Tonight was the night I “degassed” the white wine I had started on the 19th of June. The Specific Gravity measured in at 0.994, so we’re looking at a wine around 10 or 11% alcohol. I have to admit that I did not like the taste of it when I began siphoning it into a primary fermenter for degassing and and adding the Potassium metabisulphite. I’m wondering if the elder flowers in this batch have given it a taste that is too “heavy.” At the same time, it’s not chilled either.. and white wine always tastes better chilled.

But anyhow, I did spend some time on degassing it, and will continue to do so for the next couple of days. I know that for some, it’s a pain to syphon and rack, but I prefer to do that for the next couple of days, at least once per day, as it helps to remove the sediment.

I also started two new batches tonight as well! I’ve finally decided to try making a wine from the berries, and not a wine kit. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve liked blueberries, and I wonder what blueberry wine will be like. So, I bought a few pounds of pure frozen blueberries, followed a recipe I found in a book, and started a gallon worth of blueberry wine. If it turns out enjoyable, for about 7 or 8 bucks, I’ll have about five bottles of wine.

I thawed the frozen blueberries and then mashed them with a potato masher. According to the recipe I have, I made up a solution of 4 1/2 cups of sugar and a gallon of water, then added a teaspoon of “yeast nutrient,” a teaspoon of “acid blend,” and a teaspoon of “pectic enzyme.”

Mixed it all together, then poured it over my mashed up blueberries in my primary fermenter. Mixed that up really well, tried to determine the specific gravity, but I’m not so sure I have an accurate reading as pieces of the fruit were floating in my sample. But from what it read anyhow, I’ll have a wine of about 14 or 15% alcohol. I do think though that the reading was a little high, due to the floaty bits of fruit in my sample.

I’m only making a gallon of this, as I have no idea if I will like blueberry wine, and I didn’t want to make five gallons of something I might not enjoy. This is more of an experiment for me, and even though it will be at least six months before I can bottle it, I thought I’d just make a small amount now, and if I enjoy, I’ll make a larger batch later.

I also plan on trying some wine from raspberries too.

For blueberry wine, according to the recipe I have, about 2 1/2 pounds of blueberries are required. I bought two 600 gram containers of frozen blue berries, and used about one and half containers of them.

Raspberries, for one gallon of wine, seem to require about 3 lbs. of berries.

I also started a white Chamblaise wine this evening, from a Grand Cru kit. I am told this is similar to a Chablis. A wee bit sweet, and goes well with cold food, like cold pasta salad, chicken pasta salad, and similar.

I eat a lot of salad!

Before adding the Bentonite, the specific gravity of this was 1.180. That means I should, if all goes well, end up with a wine of about 11 or 12% alcohol.

I also need to head back to the wine supply store to pick up a new plastic pail and spoon. My long plastic spoon broke this evening, while stirring my Liebramilch while degassing.

I once enjoyed a very nice black currant home made wine. So, along with the raspberry, I want to try both a honey mead and black currant in the next week or two as well. Making wine from the pure fruit takes a good bit longer than from a kit, but this is becoming an enjoyable hobby for me, and now that I have all the equipment and ingredients necessary, I’m looking forward to experimenting, trying new things, and coming up with my own recipes to see how it all turns out.

If anyone wants to help pick dandelions next spring, and pick off the petals, (it takes about 3/4 POUNDS of dandelion petals to make one gallon), let me know. A pound of dandelion petals seems like an enormous number of picked dandelions to me. And of course, I won’t want dandelions that have been treated with weed spray either.

Oh, I forgot about Mullberry wine. Mullberries are similar, if not pretty much the same as Blackberries, and I know a tree that produces tons of mullberries, near a beach on Lake Huron. In August, I’ll try to get out there, and pick pounds and pounds worth, and try some mullberry wine as well.

Any other ideas or suggestions? I’m off to bed, while I let my yeast work, eat up sugar, produce alcohol for me, and turn stuff into wine.

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