It was a Blueberry kind of Day

[Runningwolf]

Today I crushed about 2.5 tons of blueberries. Pictures below. The SS 500 gallon tank was not large enough so I used a grape bin to finish up the crush.

 

[Dend78]

i would say you have a few blueberries there

 

[ICELIA]

Nice! I bet that smells wonderful!

 

[grapeman]

Wow Dan, that is some batch of blueberry you have going there. How much sugar will it take for that size? I'm getting ready for a second batch here soonas I just got a shipment of them today.

 

[Duster]

I am so envious

 

[pjd]

Wow! Dan, I think you need a helper there! I am ready to retire and work in a winery! I am very envious! Will you give me a tour some day?

 

[Boatboy24]

That'll make a couple gallons.

Looks like a fine day from here.

 

[roadwarriorsvt]

Now I've got the blues,.....

 

[Runningwolf]

Wow Dan, that is some batch of blueberry you have going there. How much sugar will it take for that size? I'm getting ready for a second batch here soonas I just got a shipment of them today.

Rich, I added 350 pounds of sugar to the total batch and added the yeast starter today with 1118 and GoFerm. I have a feeling I'll be taking more out of the big tank tomorrow and adding it to the Grape bin. The cap already started climbing by the end of the day and I only left about 14" for it.

 

[Sammyk]

That is gonna make for one hellava party! May I ask what you will do with all that wine?

 

[Runningwolf]

Sammy, during the day I make wine commercially.

 

[Sammyk]

I kind of thought so!

 

[UBB]

350lbs of sugar. How do you go about adding it in and stirring it up?

 

[southlake333]

Sammy, during the day I make wine commercially.

And here I thought that was your back yard lab...

 

[Runningwolf]

350lbs of sugar. How do you go about adding it in and stirring it up?

50 pound bags and I just dump them in and try to mix it in the best I can with the punch down tool. Also when punching down I try to pull the tool along the bottom and pull everything up once I break through the cap.

And here I thought that was your back yard lab...

LOL at home my production area is in the basement along with my lab for testing.


Ater leaving at least 12" for the cap, this is what the fermentation looked like today. Before punching down I transfered another 10" of the cap to the grape. Five hours later getting ready for the second punch down the cap was right back up there so I had to take off another 10", not wanting it to spill over tonight. I guess there no one will doubt my yeast starters which incidently is basically the same as Malvina suggested last week.

 

[ibglowin]

Looks good enough to put on ice cream right now!

 

[Runningwolf]

Looks good enough to put on ice cream right now!

LOL, it sure does a number on your clothes too. Today I wore a rain jacket just to keep from bringing the berries home on me. First thing my wife said yesterday when I came home from work was, she was going to go pick blueberries. My response "have fun". Agggg, I had no interest in going picking or eating another berry!!

 

[dangerdave]

Hey Dan! You are missing out on a marketable product. Just wear white tee shirts while making wine and sell them as tie dyes on the side!

 

[Runningwolf]

Today we pressed the blueberries ending up with about 430 gallons or a yield of 10.7 pounds per gallon. Early this week we cleaned and sanitized the entire press pad and hoses. OMG what a mess today, but it was fun.

In the picture below we are letting the free run flow. At this point we already bucketed the cap out of the tank and pressed it.

This is a picture of a few of the tanks we cleaned earlier this week for fresh pressed juice. The tall tanks are 1500 gallons and the poly tanks are 750 gallons each. In addition to these are a few 2000 and 1000 gallon tanks. These are just for holding the freshly pressed juice then we rack it off sediment into other tanks for our own use or bulk sales to other wineries. We also have a refrigerated trailer that holds 10 500 gallon tanks for juice sales to our home winemakers.

 

[southlake333]

Soooo...do you do behind the scenes tours?