Help me Please

I have not heard of doing it that way, but I would suggest you go to Jack's site - there's tons of info on how to make homemade wine and I'm sure there is a recipe for blueberry.

Good-luck, Darlene

Matter of luck. If the berries were sprayed late with some kind of mold or mildew spray then any yeast on the skins may be dead.

You'll get all kinds of good advice here, so I just thought I'd make that one point. I am going to try an "all natural" hard cider this year using the runt apples I can pick from the hundreds of wild apple trees in the area, and maybe some honey or sugar to boost the gravity. (These apples I know haven't been sprayed with anything, moldy spots and one worm per apple pretty much proves it ;-) I'll post the results (around December probably).

--arne (Yeah, I'm going to add in the worms too. I just plan to core the apples and run them through a juicer-grinder. Like I said, "all natural"...)

sHi: you should add wine yeast - such as a packet of Montrachat ;;that is available at any wine making store.

natural yeast WILL work. I bought a gallon container or Wal-Mart lemonade (I wanted the container) and opened it, drank a little and forgot it for some time and lo and behold, the next time I tasted it, it was decidedly alcoholic. And quite good tasting I might add!!!

You should add wine yeast. The generic proportions of fruit to water and sugar are about 3 pound fruit to make one gallon, more fruit probably equals more fruitiness in the wine. Most fruits are low in sugar so 2 pounds per gallon is the generic value for that. I have a book from Penn State on winemaking so will get you better values for blueberries soon.

The mason jar thing will work as long as the tube is under water, airlocks and rubber stoppers are a better way to go. The water bottle is called a carboy, glass ones are better than plastic but it will work if it's plastic.

Joe

3 pounds of blueberries, 2.5 pounds of sugar per gallon, top to 1 gallon with water. You probably want to add water given what you have said so far, somewhere between 4 and 7 gallons depending on what you want this to taste like.

Joe

Joe Sallustio wrote:

Agree with most everything said above.

1) You basically built you own airlock. That is fine but commercial airlocks are very cheap and much easier. Less than a dollar each. You should get some.

2) Also, real wine yeast will give more consistent results and wine yeast is very cheap. Less than a dollar per 5 gal batch of wine.

3) What you did with the berries was fine but was overkill. You could have just crushed the berries instead of pressing them and then adding back the pulp. Just would have been a little easier.

4) Normally you start the batch in a plastic bucket, let it get fermenting real good and when the fruit stops rising to the top and drops to the bottom, strain it into your jug and put the airlock on. You do not need to seal it in the bucket. Just cover it with cloth to keep bugs out.

5) Fruit is toward the lower end of what I would have used but will be fine. Sugar is probably sufficient with the fruit used. Suggest you get a hydrometer to be sure in the future. The hydrometer is the most useful of all winemaking tools. It is very easy to use and is relatively cheap. Probably around $7.

Ray

All,

I just found out that I can get blueberry juice in my local area (Western Michigan). Does anyone know what the mix ratio (juice, sugar & water) should be for a 1 gallon batch of wine?

On the other hand, could I use 2.5 pounds of sugar and top up the container with blueberry juice to make 1 gallon?

Thanks

Todd Talsma

"Joe Sallustio" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com: