Making Blueberry Wine with 2x the reccommend berries?

So, I have access to a Blueberry "Orchard". They are hooking me up with 60lbs of berries, to make wine, and split half and half.

I was intending to make a medium-heavy blueberry wine with 6lbs of berries per gallon (a 10 gallon batch). However, I've read that this may be too much!
Most recipies call for 3lbs a gallon. Could I use 6 lbs?

Will it be too acidic/not start/not taste good, etc?
Why wouldn't I want to use more?

Thanks!

I'd stick with the recipes and double the volume

If you do use 6 lbs per gallon, consider making a seconds wine, and possibly a third as well (reusing the pulp for additional batches). IIRC my last blueberry was 5 lb/gal, I made a seconds with some Welch's concord, and the pulp still had plenty of flavor.

But at those weights, don't forget to figure in the water content of your berries, I think about 85% by weight is pretty close.

OK! So, how did your 5#/gallon turn out? With the extra volume I'll make to account for racking losses, I'll be at around 5#/gallon (plus we will probably skim some off for eating!)

Did you have significant issues getting it to start?

I could do seconds...I have some Rhubarb. Mmmm....Blubarb!

No issues getting it to start and/or finish. Initial tastes are fantastic, should be in bottles today if life doesn't get in the way. Just remember to squeeze the heck out of your fruit bags every day, flip them over, punch them down, etc.

And bluebarb...I like the way you think!

You're going to bottle on the fourth day?

lukebuz said:

So, I have access to a Blueberry "Orchard". They are hooking me up with 60lbs of berries, to make wine, and split half and half.

I was intending to make a medium-heavy blueberry wine with 6lbs of berries per gallon (a 10 gallon batch). However, I've read that this may be too much!
Most recipies call for 3lbs a gallon. Could I use 6 lbs?

Will it be too acidic/not start/not taste good, etc?
Why wouldn't I want to use more?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I have to believe that the recipes that call for so little fruit must make up the volume with water - but wine ain't beer. You add water to barley to extract the sugars you don't add water to fruit juice to extract anything but the richness of the flavor. Who drinks dilute fruit juice that they would drink diluted fermented fruit juice?

20#of blueberries per five galleon finished wine makes a very dark rich wine. Easily mistaken for a dark red wine. Mine has been mistaken for a nice cab.
More is not always better. I have tried the all fruit and no water. Not something I will be doing more of. I like my wine balenced with water. As I do my drinking juice.
You have plenty of blueberries. Make two batches with different amounts of berries. See which you prefure. They can be blended after finished for a third flaver profile.


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On second thought. I use wild Maine blueberries. Not domestic cultivated high bush blueberries. Those things are a whole different kettle of fish. You may need way more of those per gal then the wild type. Double may be about right.


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Thanks for the tip! These are more "commercial" berries, though they were locally grown.

I was going to suggest going 100% juice, like 10lb gallon, test the acid levels with a simple cheap wine total acid testing kit, easy to use and that will tell you how much acid you have in the juice, if its over 0.8% you might want to dilute a little or plan to sweeten up at the end. 3lb/gal is like a wine cooler, you make it like that and they might not give you any berries next year! The 3lb/gal rule is a plague to good country winemaking, why wouldnt you want to put as much taste in there as possible? WVMJ