Advice? First time blueberry wine

[EricaM]

I’m a beginner, in the process of completing two wine kits. Other than that, I haven’t made wine before.

I have somewhere in the ballpark of 20lbs of frozen blueberries in the freezer and want to try making wine out of them.

A local winery made a blueberry wine that was my favorite, but they changed ownership and don’t make it anymore. I’d really love if I could get something similar, but doubt I can get even close on a first try. I remember it being medium dry and full bodied. I think they probably used blueberries and grapes together.

So if I put in the fermenter:

approx 20lbs thawed wild blueberries (there are a few stems).

3 tsp pectic enzyme (I scaled the amount from a 1 gallon recipe. Not sure if this is the right amount)

1 kg (2.2lbs) golden raisins, chopped and soaked in hot water. (I read that this adds body)

2.76 L welch’s concord grape juice.

Yeast nutrient – how much?

Tartaric and citric acid – how much of each to start with? I’ve seen people add anywhere from 2-6 tsp of acid in recipes. (I don’t have an acid test kit).

Top up with water to 6 gallon mark.

Campden tablets and let this sit for 24 hours

Add table sugar until 1.08 SG.

Tannin powder? How much is reasonable to start with? 1-2 tsp?

Yeast EC 1118

I also have some oak cubes that I could add after primary ferment is done.

Questions: How much of the yeast nutrient, acids, and tannin powder would you recommend adding, if any?

Some people say that you have to stir the blueberries every day or several times a day during fermentation. Won’t that let a lot of oxygen in? Is this necessary?

Does this plan look ok? Should I add or remove anything from the list? I really don’t know what I’m doing. I’m just making this up based on stuff I’ve read. I’d love any suggestions or advice.

 

[hamiltonkiler]

EC kraus

Recipe. Google it.

Don’t over complicate it.

Cheers

View attachment 622279
https://eckraus.com/content/blueberrywine.pdf

Your yeast is fine.

You can sub the tablets for other wine and must sterilizing products.

 

[EricaM]

Thank you for your suggestions. I saw the EC Kraus recipe earlier, but I wanted to try with the raisins and grape juice added.

I'm looking for something a bit more interesting than just blueberries and sugar. If I wanted to just follow directions and not experiment, then I'd get another kit. The blueberries were free, raked from the woods, so if it doesn't work out, it didn't cost a lot of money.

I'm probably being impatient and should go slow while I gain experience, but I've jumped into the deep end with most things I've learned, and been fine.

I was just wondering if I was making any obvious, huge mistakes and what good measurements are for things like yeast nutrient and acid. If I don't get suggestions here, I will just do more research and make a guess. I know I sound stubborn, and I guess I am, but if this doesn't work out, it doesn't hurt anyone but me, and I'd rather have fun and make mistakes than be cautious and bored.

 

[hamiltonkiler]

I hear you. I didn’t mean to come off as just keep it simple. It’s hard to mess up wine as long as your sterile. I do know from experience that blue berries are complex and make a great wine without much other than blueberries and sugar. A little tannin does add the body and bitter chalk “red wine” flavor. The only time I add raisins and other things is to create more flavor in something delicate like watermelon wine or a light strawberry.

If you use 15#s of berries you will have a full bodied wine. If you use 8#s of berries and add raisins and tannin you will have the 15# of berries taste.

Your recipes sounds good. Keep us posted.
Another thing to think about and I love to do with fruit wine is fortify it. And not heavy but usually a half gallon of brandy or bourbon per 5gallons of wine. Well 4.5gal wine top up to 5gals with the liquor. Adds so much flavor and body.
Good luck. Let us know how it turns out and keep pictures posted.
Cheers[emoji16]

 

[Blacksmith1]

In my experience the EC 1118 yeast will rip any sugars to nothing but will also take some of the flavor with it. I use the K1-V1116 myself.
Freeze your blueberries then thaw and slightly crush them to release more flavor/juice.
Wondering why the grape juice?
Do your acid to taste at bottling along with any sweetening. If you add too much up front there's no adjusting it down.
Pectic enzyme sounds right, 1/2 tsp per gallon. If you ever change brands check to be sure if it's the same. ( not sure of any are different)
Can't advise you on tannin powder as I use tea for tannins ( still playing with that)
Nutrient. When not sure about the body of my wine I go for a medium body. Per instruction on mine that's 3/4 tsp per gallon.

 

[EricaM]

I hear you. I didn’t mean to come off as just keep it simple. It’s hard to mess up wine as long as your sterile. I do know from experience that blue berries are complex and make a great wine without much other than blueberries and sugar. A little tannin does add the body and bitter chalk “red wine” flavor. The only time I add raisins and other things is to create more flavor in something delicate like watermelon wine or a light strawberry.

If you use 15#s of berries you will have a full bodied wine. If you use 8#s of berries and add raisins and tannin you will have the 15# of berries taste.

Your recipes sounds good. Keep us posted.
Another thing to think about and I love to do with fruit wine is fortify it. And not heavy but usually a half gallon of brandy or bourbon per 5gallons of wine. Well 4.5gal wine top up to 6gals with the liquor. Adds so much flavor and body.
Good luck. Let us know how it turns out and keep pictures posted.
Cheers[emoji16]

That's interesting. Maybe I will try more simple with 15lbs berries and when that's done, I can use the rest of the berries with some grape juice and raisins and see what difference it makes. Have it both ways.

 

[EricaM]

In my experience the EC 1118 yeast will rip any sugars to nothing but will also take some of the flavor with it. I use the K1-V1116 myself.
Freeze your blueberries then thaw and slightly crush them to release more flavor/juice.
Wondering why the grape juice?
Do your acid to taste at bottling along with any sweetening. If you add too much up front there's no adjusting it down.
Pectic enzyme sounds right, 1/2 tsp per gallon. If you ever change brands check to be sure if it's the same. ( not sure of any are different)
Can't advise you on tannin powder as I use tea for tannins ( still playing with that)
Nutrient. When not sure about the body of my wine I go for a medium body. Per instruction on mine that's 3/4 tsp per gallon.

Thank you. This is helpful. I didn't know that nutrient affected body. Thank you for the yeast recommendation as well.

 

[Blacksmith1]

wrong way around, body affects how much nutr. is used. What I meant was if i'm not sure if it's heavy or light bodied I treat it as medium.
Also, there are as many yeast recommendations as there are yeasts or people that use them. Try a few and see what works for you, what finished products you like etc. You may find that this works for your blueberry but is only so so in your next brew.

[Edit] and stick around, everything I know about wine mead and cider I learned here. In the last few months actually

 

[EricaM]

wrong way around, body affects how much nutr. is used. What I meant was if i'm not sure if it's heavy or light bodied I treat it as medium.
Also, there are as many yeast recommendations as there are yeasts or people that use them. Try a few and see what works for you, what finished products you like etc. You may find that this works for your blueberry but is only so so in your next brew.

[Edit] and stick around, everything I know about wine mead and cider I learned here. In the last few months actually

I am also learning a lot in a short period of time. Useful things. Tonight I got a bottle of wine from the store. I'd never tried it before, but it was on display and looked interesting. It tastes awful. At least, I think so. Worse than my kit that's still in secondary. It's flat and tasteless. I learned this week that I can add citric acid to try to pick it up a bit. I put a tiny bit in the glass and it helped a lot. Hurray for salvaging awful wine! It's still not great, but drinkable.

 

[Blacksmith1]

We (the wife and I) like to try wines from different places. before I started making my own, We found one from serbia that was wonderful, so we tried the one next to it from the same vineyard and it was horible. I don't think we could have saved it.

No real point to that story...

The idea is to have fun with it even of we wind up making a few not so great batches

 

[EricaM]

Thank you. This is helpful. I didn't know that nutrient affected body. Thank you for the yeast recommendation as well.

In my experience the EC 1118 yeast will rip any sugars to nothing but will also take some of the flavor with it. I use the K1-V1116 myself.
Freeze your blueberries then thaw and slightly crush them to release more flavor/juice.
Wondering why the grape juice?
Do your acid to taste at bottling along with any sweetening. If you add too much up front there's no adjusting it down.
Pectic enzyme sounds right, 1/2 tsp per gallon. If you ever change brands check to be sure if it's the same. ( not sure of any are different)
Can't advise you on tannin powder as I use tea for tannins ( still playing with that)
Nutrient. When not sure about the body of my wine I go for a medium body. Per instruction on mine that's 3/4 tsp per gallon.

I put the blueberry in the fermenter yesterday. Added all the blueberries, which was about 19lbs. I was rushed and tired and put in too much sugar. 13.2lbs of sugar. Filled up past 6 gallons mark with water, since there's a lot of pulp in there.

The sg reading today, before yeast is 1.12. I don't like sweet wine. Do you think this will end up sweet? If so, will adding more water help? I added ec-1116 yeast, since I want it to eat up as much of the sugar as possible. I'll save the k1-v1116 for a raspberry wine that I'm making next.

 

[Blacksmith1]

It will ferment dry, 0.996 or so, with either yeast. Most sweet wines are sweetened after ferment is done and the wines are stabil.
ABV about 16% at a guess

 

[EricaM]

So it will just be strong then. That's fine. Thanks for the quick reply.

I've heard that people say home made fruit wine can be too sweet, so I thought maybe the yeast would stop when the alcohol got too high and then there would be sugar left. I guess if that happened, I could just water it down and add more yeast to keep going.

 

[Blacksmith1]

You could. But unless you want to sell your brews to nasa, 18-20% is a bit excessive.

 

[EricaM]

You could. But unless you want to sell your brews to nasa, 18-20% is a bit excessive.

Haha, I'll just wait and see how it turns out. Should be fine.

 

[Blacksmith1]

I have done a couple high ABV wines that needed a bit of extra time to bring the flavor back to the front. I'm still playing with getting the right balance.

 

[EricaM]

I have done a couple high ABV wines that needed a bit of extra time to bring the flavor back to the front. I'm still playing with getting the right balance.

This is my first non-kit wine, so it'll be a learning experience. If it tastes good, I'll be very happy. If it has alcohol in it and doesn't taste like barf, that's ok too. I can always mix it, or put it on ice cream.