Blueberry Wine Log
12/27/07 - Removed blueberries from the freezer and set out to thaw.
12/29/07 – Crushed berries, put in muslin bag, added water to 4 gallons. Added 1 T pectic enzyme, 50 ml of 2.5% sulfite solution.
12/31/07 – Stirred frequently the last two days. Added 1 tsp grape tannins, 1 T yeast nutrient, 1 T acid blend. Boiled sugar in water, added about 9 lbs of sugar in total. Brought the mixture to 6 gallons with a specific gravity of 1.080. Added package of Premier Champagne yeast.
1/1/08 – Nice bits of foam on the top,it all smells very nice. This will be stirred and pushed down every couple of hours.
1/2/08 – The second photo shows just how well the fermentation is doing. The juice tastes great. I’ve been stirring the fruit bag down every time I think of it, at least a couple of times a day. You don’t want to let the fruit dry out, keep submerging it so that the yeast breaks down all of the berries.
1/4/08 – The specific gravity of the must measured out at about 1.040. It’s hard to get a really accurate reading on the hydrometer as the foam is just all over the place. The wine will get transfered to a glass carboy when the specific gravity reads around 1.025.
1/6/08 – The wine has a specific gravity of 1.020, so it was time to move it to a carboy. This is probably the toughest part of the whole blueberry winemaking process because after siphoning the wine into the carboy, it takes about 45 minutes to manually squeeze out as much wine as possible from the bag of blueberry remains. All that is left from the 18 lbs of blueberries is a ball of fiber about the size of a softball. I didn’t think to take a picture, it’s all in the compost heap now.
1/14/08 – The wine is still actively fermenting in the carboy. It needs to be topped up with either water or sugar water. It probably needs two to four cups to reach the neck of the carboy.
More as it happens …
