Blueberry Wine

This is one wine that just sort of happened. It was the middle of February of this year and my wife and I were shopping at Big Lots. Shopping is not on my top 100 things to do, so to keep from going completely crazy I wandered in the food section. Up on the top shelf I spied 15 ounce cans of Oregon Harvest blueberries for 75 cents a can. Usually you pay about 2 bucks for a can and about 28 dollars for a 96 ounce can of Vinter's Harvest blueberries. I started doing some quick math, "hmmm, 10 cans for $7.50 and 150 ounces, what's the catch?" Reading the label for ingredients I found that it was blueberries and natural juice. Wow, no preservatives!!! It was a no brainer. 10 cans just happen to fall into the shopping cart and make their way back to my place. It took about a month before I could find the time to turn those blueberries into wine, but it was worth it. Here's the recipe if you want to try it.

Blueberry Wine

10 15 ounce cans Oregon Harvest blueberries
2 11 ounce Welch's frozen concord grape juice
12 cups sugar
2 tablespoons acid blend
3 tablespoons yeast nutrient
3 campden tablets

Crush blueberries, add sugar, acid blend, yeast nutrient and campden tablets.

Pour the blueberries into your primary fermenter. I filled it with water to the 3 1/2 gallon mark because I wanted a fuller bodied wine. If you want a thinner bodied wine you need to add more water and more sugar. 4 cups of sugar to 1 gallon of water should be enough to keep the alcohol amount the same. My original gravity was 1.085, so you may want to use your hydrometer to check.

Let stand for 24 hours

Pitch the yeast

After about a week, rack over to a secondary fermenter. After 2 months, rack it again.

I bottled this wine after about 6 months and have been tasting it ever since. You probably could start consuming this wine after 3 months but I usually like to give it 6 months minimum.