Blueberry wine - Hoochy sample at racking

[EVILsteve]

This is my first wine Its a blueberry of my own recipe. I snuck a taste when I was racking and I was very surprised how not blueberry it tasted. Im no wine expert by any means but it reminded me of a cabernette mixed with a malbec and some flavour all its own. I was actualy quite pleased with the flavour other than that hoochy taste like it has an ABV way higher than expected.

My 5gal Blueberry wine recipe.

10KG (2.2) frozen blueberries
about 4kg (9lbs) lbs table sugar. (1.095)
1 cambden tabled / gal
1 tbsp yeast nutrient
1 tbsp pectin
about 1 tbsp acid blend (0.60%)
1 tsp tannin
1pack Lalvin EC1118

-thawed blueberries (mostly) added 1 cambden tablet / gal let sit about 30 hours
-added Y. nutrient, pectin, tannin, corrected acid pitched yeast from starter.
-10 days in primary bucket - racked to carboy (1.015)
-2 weeks later added pot. sorbet and 2oz light toasted french oak (0.992) started degassing

-after 8 weeks racked again - snuck a taste



The BIG variable - the blueberries wouldnt thaw before my patience ran out so I mashed them the best I could added the sugar and water to bring it to 22Lts. I stirred it with an electric batter beater 2 or 3 times a day to mash the blueberries and aerate. (this works awesome).



Could I have taken a low hydrometer reading and not had enough blueberry juice in the mix at the time? could it be way higher than I was expecting?

I was planning to let it sit for till about February before bottling should I expect any improvement by then or is this about what I should expect by bottle day? I am quite pleased with this so far but if this is about as good as it gets if it is I may just bottle early and get a new one on the go that better suits my palate.

 

[Yooper]

Well, you're at 13.5% ABV roughly, so that would explain the "hoochy" flavor- it's boozy!

That will mellow a lot with aging.

I think many country wine makers are surprised to find that their raspberry wine (for example) doesn't taste much like raspberries. But when you think about it, cabernet sauvignon doesn't taste much like grapes. Fermentation does change the character of the flavor, although the essence of the fruit may still be there.

 

[EVILsteve]

Thanks for the confidence boost to see it through. Im not an impatient brewer by any means but I am hesitant to invest time into something that just Isn't what I was trying to achieve.

You are quite right with your raspberry analogy. Ive had a few, the light bodied dry ones can be hard to distinguish by taste alone. Ive had blueberry as well, lighter bodied than mine by far but back sweetened and I think that brings a lot of the fruit flavour back with it.

I was aiming for a heavier mouthfeel and I'm quite satisfied with the results in that respect. This isnt that original a recipe theres a few online I borrowed from just upped the fruit by 40% or so and tried to balance the must somewhat afterwards, the Oak blends very nice with this wine that most online recipes lacked.

Actually overall Im still very pleased with this recipe. Its distinctly blueberry to the nose but the tongue completely disagrees and your brain just goes into overdrive trying to make sense of this contradiction. Im guessing Im a tad higher than 13.5 with my impatience at the beginning and improper measurements. I'd suggest for anyone else thinking of trying a blueberry wine (I highly recommend it) aim for around the 10% ABV or go another Kg berries to go much past that.