which blueberry recipe?

[TimTheWiner]

So I am eager to get some of the 40 lbs of fresh blueberries out of my freezer now that my primary fermenter is freed up (from my Red Mtn Cab). I would prefer not to use more than 3 lb of blueberries per gallon (18 for the batch), because I want to keep 20 lb for a blueberry pear batch later on. I am looking at three of 4 recipes and can't really decide between them thus the poll. I am looking for a medium bodied wine that will be off-dry to semi-sweet and will probably back sweeten later with a sugar syrup or blueberry concentrate. The poll is based on the recipes linked here:

Recipe 1: http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f45/blueberry-recipe-submitted-your-approval-15135/

Recipe 2: http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f2/blueberry-bliss-wine-31937/

Recipe 3: http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f45/first-try-blueberry-suggestions-18310/

 

[TimTheWiner]

Anybody? I really want to get this started tonight (within a few hours if possible) but I don't know which to choose. I don't know if I should be adding raisins or not (I don't have any) since I have 3 lb of blueberries per gallon. I do have 5 bananas I can use for body, but I can always add some glycerin later on as well. I also picked up two 12 oz cans of Welch's red and two 12 oz cans of Welch's green grape concentrate in case I need them, but the recipes that call for them are vague as to if they are added to the primary or strictly uses for backsweetening, also vague as to whether they are called for per gallon, or per batch.

 

[TimTheWiner]

OK, well I was getting antsy so I decided to go with number 2 (Blueberry Bliss), but I decided to add yeast energizer as used in the other two recipes. Rather than using the 1.75 lb of sugar per gallon, I decided to start with 1.5 lb/gallon and adjust if necessary. At the 5 gallon mark, my SG was a whopping 1.12, so I topped up to the 6 gallon line with cold water and rechecked. SG is now 1.096 and temp is 88 (pretty high, but hoping it comes down to 80 before I pitch the yeast tomorrow). Does the SG seem to high? Should I add a bit of water since when I remove the blueberry mesh bags it will probably bring the water line down by a gallon and it will bring the SG down a tad? I used 19 lb of blueberries for the 6 gallon batch.
PS - I have Lalvin EC-1118 or Red Star Pasteur Red. Of course I see people recommending Lalvin 71B-1122 but at this point I am not making another 1 hr round trip to the LHBS. Which should I use?

 

[SBWs]

It's hard to answer the Specific Gravity question without knowing what the person who's recipe this is uses for a starting S.G.. I see he recommends aging for at least 1 year so I'm thinking 1.096 won't be to high. That will give the alcohol time to mello out. I would recheck the S.G. today to make sure it hasn't gone up a lot over night.

I wouldn't recommend Lalvin 71B-1122 for blueberry, but Lalvin K1-v1116. If those are the only two yeast you have I'd go with the Lalvin EC-1118.

I'd also slice up 2 or 3 bananas and add them skins and all, blueberry can sometimes be hard to start and yeast love bananas.

 

[TimTheWiner]

Well I actually sliced up the bananas in a mesh bag (5 of them without skin). I guess I'll use the 1118 then, I want to pitch the yeast today and recheck SG.

 

[TimTheWiner]

BTW, checked SG again and it's still 1.096 corrected at 84 F. Is 84 degrees too high to pitch the yeast, and do I need a starter or can I trough in straight?? The temp has gone down 4 degrees since last night, but I usually shoot for about 78. Ambient temp in the room is 79 though, and water temp is usually slightly higher, so I don't think I'm gonna get less than 80.

 

[pjd]

84 degrees is not too warm. Go ahead and pitch the yeast.

 

[roadwarriorsvt]

If you want to slow your fermentation down a bit, consider placing your primary in a tub of water and add ice, frozen bottles of water, etc. to get the temp down to the mid-low 70s.

 

[SBWs]

The Ideal temp is between 59° and 77° with 86 degrees being to top according to lalvin for EC-1118. You are going to get a real fast ferment at 84°. If you google Lalvin EC-1118 you can look at the data sheet for this yeast, there is a chart that shows how temp effects fermentation rate.

 

[TimTheWiner]

Well my Red Mtn cab frank was at about 80 during primary and was complete in 10 days. I'm sure a slightly slower ferment is more beneficial, but I would need a lot of ice. Unless I can put it in a plastic tote with cold water in it, but I'd be nervous about dropping the temp TOO low.

 

[TimTheWiner]

I made a starter using some water to rehydrate and then 1.5 cups of must. It sat at room temp for about 3 hours and was already foamy when I checked on it. Just pitched it. I forgot to add energizer do I added 1/2 tsp/gal (3 tsp total) just after pitching the yeast and it took on this weird color. Is this normal? Capsule of energizer has a weird smell to it too, but looks fine (white powder).

 

[roadwarriorsvt]

I'm sure a slightly slower ferment is more beneficial, but I would need a lot of ice.

Not really. Just freeze 6 bottles of water. Put 3 in the tub. When they thaw, replace the thawed ones with the frozen ones, then re-freeze the thawed ones. Just keep swapping them out. You'll probably be ok with not lowering the temp but its fairly easy if you ever needed to.

 

[TimTheWiner]

Well, maybe I should've listened. I just didn't have time the last few days to get it cooled down. Sitting at about 82 right now and after 3 days of CRAZY foaming I'm at about 1.043

 

[TimTheWiner]

Wow, I thought I would be at about 1.01-1.02 today and rack to secondary. I guess I was wrong, looks like it's done.
.996 at 82 F, crazy quick. Tastes dry but the blueberry is definitely still there. Guess I will be racking to secondary anyway.