Pressing Blueberries Today

[Rojoguio]

My Blueberry wine from 2022 is finally smoothing out a bit. Looking at my notes from 2021 & 2022 because the 2021 Blueberry was like a Champion Winemaker made, I see I did 5 pounds per gallon in 2021 and 3 pounds per gallon in 2022. Somehow I got the amount of fruit per gallon wrong. Huge difference in the wine quality. Well yesterday I laid out 32 pounds of Blueberries for a 6 gallon batch of Blueberry wine. This year buying a fruit press I will now have something to really press the wines out of the Blueberries.

 

[winechef]

I've found that 4 pounds a gallon is good. 6 pounds can't hurt but seems like overkill. I do 1 kg for 2 liters. velvety rich and full bodied. not sure a press is necessary. blueberries break down easy

 

[Rojoguio]

I've found that 4 pounds a gallon is good. 6 pounds can't hurt but seems like overkill. I do 1 kg for 2 liters. velvety rich and full bodied. not sure a press is necessary. blueberries break down easy

My notes on the Tripletail wine which I just followed what I did on my first Blueberry had 15 pounds of Blueberries / 9 pounds of sugar / 3 gallon batch. The second batch of Blueberry had a fraction of the sugar, as well as 3 pounds per gallon fruit. The richness of the first batch was outstanding. Second batch is thinner, almost watery. Our Blueberry bushes are Southern High Bush, very heavy producers. This year I had to use a pallet on the forks of my Bobcat just to pick. I still have 50 pounds or so of Blueberries left for making Tripletail. In the notes I also had written to double the Lemon ice cubes from the previous batch so today I increased 50% for the first fermentation. I liked the way the second pressing of the Muscadines I made wine with removed all the wines from the solids so I plan on pressing the Blueberries the same way unless someone here says that will spell disaster. Pictures are being taken at each step, I will post the recipe with pictures since I couldn't find any such reference here.

 

[Raptor99]

I've found that 4 pounds a gallon is good. 6 pounds can't hurt but seems like overkill. I do 1 kg for 2 liters. velvety rich and full bodied. not sure a press is necessary. blueberries break down easy

I use 5 lbs. of fruit per gallon total volume of must, i.e. 5 lbs. blueberries plus enough water to bring the volume up to 1 gallon total.

 

[Rojoguio]

I use 5 lbs. of fruit per gallon total volume of must, i.e. 5 lbs. blueberries plus enough water to bring the volume up to 1 gallon total.

Ok, I'm on the same page with you. How much sugar per gallon are you using and are you using and "Grape" products (juice concentrate or raisins)?

 

[Raptor99]

Ok, I'm on the same page with you. How much sugar per gallon are you using and are you using and "Grape" products (juice concentrate or raisins)?

I added some initial sugar (2 cups/gallon) and then checked the Brix/SG. I added more sugar to reach the target of 20.0 Brix = 1.083 SG. That gives a potential ABV of about 11.5%.

The amount of sugar in blueberries varies quite a bit, depending on how ripe they are (among other things). It is best to measure the Brix or SG and add sugar to reach your target.

I don't add any grape juice or raisins. Blueberries don't need it. Of course you do need to add yeast nutrients. If the blueberries are fully ripe, the pH might be too high, so you would need to add some acid blend. I usually target 3.4 to 3.5 pH.