast

Freeze berries, then put (still frozen) into sanitized mesh bag and place in primary. Dissolve 1.5 pounds of sugar in approx ½ gallon boiling water, cool slightly, and pour over berries. Dissolve 1 campden tablet into a little (1/4 cup) boiling water and pour that in as well and stir well.
Add the acid blend and yeast nutrient, with a pinch of powdered wine tannin. Check the OG and add more sugar if needed. Wait 12 hours, and add the pectic enzyme. Wait another 12 hours, and then add the yeast. (I will be using montrachet, as that is what I have right now until I get to a homebrew store!).

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I want to get an OG of 1.085-1.090. I'm going to make this up today, so if anybody sees any glaring flaws or omissions, please let me know!

I'd also add some yeast nutrient and possibly some yeast energizer mid ferment about 1.03-1.04, blueberries are sticky sometimes around that mark kinda like cranberries.

I'm sure you know all this...

I use Lavlin 1116 with blueberries and it seems to do a good job.

Oh, yes, definitely yeast nutrient! I thought it was on the recipe, but I usually add it to all musts even if it's not listed specifically.

It is on there, I was just suggesting to add some additional during the fermentation around 1.03-1.04 to help the yeast along.

Heavywalker said:

It is on there, I was just suggesting to add some additional during the fermentation around 1.03-1.04 to help the yeast along.

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Oh, gotcha! I've never had blueberry stick on me before, but I'll definitely keep an eye on that and add some nutrients if it does. Like I said, I rarely make it as blueberries are generally pretty scarce around here but I do have some this year. :rockin:

Montrachet? Ugh.

I'd overnight you some 71b-1122 or D47 if I thought it would actually get there overnight.

Yooper, do u plan on back sweetening at all? I've been looking for a good blueberry wine to make my dad although he likes it sweeter as opposed to dry.

Pratzie check out torani.com. Their syrups are all natural and really good.

Pratzie said:

Yooper, do u plan on back sweetening at all? I've been looking for a good blueberry wine to make my dad although he likes it sweeter as opposed to dry.

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For me, no. I use sugar for fermentation, but I don't eat sugar or honey or other sweeteners in my food/drink. Once it ferments out, and it's totally dry, I keep my wines as dry table wines (meads and ciders, too). Unless I'm giving it as a give, all of my wines are bone dry.

It'd be easy to stabilize and sweeten a fruit wine like this, though.

Oh, and AZ- the montrachet will be ok. I promise!

I like my wines dry as well, all of them. What I have started to do is keep a bottle of simple syrup in the fridge, If someone wants some blackberry wine or whatever sweet I simply take the bottle of simple syrup out of the fridge and put a little in their glass, instant sweet wine and I don't have to suffer through what they don't drink.

Are you gonna crush berries or just freeze and leave whole?

Im inspired. I havent made wine yet. Bluberries are my favorite. And right now a Pick your own blueberry farm sounds good right about now. Blueberry wine or a blueberry melomel which ever I get to first. Interested in how this turns out. Just my two cents and know nothing about making wine yet-Ive been on to mead/melomels and on my way to wine possilby(my wife likes em alot-the sweeter ones though),thought I seen a comment about how some grape juice concentrate works better some how with it-Im real hazy on that memory though,but due to you using sugar maybe that makes up for it. I was searching bluberry threads the other day.

GeorgiaMead said:

Are you gonna crush berries or just freeze and leave whole?

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They were frozen whole. I'll thaw right in the primary.

jonmohno said:

Im inspired. I havent made wine yet. Bluberries are my favorite. And right now a Pick your own blueberry farm sounds good right about now. Blueberry wine or a blueberry melomel which ever I get to first. Interested in how this turns out. Just my two cents and know nothing about making wine yet-Ive been on to mead/melomels and on my way to wine possilby(my wife likes em alot-the sweeter ones though),thought I seen a comment about how some grape juice concentrate works better some how with it-Im real hazy on that memory though,but due to you using sugar maybe that makes up for it. I was searching bluberry threads the other day.

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I use grape concentrate sometimes- it really does provide more body and rich flavor. I just don't have any right now, plus I wanted to do an all-blueberry wine.

I ended up not making this yesterday- I wasn't feeling really great yesterday afternoon. We had company that had just left and I just couldn't muster the energy to do it. I'll get it going by Sunday though! (Working today).

Ok I was just wondering how that will work I've never seen a blue berry done with whole berries.

Just finished bottling 5 gallons, and that is almost identical to the recipe I use. the only difference is that I like to add a bit of lemon juice as well, I find it brings out the blueberry flavor more. and the Lavlin k1v- 1116 is the yeast that I use.

Hey Yooper. I ended up making a 1 gal batch of blueberry melomel and blackberry wine. It was based off of this but I did not use campden. I used frozen commercial blackberrys and blueberries. I did 4# per gallon although I think I got more than a gallon each-which will work out when I rack it to my gallon fermenter. I added sugars to get to a gravity of about 1.09 for each. I forgot or cant find my pectin enzym I bought. Is it ok to add it later? Ive heard you dont really need it unless you heat your fruit anyway but am going to add some anyway if it wont hurt to add it later.

Also when using fruit, I did end up using a strainer bag to contain the pulp to avoid complications when racking. Am I ok to pour it into a gallon glass jar with strainer/funnel or would I need to rack to avoid aeration,I plan on doing this around a week so it should be mostly fermented maybe. I basically have both of these in my boil pots with lids on with weights on top of them,which I will stir every day during ferment. Well I changed that,and I have a cloth over both of the pots with belts tight around them to keep any bugs out and to let it breathe.

These batches smell awesome by the way. The blackberry aroma actually reminds me of some good hops. I tasted those before thawing and they were pretty tart (and did notice I had to add more sugar to get to my OG) and not really sweet at all but the blueberries were kinda sweet so Im thinking probably not adding acid blend until bottleing if it needs it-this generally how winemakers go about it?
Also I did not get tannin, should I get some and add it later or am I ok since I used whole frozen fruit?

jonmohno said:

Hey Yooper. I ended up making a 1 gal batch of blueberry melomel and blackberry wine. It was based off of this but I did not use campden. I used frozen commercial blackberrys and blueberries. I did 4# per gallon although I think I got more than a gallon each-which will work out when I rack it to my gallon fermenter. I added sugars to get to a gravity of about 1.09 for each. I forgot or cant find my pectin enzym I bought. Is it ok to add it later? Ive heard you dont really need it unless you heat your fruit anyway but am going to add some anyway if it wont hurt to add it later.

Also when using fruit, I did end up using a strainer bag to contain the pulp to avoid complications when racking. Am I ok to pour it into a gallon glass jar with strainer/funnel or would I need to rack to avoid aeration,I plan on doing this around a week so it should be mostly fermented maybe. I basically have both of these in my boil pots with lids on with weights on top of them,which I will stir every day during ferment.

These batches smell awesome by the way. The blackberry aroma actually reminds me of some good hops. I tasted those before thawing and they were pretty tart (and did notice I had to add more sugar to get to my OG) and not really sweet at all but the blueberries were kinda sweet so Im thinking probably not adding acid blend until bottleing if it needs it-this generally how winemakers go about it?
Also I did not get tannin, should I get some and add it later or am I ok since I used whole frozen fruit?

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You can add the pectic enzyme later, if you need it. It does help with juice extraction early, but it will still clear a pectin haze if you have one later on.

I made blackberry wine this weekend, as well. I think I might do a couple bottles of a blend when I go to bottle them- a "Black and Blue" wine sounds great.

You may or may not want tannin. It provides a "bite" to wines, and sometimes it gives it that certain something that takes a very good wine to excellent wine. Sometimes, it wouldn't "go" with the wine. It can be added later, to taste, if needed and so can acid blend if the wine needs some acid when done.

Uhhhh.... I was a little in over my head when making this I think. I ended up with almost 2 gallons each of my bluberry melomel(Im going to consider it a wine because 1.5 ish pound per gal. of honey may not qualify much for a melomel, plus added sugar to reach my gravity, and corn/raw sugar blackberry wine. I used 4# frozen fruit each, today only 2-3 days of ferment I reached 1.020 gravity, I squeezed out fruit from the pots so I could transfer to my glass carboys I ended up putting all of my blueberry in my 2 1 gal carboys,and my blackberry in my 3 gallon. Almost 2 gallons each for primary strained somewhat loosley.

It smelled kinda farty by the way-during ferment,that normal? Sample now actually tasted really good. Since I ended up more volume, should I encorporate more fruit in each? And how? This montarachet yeast is really going crazy right now. I just dont want a weak fruit flavor or make bad wine since I ended up with more volume- I did get gravitys of 1.088 and 1.09. I would like to puree fruit and rack but dont know if it would settle and it may be hard to add fruit puree in carboys? Should I just leave it? I mean, it takes a year so I just dont want to make poor choices for such a long term thing. And I would like to make a good fruit wine. Oh and I did add 12 oz of frozen grape juice concentrate to each also in the beginning. I was initallly going for a fruit pyment but using organic grape juice concentrate ( probably not comparable to the good wine grapes?) may not be the best approach maybe,not shure about that just yet. Should I consider buying those canned grapewine concentrates at homebrew shops for future wines/pyments? I think I could be ok mashing some grapes(not shure what kind) maybe sometime and getting a good start on the yeast without sulfiting maybe.

Goofynewfie said:

Just finished bottling 5 gallons, and that is almost identical to the recipe I use. the only difference is that I like to add a bit of lemon juice as well, I find it brings out the blueberry flavor more. and the Lavlin k1v- 1116 is the yeast that I use.

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Is it almost identical to your recipe as in multiplied by 5 or does yours also have ingredient changes? I am asking because I want to do a 5 gallon batch of this on Friday.

I woild scale evrything up for 5g, except the acid blend, I like to use some lemon juice instead. When I backsweeten I use 3 parts blueberry juice/1 part apple juice

jonmohno said:

Uhhhh.... I was a little in over my head when making this I think. I ended up with almost 2 gallons each of my bluberry melomel(Im going to consider it a wine because 1.5 ish pound per gal. of honey may not qualify much for a melomel, plus added sugar to reach my gravity,blackberry wine. I used 4# frozen fruit each, today only 2-3 days of ferment I reached 1.020 gravity, I squeezed out fruit from the pots so I could transfer to my glass carboys I ended up putting all of my blueberry in my 2 1 gal carboys,and my blackberry in my 3 gallon. Almost 2 gallons each for primary strained somewhat loosley.

It smelled kinda farty by the way-during ferment,that normal? Sample now actually tasted really good. Since I ended up more volume, should I encorporate more fruit in each? And how? This montarachet yeast is really going crazy right now. I just dont want a weak fruit flavor or make bad wine since I ended up with more volume- I did get gravitys of 1.088 and 1.09. I would like to puree fruit and rack but dont know if it would settle and it may be hard to add fruit puree in carboys? Should I just leave it? I mean, it takes a year so I just dont want to make poor choices for such a long term thing. And I would like to make a good fruit wine. Oh and I did add 12 oz of frozen grape juice concentrate to each also in the beginning. I was initallly going for a fruit pyment but using organic grape juice concentrate ( probably not comparable to the good wine grapes?) may not be the best approach maybe,not shure about that just yet. Should I consider buying those canned grapewine concentrates at homebrew shops for future wines/pyments? I think I could be ok mashing some grapes(not shure what kind) maybe sometime and getting a good start on the yeast without sulfiting maybe.

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It sounds like you have plenty of fruit in there, if I understand you right. I like grape wine concentrates (they have white and red) because they give fullness and richness to the wine, along fermentables.