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.

 

[Rojoguio]

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.

Thank you for your quick response. I saw it in my email but was busy correcting the very thing you were warning me about - adding too much sugar. My Blueberries were extra sweet this year coming off one of the worst droughts last year. The starting SG was so high the hydrometer was floating past the writing on the tape inside. I had to add 2 more gallons of water to bring down to 1.120. I pulled another 10 pounds of Blueberries out of the freezer last night to add today to maintain 5#'s/Gallon ratio as best I can. I'm going to have to buy a Brix measuring device to check the juice before adding sugar instead of blindly following a recipe. PH can be checked easily as I invested in a good digital meter earlier this year. Repeatability seems to be the skill to work towards not just making a single good batch, without very accurate measurements of all parameters repeatability will remain out of reach for me.

 

[Rojoguio]

Update on the Blueberry wine. The whole house smells like Blueberries. I did the gallon of water to 5 pounds of fruit. I can't imaging how rich the wines would be if I did 5 pounds of fruit and enough water to bring it up to a gallon. I have never made any of my wines this rich in fruit but now I can't go back. Since the sugar was so high I used EC-1118 instead of 71B as I didn't want the yeast to die leaving me with a sweet wine. I like the Wine/Brandy level of alcohol since I drank Bourbon for 40+ years. The foam head on the Must when I stir has the body of a beer foam. here is a link to a video of when I stir.

 

[DrGriz]

I think you will love it!

 

[Rice_Guy]

... I can't imaging how rich the wines would be if I did 5 pounds of fruit and enough water to bring it up to a gallon. I have never made any of my wines this rich in fruit but now I can't go back…

This is what I call style, ie What accounting dept. wants vs I grow/ fruit is free so build lots of flavor/ total solids. With this process mentality I will do hard cider mentality where a concentrated 16% ABV hard cider base is fermented and diluted with non fermented juice(s) to build a lower ABV retail product. This style winds up with high total acidity therefore I typically back sweeten to 1.010 to 1.015

 

[Rojoguio]

I got a email where it was ask the starting SG and the bucket on the left was 1.141 after the extra fruit was added and the one on the right was 1.136. The Must was not mixed well enough when I took the first readings. Seems I took the sample from a watery area. I don't know if the 71B would have died on me too early but the way this must tastes I'm really liking the way the fermentation is going.

 

[Rojoguio]

Pressed the Blueberry wine again today then transferred to two 3 gallon carboys. The SG today, all the way to the bottom. I thought a picture would be worth a 1000 words.


ABV Calculator I have only goes to 1.000 and the results was 17.85% if no more sugar is added. I'm stopping here so after it clears I will see how much wine conditioner it will take to bring back some sweetness. I thought some sugar would be left as high as it was.

 

[DrGriz]

It looks to me that your test cylinder is underfilled and your hygrometer is maybe sitting on the bottom and therefore leaning on the side of the cylinder. I would add more wine and make sure it's floating by giving it a spin. I'll bet your specific gravity is below what we're seeing unless I am mistaken.

 

[Rojoguio]

Yes, I thought there was a problem but I pushed it down with my finger to see if it was on the bottom but the cylinder is quite tall. Usually it stands straight up. This is the first time it has leaned like that. It was straight before I pushed it down but floating in the same place. Dono. Thanks for checking me, I never fill it to the top, is that a requirement? It was floating about 1-1/2in off the base.

 

[DrGriz]

I would just not let it stick to the side.

 

[Rice_Guy]

. It was straight before I pushed it down but floating in the same place. I never fill it to the top, is that a requirement? It was floating about 1-1/2in off the base.

To get a good reading it should be floating freely.

There is no rule that one has to fill the cylinder. ex I have one I cracked and then trimmed a few inches off, I also run fresh juices in a fifty ml cylinder where the top three inches stick out, in the extreme I have some hydrometers that read close to 1.000 which can fit in a 20 ml test tube.
Bubbles are bad, degass as by shaking vigorously if you have CO2
It should not touch the side wall and should be at least 1/4” above the bottom
It should be clean, no build up on the skinny reading tube or the weighted base.
clear juice is important skins may confound the reading, on test samples from single plants I do the best I can

 

[Rojoguio]

Thank you both for following up. Can't taste a bit of sugar. I ended up with a gallon of extra to save for topping up,

 

[DrGriz]

You said your ABV calculator stopped at 1.000. Using your numbers, I come up with almost 20% ABV. That is amazing to me. How does it taste at this stage, compared to your previous blueberry wine? Not sweet, I understand, but otherwise?

 

[Rojoguio]

To me it has almost no blueberry taste because it is so dry. I have a Android Calculator on my old phone but it stays turned off now so I didn't use it. That calculator goes all the way down. I'm so surprised by how fast all the sugar was consumed. My 2022 Blueberry in the racks we had last Saturday and it has finally turned the corner. I just bottled some Dark Sweet Cherry / Maraschino Cherry blend 2 days ago that is wonderful already. I back sweetened with the Maraschino Cherry juice. 4 months to the day from pitching the yeast. Also bottled the desiccated Black Muscadine wine also 4 months old and it's great already too. No back sweetening on it, right from carboy to bottle. If I can go back to the Blueberry there is a slight ring of CO2 bubbles around the top of the carboys so some fermentation is still happening or it is just gassing off.