Blueberry Wine

[WTD]

After my first blueberry/blackberry wine attempt i have now put down a second batch but just blueberries.

3.5kg blueberries
pectinaise
red wine yeast VR21 i think
6L of water

Will pitch nutrients at about 1.04 - 1.05

Still havent got a digital PH meter but hopefully it arrives in the mail before i go to secondary.

When i go to secondary, is it best to let the fruit drain in a strainer or should i sqeeze out all i can from them too?

Will see which one i like best. No doubt i will have more questions along the way

Cheers

 

[jgmillr1]

I did a blueberry bench trial this summer to get a feel of issues it presents. One issue is that the pH is rather high. The straight blueberry juice was 3.8 and TA 4.5 g/L, so I added 1g/L of citric acid and that lowered the pH nicely and gave the wine more needed acid. I also found that the yeast did not completely open up the blueberries and a hard press was necessary to extract all the liquid.

 

[WTD]

i might use some latex kitchen gloves, sterilize them and then squeeze the blueberries, they doo look like they need it. I did press them a lot in the beginning but feel i need to do more.

if i get my PH meter before i go to secondary can i adjust the PH then? i could add some tartic acid now but then the blueberries could have been different PH levels could they not? Google says blueberries PH are 3.1-3.4 so i might wait and see.

 

[WTD]

Im finding this one is going much slower than the blackberry/blueberry wine i made. After a week it has gone from around 1.094 og to about 1.07 and the black/blueberry one took about 3 days to get to 1.010

It is bubbling but going slow. Is this normal? i had alot of boiling water in the beginning to thaw the frozen berries so im wondering if this is having an effect due to boiling water having no O2. could this have slowed the yeast? wondering if adding more yeats will help. I added a small amount of nutrient at 1.08 just in case.

Thanks

 

[WTD]

After some help fast...


Finally calibrated my PH meter, shows the 4.0 solution and 6.86 solution fairly accurate but when i try my wine must it says 2.81... Its about 1.05 from 1.093 OG and taken 1.5 weeks to get this far

Is this too low?? and if so how do i bring the PH up to 3.3? Might be why it is going slow????

Is a PH this low a problem?

Thanks

 

[PRM]

I don't know enough about chemistry or PH meters to backup my claim, but could the alcohol be throwing off the PH meter's readings?

If PH falls too low the yeast will tell you. The enzymes created by yeast to facilitate the conversion of sugar into alcohol would start to denature and your fermentation would stall or dramatically slow down. [Paraphrasing from pgs 30-34 in Yeast (White and Zainasheff, 2010)]

 

[WTD]

I didnt use distilled water to calibrate, would this make it show the low reading?

 

[jgmillr1]

My experience with blueberry is limited to one trial and it's pH was significantly higher as I previously mentioned. I do have years of other experience with other fruits and grapes and find the pH doesn't vary from 2.8 to 3.8 unless the fruit wasn't ripe in the first place. So, going forward you may want to be sure you are getting ripe fruit to make wine with.

However, the low pH would explain the sluggish yeast activity. At this point I'd recalibrate and confirm your pH measurement, and also measure the TA. You can deacidify the wine to an acceptable level of TA ( 6-8g/L) depending on how sweet you plan to back sweeten it to. Deacidify with potassium bicarbonate or calcium carbonate. Target the TA with a bench trial and check the pH is 3.2-3.7. The yeast will be happy in that range. You may have to add another round of yeast too.

 

[WTD]

thanks, i added more yeast the other day and it picked up a bit but is still at 1.045.

can i use sodium bicarbonate? i have that already. Ive read mixed feelings towards sodium. I posted a link on a TA kit, does that seem alright?

https://www.anpros.com.au/wine-test...test-for-titratable-acidity-ta-test-kit-no-1/

Thanks

 

[WTD]

got a hold of some calcium carbonate. put in a small bit, after 12 hours PH was at 2.95. then put in a small bit more. tested PH 24 hours after initial dose of calcium carbonate at 3.1-3.2. im happy with that for my second wine attempt.

Sitting at 1.030 now, hopefully it speeds up now and i can rack to secondary in next few days, seems to be going a bit faster but time will tell.

***How long does it take for the calcuim carbonate to stabilise the PH after adding? can i expect to see it raise slightly over the next day or so?

Cheers

 

[jgmillr1]

How long does it take for the calcuim carbonate to stabilise the PH after adding? can i expect to see it raise slightly over the next day or so?

It is almost immediate. You just need to stir it well to mix it in and get a homogeneous blending.

 

[WTD]

ive just put down a second double batch of this, wondering about another addative now.

7kg blueberries and 12L water. same ingredients. got PH at 3.35 from about 3.8 but it was down to 3.05 after 18 hours so i im in the process of adjusting to 3.35 again. ill be more patient next time. im learning. OG 1.096 ~1.094 somewhere in that range. was hard to test. ordered a refractometer.


***Im wondering about tannin. I havent added tannin to any wines yet and im wondering if i should add some to blueberry wine?

And if so how much per 10L is safe for a beginner? from what i can see on the HBS it looks like 1/8 teaspoon per 10L. does this sound right?

the volume is about 18.5L including 7kg of crushed blueberries. Im thinking if i add it it needs to be today as the yeast is now starting to begin kicking off well.


secondary this time will be an 11L carboy (3 gallons).

to sum up lol, add tannin, or not?

Cheers

 

[jgmillr1]

How does it taste? It may already have enough tannin from the blueberry skins. Otherwise, I'd follow the directions of the package from the LHBS.

 

[WTD]

im not sure, but i pressed all the berries this time with a potato masher and it made a sludge of blueberries. the colour of this batch is outstanding, dark red, cant see through the hydrometer tube like my profile pic. I assume this batch will have much more flavour than the last.

If too much tannin is added can it be reduced through aging? i might leave the tannin this time and experiment with it next time. It is dark and will get darker. will rack to carboy at 1.00 or just under