watery and alcoholly

[WildSeedGrrrl]

I just bottled a batch of blueberry and I had some left over and tasted it. I won't say it was bad, too early to tell. It's watery but it has a strong alcohol taste and I'm wondering if I should dump it and start over or if after 4-6 months it'll get better.

WSG

 

[jbullard1]

I wouldn't dump it
It's amazing what time will do for a wine

 

[smurfe]

Unless a wine has some type of infection and has a taste you can't choke down. Never, ever dump a wine. Many will age and mature into a whole new beast. Now sometimes they won't, but you never know until you give it a chance. I have made a few that were less than fantastic but then I use them for cooking and stuff like that.

 

[St Allie]

Don't biff it..

Keep it for a bit and taste again.. If you are still not thrilled.. think about blending it with another wine to add the fullness if it doesn't develop.

Allie

 

[Tom]

You can do a few things.
Make an f-pac for Flavor
Backsweeten this will add some body
Try adding some glycerine
Not knowing what the recipe is some of this can work. How about posting your recipe and what you did.

P.S. it helps greatly to see your recipe and the steps you did. Otherwise, its just guessing on our part.

 

[Wade E]

I agree with Tom, glycerin will add legs(thicken it) and making a flavor pack will do wonders for a wine with not enough flavor or too much abv or even both.

 

[WildSeedGrrrl]

Ok well I guess I will have to plan a day to open, empty and add flavor and glycerine and hope that will help.

 

[Boozehag]

The guy at my local home brew shop said to not dump any wine either, he said he would put it through the still for me and make something else out of it! I like that idea!

 

[Wade E]

Never dump a wine is right, if i had done that I would have dumped my first batch of Ice Wine as when I bottled it it was disgusting, so bad i never touched a bottle for a year. I was new then and probably kept it only to have something on my bare wine shelves, I was impatient then though so as soon as it was done I had a glass and was very upset as i paid some decent bucks for this 3 gallon kit. 1 year later I said let me try this crap and to my surpise it was awesome, competition worthy now!!!!!!!!!!

 

[WildSeedGrrrl]

Well I suppose it wouldn't be a worthwhile hobby if it all came easy and everything turned out fine. It's not possible to learn from smooth sailing and it was my very first wine from fruit and on my own. I'm planning on picking up some glycerine on monday. I suppose I just have to put it slowing back into a carboy and add the glycerine and then rebottle or just add a bit of glycerine to each bottle and just recork them?

Thanks for your advice.

WSG

 

[Tom]

You picked a hard wine for your 1st wine. Can you post your recipe?
I would suggest to look into some kit wines just to prove to yourself what you can make.
After we see your recipe and what you did during fermentation we can help.
Now that you bottled my concern is getting the wine oxidized by putting them back in the bottling bucket.

 

[WildSeedGrrrl]

Blueberry Puree Oregon Puree (49 oz)
Pastur Red yeast (the recipe just says wine yeast-but I've read that this yeast is good for berries)
Campden tablets
2 tsp tannin
3 tsp acid blend
3 tsp yeast nutrient
3lbs sugar
Cinnamon, nutmeg
OG was 1.120 but added water and then forgot to take another reading.

Ended up being 3 gallons.

I've made one kit, a merlot and that turned out fine. Have another kit in the wings a pinot grigio, and the 2 meads are going well (pipet taste). I didn't think it would be that hard I found the recipe in the book Wild Wines and Meads.

Thank goodness I love sangria cause if push come to shove these babies will be the main ingredient come summer.

 

[Tom]

Well i'm not sure I would have added tannin.
That being said here is what I would suggest. Fruit wines are hard to make vs kits.
Fruit wines need to be backsweetened and really need more flavor. So I would suggest what I said earlier.
Try fresh blueberry next time. I dont think the puree is as sweet as the real thing. (wait till each fruit is in season)
I'm not sure I would put the wine back in a bucket and try to change
Do this. Take a small amt of wine out of the bottle. Add small amounts of simple syrup mix and taste. This may work till the next batch.
FYI
I make fruit wines all the time Blueberry, Strawberry, Peach, Cranberry, Cran-rasp and others.
I hope Wade jumps in and tells all you what my Blueberry tasted like.

 

[Wade E]

I typically find that with fruit wines to almost double the amount of fruit to fit my taste which in turn makes you cut down on the acid addition. An acid test is very useful when making fruit wines. Some of these purees and fruit bases are very weak while some are great. I use the Vintners Harvest wine bases and know this first hand. the Marionberry was almost flavorless but the cranberry and especially the black currant are awesome. Toms Blueberry was very good as is mine and IMO all fruit wines need to be tuned up post fermentation. You will find that grocery store fruits arent that good and that frozen fruit instead is way better. I used the Wymans Wild blueberry packages for mine and it came out awesome.

 

[WildSeedGrrrl]

I've taken all your suggestions and written them in my notebook, for reference and under this recipe and I'm going to cellar this and come back to it in a couple months.

Hmmm interesting about marionberries. we'd get those all the time during the summer, either picking or farmer's market. I'm from Oregon, so I was happy to see the puree at Midwest, I was thinking about using that next time but maybe I won't if the canned isn't that good.

Thanks Tom, Wade

WSG

 

[Wade E]

I think the Vintners wine bases are way better myself.

 

[smurfe]

I actually like the tannins added to my fruit wines. While I won't always add tannins, I will oak quite a few of them for some tannins. Normally a light to medium toast American Oak. It does help with mouth feel as well. I normally oak Blueberry, Raspberry and blackberry. Not always, but most of the time.