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Reply With QuoteWow is that complicated. And squish the berries of their juice, then add the squashed berries back, I kinda thought that was funny, but I guess the two need separating.
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Blueberry Wine Making - Tricky Batch
I just want to make a simple batch of Blueberry wine but rich in body & flavor. A 5 pounds of Blueberries / gallon batch is not abnormal. Well pressing the fruit went great.
To press the Blueberries I first place the mesh bag in the press folding it over the topside. 32 pounds of Blueberries is a bit much for the press but fit after putting as much as I could before placing the paddle halves over the closed bag & pressing down with my hands to make the room needed.
The next thing is to Crib the Ratchet as high as I can before beginning to press the fruit.
Once the Ratchet reaches the Basket more Cribbing is added to fully press all the liquid out of the Blueberries.
Now the Blueberry "Cake" has to be reintroduced to the juice, this is why I do this in my shop.............
That's Blueberry juice on the floor, also on my shirt, thank goodness I took of my good Hoodie off or it would be forever stained. While carefully dumping the Press Bag back into the Fermentation Bucket the Cake broke falling in splashing juice everywhere.
Now back inside the simple process of adding the correct amount of sugar to the correct amount of water on the stove to fully melt the sugar into solution. Once dissolved I add 6 of the frozen cubes of Meyer Lemon juice.
The Guru's point out that Blueberries if really ripe may need some acid but not Grape concentrate or Raisins. I really like the way the Golden Raisins improve the body of my wines so I add them to most of the wines I make. The required additional support additives were also added at this time.
Once I added all the ingredients to the Fermenter I stirred the Must up very well then took a Specific Gravity reading and Boom..........there is so much sugar that the Hydrometer floated the entire gauge above the liquid line.
You can see in the two pictures above the change in the level of the Must after adding the rest of the ingredients. Not a lot of room left in the Fermenter.
Now for the unseen, I had to add 2 additional gallons of water to get the specific gravity of the Must to a level that wouldn't kill the yeast. Now I'm out of the 5#'s/Gal target ratio. I had to pull a additional 10 pounds of Blueberries from the freezer, thaw, crush, and add to the existing Must to get back on track.
Now I have 2 Fermenters with 4-3/4 gallons of Must in each. I had to scoop out all the fruit, split the Must perfectly, split the fruit perfectly, then add the extra water, finally adding the additional fruit to get to this point. As of this post I have KMeta killing all the wild yeasts that was on the Blueberries. It produces a sulfur based gas that kills the yeasts. Tomorrow evening to Saturday morning I can add our wine yeast.
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Wow is that complicated. And squish the berries of their juice, then add the squashed berries back, I kinda thought that was funny, but I guess the two need separating.
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Right from the start it went over my head, I just keep thinking how yummy all those berries are and how I wish I was able to harvest that many.My family eats a ton of blueberries.
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Bud it's about the same as stomping the fruit to a pulp not just breaking the skins. Using the fruit press is just easier, less messy most of the time. The yeast needs access to the inside of the skins. This speeds the process. I've discovered the press gets all the wines out of the skins as well, no more trying to squeeze the pulp after primary fermentation is over. That was real messy.Originally Posted by Slab
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I'll see how many "Babies" are harvestable around my plants and ship you some. You have never put a blueberry of this quality in your mouth. These are well over 100 years old, from a Plantation north of me, my Bud's father worked there as a kid, where he got his original plants. My 4 main bushes produces way over 100 pounds of fruit a year.Right from the start it went over my head, I just keep thinking how yummy all those berries are and how I wish I was able to harvest that many.
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Time for the Yeast - Blueberry Wine
So it's over 24 hours since I killed off all the wild yeast in the two fermenters. After giving both a vigorous stir to release any remaining Sulphur gasses I readied the yeast.
Starting with the containers I chose a couple of clear glass bowls. 1/2 cup distilled water was added after both bowls were sanitized. To the water I add a shallow teaspoon of sugar then into the microwave for 30 seconds to heat the water. Once the water cools to about 106-108 degrees I add Go-Ferm yeast rehydration nutrient. This really promotes a healthy colony of yeast.
When the water drops below 104 degrees I sprinkle a packet of yeast on top of the water and let it hydrate & sink.
Once the yeast rehydrates it wakes up and starts munching on the sugar. here come the bubbles, you can see how the yeast foam head is expanding. The water on the left cooled at a faster rate than the one on the right so time lapse the one on the left has a 5 minute head start.
I like to pitch the yeast in a pile on the side of the fermenter allowing the yeast comfort while acclimating to their new surrounding. Some people just mix the yeast in but I have discovered fermentation begins much quicker doing it like this.
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Lalvin EC-1118 Yeast Progress After Only 40 Hrs.
Lalvin yeast products work so great. This is only after 40 hours. I just realized it has not even been that long (video says 48 hours). The whole back of our house smells like a Blueberry Bakery, makin' me hungry and I just had breakfast.
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Fruit Fly Boobie Trap is Set
This summer the Fruit Flies really exploded around here. They got in the house, got in the shop too. I did a trio of bug bombs at the same time which wiped out the ones in there. My wife has wiped out the ones in the house with the Blue Lite Bug Traps but since I'm ripening Persimmons they still have a few get inside when we open the doors. I have not seen any around the fermenting Blueberry wine but thought I would set a Boobie Trap anyway to see what I catch. I love setting any kind of trap.
The flash was on in the first picture so I thought uploading it would provide some prospective.
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