Blueberry "second wine"

[brazedowl]

I've heard of using the pulp from one batch of wine to make a smaller batch of lighter wine.

I have 10.5lbs of blueberry in one bucket and 6.5lbs in another bucket both ready to be pulled out tomorrow.

About what size "second wine" could I reasonably make with the pulp from that much fermented fruit. Clearly the poundage when I pull out the fruit will be less than above.

Help?

 

[theDREWery]

IIRC, Jack Keller recommends making your seconds half the volume of your primary batch. This would be a water/sugar/nutrient reiteration of your primary recipe.

I've had good success making a full size Welch's Concord batch to dump onto my used blueberries. I believe my last blueberry was first batch on fruit for 7 days, secondary on fruit for 10 days, after which there was still a lot of flavor in the berries. In the future I'll most likely doing a tertiary as well.

 

[brazedowl]

Ok how about this then. I made 8 gallons first go (for 5 & 3 gal carboys). Divide by two and get 4 gallons for the second go. But I only have 3 and 5 gallon carboys. So go for 3 and stronger or 5 and lighter? Thoughts?

 

[theDREWery]

For blueberry my preference is always for stronger flavor. It really reminds me of some of the darker, fruitier red wines. And the amount of flavor that comes out of the skin is incredible.

I'd go with the 3 gal seconds batch. And it looks like you're using about 2 lbs. berries per gal?
I'd recommend 4 lbs/gal your next go around, I think my last was about 5 lbs/gal for the initial batch.

 

[brazedowl]

Right. I ended up going 4 gallons.

 

[madscientist451]

Never tried a second run with fruit wine, but I've done it with grapes.
I wasn't happy with the flavor when I added sugar, but then I tried with no sugar added frozen grape juice concentrate and it was better, but still inferior to the first run wine. I stopped making second run wine a few years back, it just wasn't worth my time to make something that didn't suit my taste. If you make hard cider, you can put the second run fruit with the finished cider for a few weeks or months to add flavor and character.

 

[theDREWery]

There are definitely some fruits that go better with seconds than others. I've had good luck with blueberries, making a seconds wine the same size batch as the first, just using grape concentrate to up the body/flavor. Raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and rhubarb all basically dissolve so thoroughly that reuse is impossible. Although I did take the mush from a 6 gal Dragon's Blood and make a 1 gal seconds successfully, and I believe the seconds cleared easier and tasted better than the DB.