How to Make Blueberry Wine

This is my time-honored recipe for making blueberry wine. I have 18 mature northern high-bush blueberry plants and pick up to 20 gallons of blueberries a year. Desperate for a way to use the berries, I turned to wine making for the answer. The result was delicious, rich blueberry wine. I have been using this recipe for over 10 years. This is my father's favorite wine. (My mom prefers my mead.)

For the mead recipes, go to my hubs http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Make-Mead-_-The-Nectar-of-The-Gods and http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Make-Maple-Mead . I also just added my recipes for incredible raspberry, strawberry and blackberry wines. See The Night of the Living Raspberry at http://hubpages.com/hub/Night-of-the-Living-Raspberry---How-to-Make-Perfect-Raspberry-Wine or Blackberry Singing in the Dead of Night Wine at http://hubpages.com/hub/Blackberry-Singing-in-the-Dead-of-NightHow-to-make-Superior-Blackberry-Wine or Strawberry Wine from Planet Nine at http://hubpages.com/hub/Strawberry-Wine-from-Planet-NineHow-to-Make-Strawberry-Wine or for blueberry mead, see Blue is my Berry2 at http://hubpages.com/hub/Blue-is-My-Berry-2---How-to-Make-Blueberry-Mead or for raspberry mead see Return of the Living Raspberry at http://hubpages.com/hub/Return-of-the-Living-Raspberry---How-to-Make-Raspberry-Mead

Once again, if you are reading this hub, I will assume you are a home brewer and have the basic knowledge required to create a successful batch of beer or wine, so I will not include the most basic instructions here. If you need guidance on the basics, there are many great books available that will help you get started, or feel free to post a question to the hub & I'll answer it as soon as I notice it.

So here's my recipe with simple instructions. You can't buy this in the liquor store!

This recipe produces 3 gallons of rich, sweet blueberry wine that will knock your socks off!

Blueberry Wine

12 pounds of blueberries, crushed

6 campden tablets, crushed

1 tsp. acid blend

½ tsp. yeast energizer

3 tsp. yeast nutrient

1 ½ tsp. pectic enzyme

10 ½ pounds granulated sugar

2 gal. filtered water

EC1118 yeast

Good water is essential. If you don't have a water filtration system, use good bottled spring water; bad tap water will result in an inferior product.

Day 1: Begin the process by crushing the blueberries. I place them in a large mixing bowl and use the bottom of a heavy drinking glass to press down in a mortar & pestle type motion. Transfer the crushed berries to nylon mesh fruit bags and repeat until they are all crushed. Be careful-don't break that glass!

In your sterilized primary fermenter, add the water, the first 6 pounds of the sugar, acid blend and pectic enzyme. Do not add the yeast on day 1. Stir it well. Come on, do it like you hate it! The wine will need lots of oxygen to ferment, so now's your chance to entrain some O2. Drop in the mesh bags of blueberries into the fermenter and using your sterilized large stirring utensil if choice squish the bags for a few minutes to ensure the campden dissolved into the water can get to all the berries. Attach top on the fermenter with airlock attached. I actually don't put water in my airlock yet.

Now, have a nice glass of mead and relax. We'll come back tomorrow.

Day 2 (Morning): Wake up and take the top off the fermenter and stir the mixture again (with sterilized utensil). Be sure to squish those bags of fruit-we want all the blueberry goodness to transfer to the water.

Day 2 (Evening): Stir again just like above. We'll pitch yeast in the morning.

Day 3 (Morning): Okay, time to hydrate the yeast and pitch along with the nutrient and energizer. Add it and stir well, then re-cover, adding water to your airlock.

Day 4: At least once during the day (twice is better) squish those bags of blueberries. It'll help transfer all of the juice from the berries to the liquid.

Day 5: Same as day 4. Your wine should be fermenting by now.

Day 6: Add 3 more pounds of sugar, stir well & re-cover. If you don't have fermentation yet, you may have gotten some bad yeast. You do have backup yeast, right? Pitch yeast again if needed or add more nutrient and energizer..

Days 7 & 8: Stir & squish bags at least once.

Day 9: Add final 1 ½ pounds of sugar, stir well & squish.

Days 10-13: That's right; squish those darn bags!

Day 14: Remove bags of now depleted blueberries and re-cover.

Days 15-? I left this time-frame open; I let my wine stop fermenting completely for at least a few days before I rack it over to a glass carboy. When it stops, rack it over, top with sterile water if needed to bring the level up into the neck of the carboy and attach airlock.

Move the carboy to a cool, dark place for 3 months. Keep water in the airlock.

Rack again; put back in a cool, dark place and forget about it for 6 months. (But do keep the water in the airlock at the proper level.)

Yeah, that's right-6 whole months. This will allow all of the fine particles to settle down so your final product will be perfect.

Bottle your wine and allow it to bottle age as long as you can stand it. Blueberry wine ages well in a bottle, and the longer you wait the better it will be.

Good luck & happy brewing!