Free Blueberries!!

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

LuigiMario

Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2009
Messages
13
Reaction score
0
Location
Athens, Ohio
My buddy asked me to help move a couple of his dad's old chest freezers the other day and lo' and behold bag after bag of frozen blueberries! :ban: I've been searching around for a recipe for blueberry wine that would be on the light side of medium in flavor, that wouldn't just kick my wife's a$$. I couldn't really find what I was looking for but I think I figured one out..

3.5 cups frozen blueberries
1.25 cups sugar
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
1 teaspoon pectin enzyme
1 campden tablet
lavlin's d-47 yeast (it's what I have)

Do I need acid blend? I saw some recipes with and some without.

Crush blueberries and put in straining bag. Dissolve the sugar in ~2L of water, cool. Put the blueberries, warm sugar water, yeast nutrient, pectin enzyme, acid blend (if I use it), campden tablet (crushed), and water to 1 gallon into primary fermenter (1 gal. food grade bucket). Let that sit for 24 hours. Add yeast (I want to just toss in the packet, do I need to rehydrate it?) put the lid on and stir it/squeeze juice every day for a week.

I read somewhere that blueberries are hard to get to ferment so I was thinking leave it in the primary 2 or 3 months.

Rack into secondary (1 gal. glass bottle), 3-5 months depending on how well and fast it clears.

Re-rack and add another crushed campden tablet, wait a month and make sure fermentation has stopped, bottle and age another 6+ months.

Does this sound like a decent recipe? Thanks for the input!:rockin:
 
I weigh my fruit and sugar, so I'm not sure how much that is in "my" measurements, but it seems kind of light in berries.

I'd do something like this:

2-3 lb. blueberries
Handful of raisins (.5 lb to 1 pound) (for body)
1 lb.- 1.5 pounds granulated sugar
3/4 tsp. pectic enzyme
1 1/2 tsp. acid blend
1 tsp. yeast nutrient
1/4 tsp. yeast energizer
water to 1 gallon
wine yeast (the one you picked is fine)

Bring water to boil, then set aside. Wash and crush blueberries and put in a mesh bag in the primary fermentation vessel. Add hot water, stir in one crushed campden tablet, then the sugar to dissolve. Next, add the acid blend, yeast nutrient and yeast energizer. Twelve hours later, add the pectic enzyme. Check the SG. You'd want an OG in the 1.080-1.095 range or so. Twelve hours after that, add the yeast. Stir well, Stir daily for 5-6 days or until specific gravity is below 1.030. Pull out the bag of pulp and squeeze. Siphon into secondary fermentation vessel and fit fermentation trap. Rack and sulfite in three weeks and again in two months. When wine is clear, rack and stablize. Sweeten to taste, if desired.

Or:

skip the raisins for a lighter bodied wine, but follow the same basic procedure.

I never leave my wines in primary more than about 5-7 days, or when the SG gets below 1.020. In secondary, I rack whenever lees are 1/4" thick after 30-45 days. If no lees fall, of course, I don't rack. I think blueberry will throw a lot of lees though, so you may need to rack 2-3 times over a 6 month period.
 
Yea, the cups were supposed to be pounds.. I was getting tired when I wrote it last night.. I wish the LHBS was open mon. and tues. I'll have to go pick up some yeast energizer and yeast nutrient... hydrometer.. and acid blend. <-- for future reference ;)

Thanks
 
I typically do not add acid blend tom y fruit wines...this is just my preference. I find the fruits to have enough acid in them naturally.
 
Back
Top