My first blueberry wine

[A_McG]

Hello all, starting off this brew season with a 1 gallon blueberry wine. Long time grape winemaker and try to experiment with fruit wines when I can.
*Blueberries were cleaned and frozen 2 weeks ago, not sure if that matters.*

3 lbs blueberries
1 tsp nutrient
1/4 tsp tannin
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme

Crushed blueberries with some water till mostly broken up, added water to 1.5 gal mark on bucket. Added sugar and stirred till dissolved

SG 1.110 (27 brix)

It's clearing with sulfites tonight and will pitch yeast tomorrow when I get home from work. Using Red Star Pasteur Blanc.

Will post updates at racking

*Edited to remove broken picture link*

 

[TasunkaWitko]

It looks solid to me - looking forward to seeing how it turns out. I would like to make huckleberry wine, which is similar.

Did you see any need for acid blend with this, and did you consider Montrachet yeast?

 

[A_McG]

I honestly forgot to test the acid, probly too excited to get started. It tasted like sweet fresh blueberry, I should test it and make sure tho. I have a good supply of Montrechet and use it a lot in grape wine. I've never tried this one but it says good for fruit wine and ciders. With 1 gallon I'm ok trying out new things, I tend to hold to same process and ingredients each year with grapes.


As of this morning the yeast had taken, stirred it up and hoping its nice and happy when I get home. Can't wait to see it in glass

 

[A_McG]

After testing acid level it was low, added 1.5 tsp of acid blend. Fermentation is going strong, color is amazing

 

[A_McG]

Color pic update from this mornings stir, going strong and smells great! Also, Thanks to TasunkaWitko for the reminder to check acid level, probably would have stalled out or ended too early. 👍

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Looking great so far, and you're welcome!

 

[A_McG]

Transfered from primary today, removed the bulk of the berries. Still bubbling good, but gravity is only at 1.077 I was expecting it to be further along. But it's much cooler than normal, house temp down to 60f at night this week

 

[TasunkaWitko]

It's looking good, I'd say!

 

[voltron]

Hello all, starting off this brew season with a 1 gallon blueberry wine. Long time grape winemaker and try to experiment with fruit wines when I can.
*Blueberries were cleaned and frozen 2 weeks ago, not sure if that matters.*

3 lbs blueberries
1 tsp nutrient
1/4 tsp tannin
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme

Crushed blueberries with some water till mostly broken up, added water to 1.5 gal mark on bucket. Added sugar and stirred till dissolved

SG 1.110 (27 brix)

It's clearing with sulfites tonight and will pitch yeast tomorrow when I get home from work. Using Red Star Pasteur Blanc.

Will post updates at racking

*Edited to remove broken picture link*

I love blueberry wine. have a few different types under my belt already and bottled a small batch just today. Done a straight up blue berry wine, a blue berry wine with some grape juice, a blueberry mead, and agave blueberry wine. a lavender blueberry wine. I just havent done one with picked blueberries. Your batch looks like it will turn out excellent.

 

[A_McG]

Thanks, it's still going well. Probably going to rack it off to a new bottle in a couple days. Considering using the yeast cake to make a batch of skeeter pee. I've never made that either but a blueberry hinted lemon wine sounds good to me

 

[voltron]

Thanks, it's still going well. Probably going to rack it off to a new bottle in a couple days. Considering using the yeast cake to make a batch of skeeter pee. I've never made that either but a blueberry hinted lemon wine sounds good to me

One thing you may like especially if you live in a really hot hot place. is a tweaked spritzer. I was in AZ and it was 114F everyone wanted a drink that was alcoholic in nature but cold and refreshing so decided get a large beer glass add some ice cubes half wine and half diet sprite.
this is really really good. A sort of modified spritzer and very refreshing, .i have done it with a glass of my blueberry agave wine. Really good and something you may one to try a glass of your blueberry wine. I recommend diet sprite or diet seven up over regular version bc regular versions are just too sweet.

 

[A_McG]

I'll give that a try, thanks

I racked to a clean glass today, gravity is at 1.03 currently 10% abv. Starting to clear up and the color looks great.

Decided to use the yeast to make a batch of skeeter pee. Modified the recipe and added a couple blueberry pomegranate juice concentrates for flavor. Planned abv is 10%

 

[A_McG]

New update, just racked (third time) and the final reading is 1.002, 14% abv. It has cleared up nicely, and honestly tastes amazing. I've had store bought blueberry that is worse than this, can hardly tell it's a young wine. Very happy with it and can hardly wait till next year to do a 5 gal batch.

I will let this settle one last time and then bottle. Going to be hard to let it age.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Very nice - congratulations on a good wine!

 

[voltron]

New update, just racked (third time) and the final reading is 1.002, 14% abv. It has cleared up nicely, and honestly tastes amazing. I've had store bought blueberry that is worse than this, can hardly tell it's a young wine. Very happy with it and can hardly wait till next year to do a 5 gal batch.

I will let this settle one last time and then bottle. Going to be hard to let it age.

Great news! You should get about 3 full 750ml bottle and some change. So with what is left over as change you can put in recycled beer bottle. Every time i bottle im left with wine not enoug to fill a 750ml so i put the remainder i rdecycle beer bottle, and i drink this as young wine. Then since you shoild have 3 full bottle you can try the other at 4 months, 8 minths and finally a year. With your young wine in a beer bottle experiemtn with a modified spritzer, get a beer glass put ice have you beer bottle wine and half diet sprite, very refreshin.

 

[A_McG]

Hello everyone, hard to believe it's been a year since I've made this wine. Today was blueberry picking day! Local farm was loaded and I picked 25lbs.

(Some will be made into pie filling)

I plan on upscaling the recipe and going for 5gal. I just opened my last bottle from the 1gal test and it's still good but a little hot on the tongue, will drink this next batch sooner and not let it age as long. Prime flavor in my opinion was around 6 months in bottle

 

[AkTom]

I think sg of 1.110 will finish with a hot bite to it. I would shoot for ~1.085 or so. It won’t take as long to age.
Cheers

 

[A_McG]

I think sg of 1.110 will finish with a hot bite to it. I would shoot for ~1.085 or so. It won’t take as long to age.
Cheers

I'll give it a shot and lower the sugar that I add. Do fruit wines tend not to age as well as grape? I found it odd that the 1 year old bottle wasn't as good as the earlier ones, expected it to be much better. This is my first successful non grape wine, attempted peach twice and just won't come together into anything all that good.

 

[AkTom]

HBT’s sister site winemakingtalk.com is where I do a lot of reading. Seems like most fruit wine is in the 10-14% range. I shoot for ~12 or 13%. 1 year aging is about right.

 

[jonereb]

I like to age 2 years. The fermented taste dissipates more over time. But that's just me.

 

[jgmillr1]

I found it odd that the 1 year old bottle wasn't as good as the earlier ones, expected it to be much better.

One thing I've noticed with blueberry is that the pH is rather high and acid rather low. I've had some good commercial blueberries and some badly oxidized ones. I suspect you'll need to add some citric acid or lemon juice to the blueberry to lower the pH and protect it from oxidation. I made a blueberry without any water added and the pH was initially around 3.8 (TA was about 5) before I added citric to lower the pH and raise the TA. This helps the taste as well as the effectiveness of the sulfites.