Portly Wine

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brewer_duke

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Here is my attempt at a very special port-like wine. I was hesitant to make a port-like wine because of the massive amount of fruit needed versus yield, but I am hoping to keep this one around for a long time and break it out only on special occasions. I think it'll be utterly amazing in 10 years!

Portly Wine

5 lbs. blueberries (fresh from the local farmers market)
2.25 lbs. frozen mixed berries (straw-, black-, blue-, & red raspberries)
2 lbs marionberries
3/4 lbs dark raisens
.5 lbs dried elderberries
17 fl. oz frozen concord grape juice concentrate
5 lbs. sugar
1.5 tsp. acid blend
2.5 tsp. yeast nutrient
3 campden tablets
1.5 tsp. pectic enzyme
enough water to make 2.5 gallons of pre-starter must

(OG of must= 1.150)

then a starter consisting of

32 fl. oz blueberry juice
5 fl. oz concord grape juice concentrate
40 fl. oz water
1/2 tsp. yeast nutrient

(OG of starter = 1.025)

1 packet Wyeast 4767, Port Wine yeast

I plan on syrup feeding this wine to get it up to the hightest amount of potential alcohol I can and then after it has aged a bit and cleared out I will add an extremly good quality grape brandy.

I welcome any suggestions for the future, especially from people who have made port-likes before and aged them awhile.

Rock on,

D
 
While I have no experience at all making port, it is something I would love to take a stab at.

I've got 6 pounds blueberries in the fridge now, and hope to start a must by thanksgiving.

From the sounds of your recipe, you're making about 3 gallons worth? Also to pick your brain, I've got the purple wine recipe book that includes a blueberry "port" recipe, which calls for 1/2 cup light malt . Pros and cons to this ingredient in terms of flavor and overall quality (short term 1 year long term 10 years) ?
 
From what I've gathered, the malt adds body to the mix. I read that ripe bananas can do the same thing...so that's what I did. I started at 1.099 and after 3 days hit 1.079. This stuff is thick!
 
Definitely keep us updated on this, I will be starting a similar project within the next few weeks, as I close in on my recipe plans.
 
I did a similar recipe with what I had and what was nearby. Some fresh blueberries, some frozen. Some fresh blackberries, dried elderberries, black currant juice (WTF?!), blueberry juice, grape concentrate, acid blend, ... and a few I'm forgetting from my notes. I did use Wyeast 4767 which seems to have done the job, albeit a little slowly. I'm OK with that since there is definitely no rush on this stuff.

To add insult to injury on this lesser useful post, I added a few sugar additions (I can look back at my notes if anyone needs info) afterwards to boost gravity whenever it was approaching 1.015-1.010 or so. As soon as it was near 14% ABV, I picked up a couple 750's of everclear and consulted the magical pearson's square. I had my number and carefully measured a little over one bottle worth of the 190 proof spirits and carefully mixed them into the wine. I had just done another sugar addition as well, so IIRC, my FG was at 1.012 or so with estimated ABV of 21%.

If nothing else, I'll use it as a firestarter or to strip paint off of things:cross:. I have a 3 gallon carboy that has since been racked once since January...a growler, and two 12oz beer bottles worth. It is clearing slowly, but it is just plain dark stuff anyway. I haven't tasted it since way back then, and will probably keep racking and testing free SO2 at those times until a year from now when I'll hopefully bottle it.
 
I made it in November 2008, I racked in December 2009, and bottled in December 2010. It tastes quite excellent, especially for a wine that I made in the very beginnings of my fermenting days!

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Very nice !!!!!

I have some cherry port I made in 2009, as well as some raspberry port. I monitored the SG and when it hit 1.014, I racked it onto a specified amount of 151 everclear. (that's the strongest we can get here) I finally bottled it after about 9 months, and now it has been in the bottles (375ml) for about 6 months or so. It was great when I bottled it. I can hardly wait to break one open for a special occasion.
 
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