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Monkeyhead

Junior
Joined
Mar 27, 2023
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Location
East Tennessee
Starting a new hobby. When I moved into my house in 2014, there was already a rabbit eye blueberry bush approximately 30 years old according to my neighbor. I harvest nearly 50 plus pounds of blueberries annually. I could get more, but I is only me harvesting. I also planted raspberry bushes, blackberry bushes, strawberry plants and a cherry tree. I started canning my own jams, and I just have way too much fruit, so this year I started to make my own wine. I am on my first batch of blueberry wine with a recipe from a guy who does YouTube videos. It didn’t start fermenting so I started searching the web, watched videos and went to a brew store miles away. I ended up diluting the mist and apparently theat kicked the yeast into gear. I guess making a desert wine with 15% ABV was not in the works. Still learning and getting educated with all the posts and questions. Now I need to make or buy a wine rack for all this frozen fruit I have on hand. hahaha. I will have many questions soon to come, so please don’t be annoyed. Thank you and looking forward to meeting new friends.
 
Welcome to WMT!

Lucky you with the blueberries. I think it makes a wonderful fruit wine.
You can make wine with your jams! If pectin was used they just need a little extra work before starting.
And if you want more raspberry and blackberry plants they are super easy to propagate.
Most important - you won't annoy anyone here with questions, believe me.
Good luck and have fun!
 
Welcome to WMT!

You'll find this group is very beginner friendly, so ask questions.

In my sig is a link for MoreWine! manuals -- I suggest you download the red and white grape manuals, and skim them. DO NOT read them intently, you'll lose your mind. Just skim them at first to understand the flow of winemaking, then read more intently. That will help you a lot to understand the basics, which are mostly the same regardless of fruit type.

Also, read the Beginner forum -- look at the first couple of pages, reading any threads that sound interesting. You'll pick up a lot of good information that way.

When you have a question, start a new thread in the most appropriate forum, e.g., you're making fruit wines so use the Country Wine Making forum or the General forum. Nope, no one will grouch at your for posting in the "wrong" place, but fruit winemakers frequent the CWM forum, so you'll get the best attention there.
 
welcome to WMT!

I will second Bryan’s suggestion about the More Wine manual, they do a good job explaining the “toys” that one can collect for the hobby.
Wine doesn’t have to be that complicated. My 1938 grandpas hand written recipe didn’t even add yeast, just sugar. We have a lot of variation in which toys are worth our effort. On my part shelf life which means metabisulphite / Campden tablets will always be worth the effort.
 
Welcome , Monkeyhead. You'll find everyone on this forum always happy to answer any questions and offer answers to questions you may not have even wanted to ask - :) , and that said, not at all certain that country wines (wines made from fruit other than wine grapes) really support alcohol levels around 15% ABV. There are many "secrets" about wine making and one is balance. You want the intensity of flavor from the fruit to be balanced with perceived sweetness, acidity, tannin, mouthfeel (viscosity) and the heat from the alcohol. Much above 12-13% ABV tends to dominate the flavor profile of most fruits and given that most country wines use a great deal of water to dilute the flavors, it really is a challenge to make a higher ABV wine. Drink an other glass rather than make an out of balance wine.
 

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