One of those days when I should have had the camera. Well, I didn’t get as much accomplished that I had originally hoped, but in the end, probably accomplished much more in different ways that I hadn’t planned on.

This evening, I had hoped to start about three separate batches of wine, and I began with the blueberry. Now, my three year old son David just loves blueberries. I was wondering what he was going to do when he saw me pour approximately 12 and a half pounds of blueberries into a pail – ah, I’ve got a great little kid! He just wanted to help, and help he did. We made a bit of a mess, but who cares? And more on the mess as well, in another paragraph or two.

I explained to him that I was going to make wine from those blueberries, and he just demanded to help, “I’m a big helper, Dad.” And yes he was.

After we got all the blueberries into the pail, I got out a big old piece of 2X4 and started crushing. David had to help with that as well. So we both smashed that 2×4 down into the berries, splashing as we did, but it was fun. David watches too much “Dora The Explorer” I think; he was saying the Spanish words for “up” and “down” every time we lifted and crushed. The kid is teaching me stuff!

Because I was using this recipe here which was originally made for one gallon, I quintupled the ingredients as I want to make five gallons of blueberry wine this time.

There’s about 10 cups of sugar in a 2lb. bag, but it was more fun to count each cup.. and that was David’s way of helping with that as well. All the way up to 24? Well.. David can count that high, but he got tired of that after about 16 cups. Don’t blame him either.

We mixed it all up, and if you ever need someone to stir and stir, and not stop stirring, even when Daddy says, “Ok, that’s enough stirring,” well give me a call. I’ll be the agent for the best must stirrer there is that never gives up.

At that point though is when I realized I didn’t have enough yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme or acid blend to start the other batches I wanted to start. So David and I took out our “handy dandy notebooks,” figured out what we did have, and stirred what we needed into our blueberry must.

Now, 12 1/2 pounds of crushed blueberries does take up a bit of space in the pail, and even after I press it later, it’s not quite going to make 5 gallons of liquid. With the 4.5 lbs. of sugar that I added, the specific gravity was at about 1.088 – however, after taking into consideration that there is going to be some topping up to do next week, I increased the sugar until I reached a specific gravity of 1.104. I lost count of how much extra sugar I added, but my goal was not really to record sugar quantity, but to get the specific gravity up to a decent level (as far as I could tell) taking into consideration that I’ll be topping up after pressing the berries, probably next week.

Now as far as the package I received in the mail: A few weeks ago, when I went to the Scotch Block Winery and had the opportunity to speak with winemaker Fred Bulbeck, he recommended that I use Lalvin DV10 yeast for blueberry and/or raspberry wines.

I’m no yeast expert, but I like to learn and experiment and take other people’s advice from time to time. And after tasting Fred’s black currant wine, I figured his advice was something I’d not ignore.

So in today’s care package from California was DV10 yeast. I actually bought some in a bulk quantity – so I measured in about 2 teaspoons into a starter solution before adding it to my must.

David helped with the whole process, a few times looking at his own “handy dandy notebook,” and making his own notes as I did in mine. Ah yes.. clean up time.. well, the great little helper never left my hip, as soon as we went to clean up the splashes of blueberry juice on the floor, there was David, taking the paper towels right out of my hand, saying, “Dad, I can do it for you.” Oh, he might have taken about 5 minutes longer than I would have, but he got up every little spot.

Every winemaker needs a little helper like that.

Anyhow, if you’re interested in the actual details, here they are:

Approx. 12.5 lbs. blueberries
Approx. 6 lbs. of sugar
5 tsp. yeast nutrient
7 tsp. acid blend
5 tsp. pectic enzyme
Water to fill up to the near top of my just over 23 litre pail.
2 teaspoons DV10 yeast.

Beginning pH: 3.6 (I’ll likely want to drop that a bit, but it’s real close to the 3.5 upper limit)
Beginning SG: 1.104

5 Hours after I pitched the yeast, there are noticeable signs of fermentation going on.

Say yes to lots of blueberry wine for Christmas in 2007! And a great dad and son team making the stuff. I’ll have to have him help me design some neat labels for this.

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