Jim’s Blueberry Blunder
I haven’t picked a name for our first batch of wine yet. Given the more-than-moderate mess ups that went down it wouldn’t be a surprise if this one is a blunder.
OK - I made the recipe labeled “Sal’s Blueberry Wine” in Terry Garey’s “The Joy of Home Winemaking” (page 90). We got frozen blueberries and went for three times what the recipe called for (so three gallons).
Everything went fine. Boiled the sugar and water. Mashed the berries in a nylon bag (in the primary fermenter - a 5 gal bucket). Put the hot sugar water with the berry bag. Then added remaining water. Acid, tanin, yeast nutrient, and Campden (when the temp dropped)… and so on.
This all went according to plan except… after I added the Campden tablet I checked the PA which was around 11%. My yeast is supposedly lively until 14% alcohol so I decided to kick things up a notch. I made some more simple syrup and added it the the mix. Still only around 11%. So I decided to put in the rest of my sugar (total of ten pounds when the recipe called for 7.5). At this point I checked the PA, but accidentally read the balling scale - which was around 24 Brix or 13.5% PA. Having misread the scale, I decided I had to dilute the mixture… only after adding water did I realize that I had misread the hydrometer and that it was actually perfect before I screwed up.
Long story summarized: after adding all that sugar/water I have 5 gallons worth of wine fermenting but I only put in 3 gallons worth of blueberries (and chemicals). We’ll see how this turn out… but I won’t be surprised if it is a blueberry blunder.
26 Nov 2007 Update: Took out the berries. PA is to zero. The fermentation never got violent… it is still just lightly bubbling. I may have caused this by stirring the yeast in instead of just sprinkling it on the top.
28 Nov 2007 Update: Racked the wine into a 3 gallon carboy and two one gallon jugs. Had to add almost a quart of water to top off the last jug.