Awesome Blueberry Wine

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pontiusmatt

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Here is a Recipe for good repeatable blueberry wine,

Per 2 Gallon Batch:

6 qts BlueBerrys (home grown is what I use)
8 cups sugar
1-1/2 tsp of yeast nutrient
1 pack of lalvin RC-212 yeast
1 camden tablet
splash of lemon concentrate

Mash blue berrys in wine press or pan. Boil berries in 1 gallon of water for 2-6 minutes. Mix sugar into blueberry liquid. Take small sample off pot and let cool. Add yeast nutrient and yeast. Let the yeast slowly work into the solution. when main batch is down to around 90-80 degrees F add yeast mixture. Crush camden tablet and add to mixture. Put wine in Primary fermenter and stir (or shake) twice daily. Ferment for 14 days in primary then transfer to the secondary. Ferment another 7 days then siphon the wine into bottles and rack. If wine is not clear re-rack wine in 10-15 days.

I don't know how long this will last for (can't keep it around for very long it is way to yummy) :drunk:

Usually produces around 18-22 percent alcohol.
 
Do you have any idea how much actual juice yield your 6 quarts of blueberries gave? I have a bottle of 100% pure blueberry juice from Trader Joe's I'd like to use in wine making. I was actually thinking I'd like to blend it with a white grape wine (using frozen concentrate) but i'm trying to figure all this out. Was wondering how many quarts of blueberries it takes to yield a fluid ounce bottle?
Thanks
Fairlady
 
fairlady said:
Do you have any idea how much actual juice yield your 6 quarts of blueberries gave? I have a bottle of 100% pure blueberry juice from Trader Joe's I'd like to use in wine making. I was actually thinking I'd like to blend it with a white grape wine (using frozen concentrate) but i'm trying to figure all this out. Was wondering how many quarts of blueberries it takes to yield a fluid ounce bottle?
Thanks
Fairlady

Yes any info on this??? I would not blend it....I am interested to try the exact thing with that Traders blueberry juice....

Pontiusmatt; Any idea on the yielf from fresh berrys??

Also, did you get your starting SG and finish SG?
 
I've been making wine for a minute now. All I can say is that make sure your juice doesn't have any preservatives and then just check your SG. You dont want it to much higher than 1.110 to start off with. Just add sugar or water to adjust that. Take a little taste at the beginning and if its two weak add more and if its to strong then add some water.
 
Yeah, there's a Trader Joes by my place, and if I can pick up a bottle of blueberry juice and whip out five gallons, that'd be awesome.

No idea yet on how much actual juice I should use, or am I gonna play the guinea pig in a couple weeks? (if so, please offer up some suggestions on how much juice / water / sugar I should use on a five-gallon mix).
 
1 pack of lalvin RC-212 yeast….
….Usually produces around 18-22 percent alcohol.

Has anyone determined a starting OG for this recipe? I can't see it producing 18-22% alcohol with the yeast used. RC-212 is only rated to 16%. So I am sure there is still a fair amount of residual sugar left behind leaving this wine sweet, but how sweet?

The way I see it, an estimated potential ABV of 18-22% would be an OG of 1.135-1.164. With this yeast only able to produce a possible 16% that would leave a FG of about 1.012-1.041. Both seem very sweet. So either the estimated potential ABV% is off or it’s some potent fruit juice. The OG of the recipe would help a lot to determine how sweet the final product should be considering this recipe. But it seems the OP has not been on since his post. I am going to try something similar but I will be using store bought blueberry juice. I am just trying to figure out how much sugar to add as well. The question is should I just add enough to dry it out, or add more to leave residual sugar and a sweeter wine.

If anyone knows a the OG of the original recipe please post it, Thanks.
 
You say you added the yeast mixture THEN put the camden tablet in? Correct me if i'm wrong but won't that just kill the yeast..?
 
You say you added the yeast mixture THEN put the camden tablet in? Correct me if i'm wrong but won't that just kill the yeast..?

Not the suggested method of adding Campden however wine yeast are sulphite tolerant and so its likely most of them would survive. The Campden should kill most of the other bugs however.

The usual method is to add the Campden to the juice then wait 24 hours and pitch the yeast.

Craig
 
hey what do you guys think bout this....i found a place that sells fresh blue berries,bout the size of a nickel.really sweet berries,i did this....
for a 1 gallon batch..

1\2 gallon of blueberry (around 5-8 lbs)
4 and 1\2 cups of sugar
usual deal with camden,pectic enzyme,
enough water to make one gallon.
placed berries in nylon sac and tied off,mashed up really good in a kettle.keep nylon sac with mixture.
mixed all and heated enough to dessolve sugar.pitched yeast next day while liquid was close to 70 degree F .
placed nylon sac inside primary. swirl twice a day for 5-7 days. then rack...
I stopped mine at 8%abv. I don't plan on keeping it long.. been tasting it and it is awesome so far. only a month into it.
starting sg. 1.080
 
Ready to bottle that fast? Not that I'm likely to get 6 quarts of blueberries off my bushes at this point, but maybe I can raid my neighbor's patch. He'll settle for a bottle or two in return.
 
ok. final outcome is 10.5% .turned out good so far.not real clear yet.and that's bout it right now.
 
Just started a carboy with blueberry from frozen concentrate (15 cans of Fruitopia concentrate) Smells great right now but we'll see about the taste :)
 
So how important is the campden tablet when using store bought frozen blueberries? Is there any particular amount of boiling that can minimize or eliminate the wild yeast?
 
I'll be picking up some fresh blueberries today to give this a try. I think I'll try a 5 gallon batch. I wish I would've gotten my hands on one of those $85 wine presses on Amazon. I'll probably just make a bucket press.

Here's what I'm thinking:

15 lbs blueberries
10 lbs sugar
1 tbsp acid blend
1 tbsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp potassium metabisulfite
1 tbsp yeast nutrient

Dissolve sugar in 2 gallons of water. Crush the blueberries. Add the dissolved water and potassium metabisulfite to the crushed blueberries. Let sit for two days.

Press the juice. Add acid blend, pectic enzyme and yeast nutrient and top up with water to 5 gallons. Rack as necessary until bottling.
 
My 5 gallon batch started at 1.092 and ended at .996. I think that it's ready to bottle. It smells great. It tastes great. It has that "real wine" flavor that I didn't expect. The blueberry character doesn't really come through very strongly. It's nice and dry with just a little heat. I think that after a few months in a bottle it will be really good.
 
Could I use Montrachet yeast?

I used Motrachet in mine. It's my first blueberry wine. I've done 2 muscadine grape batches and Montrachet worked very well in those.

Blueberry(recent) in the front and Muscadine(10 months) in the rear
DSC005781.JPG
 
I am brand new to any type of brewing and have recently acquired cases and cases of Blue Berrys from and overturned Tractor Trailer.
I want to start fermenting. I do not have a lot of funds to work with so I want to make some equipment and need some info. I have enough room in the fridge for a few cases of the Blue Berrys. Can I freeze the rest and still use them to ferment latter?
Please help! I figure I have a day of them sitting in my garage before they will start to spoil!!!
Also what will I need to get started?
 
Started a 1g batch of this , sg was 1.030,seemed a little low so I added about half cup honey since I was out of sugar
 
Did you find it necessary to put the primary ferment into a larger container. I did this batch in a 2 gal bucket and it "boiled" over. I then transfered it to a 5 gal.

Here is a Recipe for good repeatable blueberry wine,

Per 2 Gallon Batch:

6 qts BlueBerrys (home grown is what I use)
8 cups sugar
1-1/2 tsp of yeast nutrient
1 pack of lalvin RC-212 yeast
1 camden tablet
splash of lemon concentrate

Mash blue berrys in wine press or pan. Boil berries in 1 gallon of water for 2-6 minutes. Mix sugar into blueberry liquid. Take small sample off pot and let cool. Add yeast nutrient and yeast. Let the yeast slowly work into the solution. when main batch is down to around 90-80 degrees F add yeast mixture. Crush camden tablet and add to mixture. Put wine in Primary fermenter and stir (or shake) twice daily. Ferment for 14 days in primary then transfer to the secondary. Ferment another 7 days then siphon the wine into bottles and rack. If wine is not clear re-rack wine in 10-15 days.

I don't know how long this will last for (can't keep it around for very long it is way to yummy) :drunk:

Usually produces around 18-22 percent alcohol.
 
Just did a 2 gallon batch of this tonight, but instead of actual blueberries I used Wyler's blueberry juice (sold at BJs wholesale club). I used a gallon of the juice with a gallon of water with 6 cups of organic cane sugar and 1LB of honey. I am using Montrachet wine yeast because thats what I had on hand, but I have another 2 gallons planned for tomorrow where I will use the yeast the original recipe calls for. This way I will be able to compare the two.
 
Took a bottle of this to our Thanksgiving party at work, was a big hit everybody liked it and was asking when I was making more. definitely making this again
 
I just started a batch that I posted in the mead forum, as I wasn't sure where to put it. 5lb blueberries, 10lb sugar, 4 gallons mineral water, 10 teabags and 2 packets of ec1118. I'm going to bottle after 2 weeks to make a sparkling wine. I see this is an older post. So can any of you guys give me some feedback?

2013-07-23_20-06-09_70.jpg
 
I just started a batch that I posted in the mead forum, as I wasn't sure where to put it. 5lb blueberries, 10lb sugar, 4 gallons mineral water, 10 teabags and 2 packets of ec1118. I'm going to bottle after 2 weeks to make a sparkling wine. I see this is an older post. So can any of you guys give me some feedback?
For a batch that size you should have around 12-15lbs of berries. Also that is alot of sugar, its gonna need alot of aging. Do not bottle after 2 weeks, that yeast +that much sugar = bottle bombs
 
oceanbrew said:
I just started a batch that I posted in the mead forum, as I wasn't sure where to put it. 5lb blueberries, 10lb sugar, 4 gallons mineral water, 10 teabags and 2 packets of ec1118. I'm going to bottle after 2 weeks to make a sparkling wine. I see this is an older post. So can any of you guys give me some feedback?

Hi
Can you tell me where you get the airlock bungs from for this type of bottle please?
Cheers
Bill
 

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