Alright, I've found the thread on lavender wines and cold extraction, but I can't seem to find any specific recipes for a lavender-blueberry wine. I know I can tweak a blueberry recipe to add in the lavender, but how much/where would you start for a 1 gallon batch? I don't want it ending up smelling like Bath and Body Works, you know?
Blueberry Lavender
- Thread starter CortneyD
- Start date
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This is a tuff one Cortney. Lavender can be over powering and taste like a bar of soap or smell like Bath and Body Works 
For a 1 gallon batch I would make the blueberry wine first using at least 8 to 10 lbs of berries. After racking from the primary into another clean 1 gallon jug, I would then add a small amount of lavender flower stems to the wine and allow it to bulk age for a month or 2.
Your only fermenting a gallon so a little lavender will go along ways here. After 2 months, smell and taste the wine. If you think it's not enough lavender flavor or smell, then you can rack the wine again (leaving those stems or flowers behind) and add some more lavender, maybe half of what you used the first time. Allow it to bulk age another month or so. Also do not forget to add kmeta
(Potassium Metabisulfite) after you rack the first time and then once every 3 months after that. It's 1/4 tsp per 5 to 6 gallons of wine. So for 1 gallon I normally use half of 1/8 of a tsp.
Hope this helps
For a 1 gallon batch I would make the blueberry wine first using at least 8 to 10 lbs of berries. After racking from the primary into another clean 1 gallon jug, I would then add a small amount of lavender flower stems to the wine and allow it to bulk age for a month or 2.
Your only fermenting a gallon so a little lavender will go along ways here. After 2 months, smell and taste the wine. If you think it's not enough lavender flavor or smell, then you can rack the wine again (leaving those stems or flowers behind) and add some more lavender, maybe half of what you used the first time. Allow it to bulk age another month or so. Also do not forget to add kmeta
(Potassium Metabisulfite) after you rack the first time and then once every 3 months after that. It's 1/4 tsp per 5 to 6 gallons of wine. So for 1 gallon I normally use half of 1/8 of a tsp.
Hope this helps
I forgot to ask, how much lavender does your recipe call for?
Also, are you looking to make a lavender wine with a hint of blueberry or the other way around?
Lavender by itself will produce a very light/thin wine.
Also, are you looking to make a lavender wine with a hint of blueberry or the other way around?
Lavender by itself will produce a very light/thin wine.
That's the rub- I don't have a recipe that actually includes the lavender. Just an idea in my head based on what I think should be a great flavor combo.
I have a recipe in mind (Terry Garey's Sal's Blueberry Wine with the volume of blueberries bumped up) and was considering making a cold extraction of the lavender and then dosing the blueberry wine after racking to get where I liked it (thinking primarily blueberry with a hit of lavender).
I just didn't have a good baseline to start as far as expectations and was hoping someone here had some (any!) advice.
BUT- you said 8-10 lbs of blueberries for a one gallon recipe? That is SO much more than the recipe I have called for (2-3 lbs). I was planning for 4 lbs, but will going that huge on the volume just give me a much more full bodied wine? Thanks!
Yes, 8 - 10 lbs will give you a full bodied wine. Plenty of mouth feel and aroma.
I grow my own blueberries and make 5 gallons of blueberry wine every year. I also make a muscadine/ blueberry wine that I call "Musberry wine"
Do you have a pH meter?
Blueberries are and can be very acidic. My berries range in pH from 2.8 to 3.4 each year.
I adjust my blueberry must pH with potassium bicarbonate to a 3.2 to 3.4 pH.
If the pH is lower then 3.2, you will have a difficult time getting a yeast starter to take off.
Now keep in mind, fresh blueberries that are home grown tend to be more acidic then store bought blueberries in my experience.
A cold extraction of the lavender is another excellent way to go! This would allow you to preform a bench trial with the wine.
Simply take 4 glasses of 1/4 cup of wine and add/stir the cold extraction of lavender in prescribed amounts to each glass of wine. Taste testing each glass until you find a winner.
Then make a calculation of that amount of cold press lavender in which ever glass you liked best, to determine how much of the cold press should be added to the rest of the batch of blueberry wine.
I also adjust the sugar in my Blueberry must until I obtain a starting SG of 1.085 to 1.090. This gives a ABV of around 12%.
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Thank you! I hadn't thought of the bench trial but that's genius! And thank you for all the tips with the blueberry wine. I've not been having great luck with my blueberry plants so this might end up as a Serviceberry/Juneberry Lavender wine but I'll keep you posted. Thanks again!
Your very welcome! I look forward in seeing how this turns out for you. So yes, please keep me posted.
Do you by the way have a pH meter?
Not pH strips as these are unreliable for dark wines.
Do you by the way have a pH meter?
Not pH strips as these are unreliable for dark wines.
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I don't, but I will be sure to pick one up at our local shop.
This is the pH meter that some of us here use. It's a little pricey but well worth it! Very accurate and the glass tip probe can be replaced if ever damaged rather then buying another pH unit.
Apera Instruments AI311 Premium Series PH60 Waterproof pH Pocket Tester Kit, Replaceable Probe, ±0.01 pH Accuracy https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ENFOIQE/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_navT_g_8Z9DXTBVZG6PQ3CZZCW5
Apera Instruments AI311 Premium Series PH60 Waterproof pH Pocket Tester Kit, Replaceable Probe, ±0.01 pH Accuracy https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ENFOIQE/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_navT_g_8Z9DXTBVZG6PQ3CZZCW5
