Blueberry Wine ideas needed

Today I was gifted 30# of frozen blueberries. What a burden, I know.

What would you do with 30# of blueberries?

I have already made 3 gal of blueberry rosé and 3 gallons of blueberry/Merlot. I saved the pomace from the rosé. Also in the freezer I have about 24# blackberries, 12# of elderberries, in case that gives you any ideas.

You can look up @jswordy bell bottom blues. I tried a bottle of it and it was very good. He has a recipe on here for it somewhere. Arne.

Stressbaby said:

Today I was gifted 30# of frozen blueberries. What a burden, I know.

What would you do with 30# of blueberries?

I have already made 3 gal of blueberry rosé and 3 gallons of blueberry/Merlot. I saved the pomace from the rosé. Also in the freezer I have about 24# blackberries, 12# of elderberries, in case that gives you any ideas.

Click to expand...

Here's a link to the thread I started when making blueberry wine from 40# of berries:

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54269

blueberry, blackberry and elderberry. that sounds like a trifecta to me,
as a matter of fact add about 2lbs. of crabapple, sugar to 1.060 ferment dry using either EC-1118 OR K1V-1116,, then stabilize and back sweeten using honey crystals not powder nor liquid, back sweeten to 1.010 to 1.020. give it a year and i bet you'll have gold in a bottle....
Dawg

Stressbaby said:

Today I was gifted 30# of frozen blueberries. What a burden, I know.

What would you do with 30# of blueberries?

I have already made 3 gal of blueberry rosé and 3 gallons of blueberry/Merlot. I saved the pomace from the rosé. Also in the freezer I have about 24# blackberries, 12# of elderberries, in case that gives you any ideas.

Click to expand...

hounddawg said:

blueberry, blackberry and elderberry. that sounds like a trifecta to me,
as a matter of fact add about 2lbs. of crabapple, sugar to 1.060 ferment dry using either EC-1118 OR K1V-1116,, then stabilize and back sweeten using honey crystals not powder nor liquid, back sweeten to 1.010 to 1.020. give it a year and i bet you'll have gold in a bottle....
Dawg

Click to expand...

I started out with the Keller recipe for blueberry/blackberry and my recent attempts with higher berry poundage per gallon have also worked well. I am just curious as to the 1.06 initial specific gravity. I take it that the flavor might be enhanced, but how long does the bottled wine keep at the lower alcohol level?

i posted at a much lower level then i use, i run mine up to 1.120 to 1.040 run dry, the crystal honey for back sweetening, for freminting sugar levels or SG i use cane sugar, father time hides all alcohol taste i need to look at my notes all my wines come off between 16% 18% , or 32 to 36 proof, but only crystals the top of the line organic, non gmo, and kosher, in about a year it'll taste like a child's drink with the kick of a mule, most on here like lower ABV, then add stuff to let it keep, i myself do not, any kind i have i can pop a cork wait 24 hours on the counter top open to oxygen and it is as fresh as freshly open, once i miss placed a half bottle i had wedged the cork back in over a week latter i found it beside my bed, I closed my eyes prayed and took as tiny a sip as possible, the next drink i bubbled the bottle, i never use nothing but sorbate when i back sweeten, nothing to keep it from oxidizing, i plan to add Haskaps and blue berries this year, if i can find i plan to try and buy 2 mature of each, if you buy anything and specially mature put in a large planter with compost soil water during spring, summer an fall, bring in the first winter near a east window, come the next spring plant your plant root ball will be huge, tripling your chances of success.. ad with hig enouh alcohol abv nd opened then recorked left overs is still as good 4 to 5 weeks later in the fridge, sorry for not explaining better, I'm coming back for a family tragedy 3 weeks ago and i am trying to get back in the saddle again , but i fear i may not find my peace of mind again, but that's like huh,,,
DAWG
may each an every one of your gods bless you and you with no god i wish you the best


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newBendOrfanatic said:

I started out with the Keller recipe for blueberry/blackberry and my recent attempts with higher berry poundage per gallon have also worked well. I am just curious as to the 1.06 initial specific gravity. I take it that the flavor might be enhanced, but how long does the bottled wine keep at the lower alcohol level?

Click to expand...

I think I'm going to go with the 30# blueberries, plus the pomace from my blueberry rosé. I will need a little bit more fluid to get to 3 gallons, so that will be the concentrate from a WinExpert 1 gallon Merlot kit.

I'm thinking crush, then cold macerate a couple of days. Then ferment with extended maceration if possible. I don't have a wide mouth fermenter. Would that be done by sealing up the bucket and sticking an airlock on it at the end? There is a thread on that around here somewhere...

Quote: "I'm thinking crush, then cold macerate a couple of days. Then ferment with extended maceration if possible. I don't have a wide mouth fermenter. Would that be done by sealing up the bucket and sticking an airlock on it at the end? There is a thread on that around here somewhere..."

The batches of blueberries I've used (from my own blueberries) have all broken down completely during primary fermentation. The first time that was less than 4 days time at about 72 degrees with the berries in a bag. I hand crushed them in the bag but other than that - no problem. I don't think you'll have a lot of need for added time on the "skins" unless that's what you want to try. Wonder how much acidity you'll have with that method. Keep us posted.

Scooter68 said:

Quote: "I'm thinking crush, then cold macerate a couple of days. Then ferment with extended maceration if possible. I don't have a wide mouth fermenter. Would that be done by sealing up the bucket and sticking an airlock on it at the end? There is a thread on that around here somewhere..."

The batches of blueberries I've used (from my own blueberries) have all broken down completely during primary fermentation. The first time that was less than 4 days time at about 72 degrees with the berries in a bag. I hand crushed them in the bag but other than that - no problem. I don't think you'll have a lot of need for added time on the "skins" unless that's what you want to try. Wonder how much acidity you'll have with that method. Keep us posted.

Click to expand...

This is an image showing a couple kinds of "blueberry seconds" I have in the freezer.

On the right is the pomace from my 2016 blueberry wine made in the standard way. I used these seconds last year for a blueberry hibiscus wine; I may do that again, may do something else with it this year.

On the left, the pomace after pressing off my blueberry rosé. The pomace on the left is what I'm adding to this batch. I hope the image shows this...the skins in the pomace on the right, pressed off after fermentation, are lighter in color and clearly have broken down some. However, there are still plenty of skins with plenty of color and in fact, there are still a few intact berries.

My batches are usually 1 gallon ones so smashing them by hand in the bag has worked pretty well. Then after fermentation I hand squeezed AND twist the bag to get all the juice out. That's why I probably have mostly skin pulp and seeds left with no intact berries. Looks like you have plenty left to generate some additional flavors for other wines as well.

(My latest batch is 5 months in and I'm still working to get the acidity under control using calcium carbonate. Once that's done I'm planning on letting it age until sometime after the first of the year. Again it's a one gallon batch from 8lbs. I'm not likely to use that much again in the future probably cut back to between 5-7 lbs max.)