Blueberries

[silverbullet07]

We are only in 4 months so if we have to let it sit another 3 months that will be fine. my blueberry I did 28# for 4 gal. I still thought it was a little weak.

 

[Scooter68]

You had plenty of blueberries, some folks like to go ALL berry juice and no water but personally with my home grown blueberries that seems pretty wasteful. I get LOADS of flavor and I don't have to backsweeten much at all. I Like slightly sweet wines most times. Sweet sweet wine for me is only if the ABV is really high. So the point is I end up with plenty of flavor at 7lbs per gallon and I only end up raising the SG to about 1.010 -1.004 on average with an ABV of 13-14%.

Not sure why your blueberries would lack taste at the ratio unless they were water-logged. As I said a lot of folks are quite happy when they are hitting somewhere between 5.5 - 8 lbs per gallon so you are right in the ball park. Give it more time.

 

[silverbullet07]

my wife and I both thought it was bland and lacked flavor. On the backend it seems to have a watery finish. I guess we like that bold taste.

 

[Scooter68]

Have you also checked the pH of the wine now that it has degassed? The CO2 gas will cause a lower pH but at this point you wine should be completely degassed. IF the pH is over 3.6 that could cause a lack of taste/flat/flabby.

 

[silverbullet07]

I did. PH was 3.28

 

[Scooter68]

Very strange - I've made 6-7 batches using as little as 4.5 lbs for a one gallon batch(My First batch of any wine) but most with 6.5-7lbs and none have ever been weak or watery.

 

[silverbullet07]

Maybe it is just our taste and what we like. We really like to taste the fruit and we seem to like it fruit heavy and bold.
I've never really drank a blueberry wine and maybe that is just how blueberry wines are. It just did not have much taste to us. Now after we added a qt of the blueberry concentrate, the flavor really popped. It made it very nice to sip on.

We mostly drink heavy body grape wines. Wines with a lot of flavor. I went to a fruit winery last fall after starting most of my wines and wanted to try some like the blueberry, blackberry. And they were ok but then I tried their raspberry and man it's flavor and boldness was great. I had to make some because I really liked it.

So maybe it is just us. adding the concentrate it put the flavors were we can enjoy it on both my blackberry and blueberry. Our Pear has been clear for a few months and we did a bench trail on it last night. The pear as it was tasted great to me. Wife said there was not much flavor. I felt it tasted like a good dry pear. So in our bench trails she like the 7ml of concentrate added to 150ml wine. that brought the SG to 1.020. She thought that was the best with a lot of fruit taste. So I'll be adding 504 ml to 11.5 quarts of pear.

Maybe it is the store bought frozen berries I got.

On another thought, I bought some organic honey crisp apple juice to make Apple wine. Thought I would just give it a try. I started it in Oct and it has been clearing. I racked it last night and I tasted a sample. The finish flavor reminded me of a plastic flavor taste at the end. Would the plastic that the apple juice was stored in had caused that or is this just from being young and not ready?

 

[Scooter68]

Depends on the type of plastic it was stored in. Are you talking about the orginal container it was in when you bought it? IF it was a home orchard juice that somebody made and sold, it's possible that the container might not have been suitable for apple juice - which has malic acid. It might be something else but that's something to be aware of. Just because one foodstuff came in a container does not mean that ALL foodstuff is safe to store in that container.

 

[silverbullet07]

yes the original container when it was purchased.
It was Wellsley Farms Organic

 

[Raptor99]

I've been using about 5 lbs. of blueberries per gallon and it has a good flavor. I used fresh bulk blueberries from a nearby blueberry farm, so they were in good condition and had a great flavor. But if you prefer a very bold fruit flavor, you might need to use more. For most of my fruit wines, I have been increasing the amount of fruit every year for the same reason. I've been disappointed with the weak flavor of most frozen fruit. A few months ago I got a big bag of frozen cherries to make cherry wine. I ate one of the cherries and it was very blah. Not even remotely close to the taste of a fresh cherry. I tried tart cherry concentrate and it makes much better wine.

What yeast did you use? Some yeasts such as EC-1118 will strip out much of the fruit flavor. This year I tried K1-V1116, which is supposed to be better as preserving the fruit flavor.

As far as body goes, I add some raisins and banana to my peach wine to increase the body. Those flavors work well together. But I'm not sure I want those flavors in my blueberry wine. Some home winemakers add a little bit of glycerin to add body. If you do that, be sure to use food grade plant derived glycerin, not the kind used for cosmetics. Food grade glycerin is a common ingredient in many food products as well as cough syrup.

The other thing is that most fruit wines need a little bit of back sweetening to bring out the fruit flavor. When you added blueberry concentrate you also raised the sugar level, which contributes to the flavor.

I also make hard cider, and I have learned that sweet apples like Honey Crisp have a very one-dimmentional flavor and do not make good cider (at least not without some modifications). Cider makers usually blend tart, bitter, and sweet apples to get a better flavor. But I have found that grocery store apple juice is almost exclusively made from sweet apples, because that's what people like to drink. I am still looking for solutions to this problem. I live in NW Oregon, so I may have to look for an orchard that is raising cider apples.

 

[silverbullet07]

i used Premier classique yeast on this one Along with 28 lbs of frozen berries. The TA was pretty low .3% and ph was 3.64 on the berries. Not like wild berries I hear about. I had to add acid blend to correct it. I nay added 1.5 gal of water to the berries.

The concentrate was my idea to sweeten as well as add some more blueberry flavors.

 

[silverbullet07]

Bottled my blueberry wine this past weekend. It turned out much better then I thought it was going to. Nice bold flavor and dark in color. Taste is great. I thought it may be a little bland and weak but the blueberry concentrate I added to back sweeten it made it nice and flavorful.

 

[silverbullet07]

This blueberry wine just keeps getting better. It is going on 11 months age now.

 

[Arne]

Lol, time in the bottle. Glad it is working great for you. Arne.

 

[DizzyIzzy]

my wife and I both thought it was bland and lacked flavor. On the backend it seems to have a watery finish. I guess we like that bold taste.
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In the past I have added Amoretti Blueberry puree to my blueberry wine and it has turned out quite flavorful...............................................DizzyIzzy

 

[DizzyIzzy]

The

This blueberry wine just keeps getting better. It is going on 11 months age now.


View attachment 77121
View attachment 77122

Bluebery Pinot Noir I bottled last year also keeps tasting better and better and time goes on...............................................DizzyIzzy

 

[Raptor99]

The blueberry wine I started 11 months ago is very enjoyable now. I used 5 lbs. of fruit per gallon. I divided the batch and tried several different ways of finishing it. The one we liked best was lightly oaked, with 1 Tbls. glycerin per gallon and slightly back sweetened. I'm saving a few bottles to try after 6 and 12 more months to see how it develops.

 

[silverbullet07]

In the past I have added Amoretti Blueberry puree to my blueberry wine and it has turned out quite flavorful...............................................DizzyIzzy

I used this blueberry concentrate to back sweeten. Blueberry Concentrate for Brewers and Wine making

It turned out very flavorful.

 

[Chuck Rairdan]

The blueberry wine I started 11 months ago is very enjoyable now. I used 5 lbs. of fruit per gallon. I divided the batch and tried several different ways of finishing it. The one we liked best was lightly oaked, with 1 Tbls. glycerin per gallon and slightly back sweetened. I'm saving a few bottles to try after 6 and 12 more months to see how it develops.

Also enjoying one that is lightly oaked with glycerine added. After breathing for 1/2 hour, it really opens up and is very soft and flavorful. The ladies in particular really like it.