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Author Topic: Raisins in a blueberry Wine  (Read 1613 times)

Offline Scholastic Brewer

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Raisins in a blueberry Wine
« on: January 13, 2020, 07:59:37 pm »
I'm just gonna outline my thought process here, I'm new to wine making, so just correct me where i'm wrong.

I want to make a dry, full bodied wine. It seems that there are a few ways to get a full body, (using more fruit for your must, adding banana, adding raisins, etc). i want to go with raisins, because from what I've read this helps accentuate the fruit flavors, and I plan on fermenting until its dry as it will go and have no intention of back sweetening, so strong fruit flavors seem like they would be a good idea. I haven't read anything on raisins having tannins. but the blueberry wine recipes I have seen call for either raisins or tannins, would adding both just be too much? Lastly I'm looking for a yeast that will tolerate a 14% plus wine and give some spice esters to my wine, suggestions there would be really helpfull.

So currently the plan is this.

3lbs frozen blueberries
1Lb rasins
water to 1gal
Add 1tsp of pectic enzyme
tanins
acid?
Sugar to 1.12 sg
pitch whatever yeast the gurus say.

thoughts?

Thanks for the help,
John


Offline kramerog

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Re: Raisins in a blueberry Wine
« Reply #1 on: January 14, 2020, 11:29:01 am »
Not a winemaking expert by any stretch.  Blueberries have  a relatively low sugar content so raisins are helpful to boost the sugar content.  I would expect raisins to have tannins because they come from grapes.  Anyway, I think you should not add tannins and acid until primary fermentation is done.  At the end of primary, any tannins and acid would be added based on taste, not based on amounts given in a recipe, because blueberries are natural so they vary based on location, type, year, etc (also yeast is variable too).

Offline pete b

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Re: Raisins in a blueberry Wine
« Reply #2 on: January 14, 2020, 02:35:06 pm »
Agreed that you don't need tannins here, both the raisins and blueberry skins have tannins. You may or may not need to add acid blend after fermentation.
FWIW turning this into a mead and using honey rather than sugar will help the sense of fullness and mouthfeel. Raisins help here a bit too and may add a dried fruit note.
Having this be a dry wine is easy, the above ingredients and using Lalvin 71b as your yeast will help with the mouthfeel. 71B produces glycol, which helps make up for the lack of residual sugars as it will bring a 14% potential alcohol wine or mead down to 1.000. 71b also produces fruity esters, complementing the fruit.
If you end up getting up to around 16% PA go with RC 212. But I recommend 14% and 71B.
Don't let the bastards cheer you up.