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Post date: Oct 13, 2012 3:55:15 PM
Thought I'd clear out all of the frozen fruit we got this summer thinking we'd eat it with yogurt for breakfast (it's nice to do that, but more work than I'm looking for, and too cold now that the weather has turned). So I used the blackberries, raspberries, strawberries and wild blueberries together. I'm interested to see how this turns out...
I'm basically going to pretend that it's all blackberries, and use the Victory Blackberry Wine recipe from Garey's book (p. 89)
I cut back on the acid since the blueberries seem to be pretty tart.
28 oz. wild blueberries (Wyman's frozen blueberries from Costco)
12 oz. frozen blackberries (whole)
12 oz. frozen red raspberries (whole)
10 oz. frozen strawberries (whole)
2-1/4 lb. granulated sugar
½ tsp. pectic enzyme
1/2 tsp malic acid
1/2 tsp tartaric acid
½ tsp. yeast nutrient
3/16 tsp tannin
water to 1 gallon
1 crushed Campden tablet
One tsp Red Star Montrechet Yeast
10/13/12 11AM
Started. Chopped up the fruit before putting in nylon bag. Poured boiling water over bag, mashed fruit with a (clean) hand. Dissolved sugar in boiling water, added, mixed. Added acids, tannin yeast nutrient and Campden tablet. Topped off to 1 gallon liquid. SG is 1.100 at 92.2°F. That's a bit high, but theres all sorts of fruit bits in there, so that may be an overestimate.
10/14/12 9AM
Added pectic enzyme dissolved in about a tablespoon of water.
10/14/12 10:30AM
Pitched yeast
10/15/12 8:15PM
Wine is bubbling away. There is a hint of the rotten egg smell I got with the blueberry wine. Found this and some other refs on the web that say that the rotten egg smell comes from yeast that is nitrogen starved, and that early intervention with diammonium phosphate (yeast nutrient) can help, so I stirred in 1 additional tsp yeast nutrient dissolved in water. A quick web search shows that 1 tsp nutrient per gallon is the recommended amount, rather than the 1/2 tsp Garey calls for.
10/17/12 1:30PM
No trace of the rotten egg smell. Looks like the yeast nutrient worked.
10/23/12 10AM
Pulled out the fruit bag. FG is 0.995 at 68F. ABV 14.8%.
11/3/12 10AM
Racked into a gallon jug and topped up. Taste is nice, but rough. Not a lot of lees, and what were there were compact.
11/12/12 10AM
Racked and stabilized with 2 Campden tablets.
12/1/12 9PM
Racked. Still somewhat cloudy, and rather sour. Hoping this will improve in a few months.
12/22/12 9AM
Bottled. The wine is still a bit cloudy - there was not too much sediment on the bottom of the carboy, but there was some. Got 4 750ml bottles, 2 375ml bottles, and 2/3 of a 375, which I mixed with apple. Tastes somewhat like the blueberry wine - a little more sour than you might want. Hopefully it will attenuate with age.
1/11/13 9PM
Took some to Kenroy's party. Still very sour, but I realized that since it is so young I probably should aerate and let stand for about an hour before drinking it.
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