Dapple Dandy wine 🍷

I wonder how the yeast respond to the acid in lemons with fermentation? I know when converting starch to sugars that are fermentable in beer brewing That you start about six on ph and want 5.2 in the mash.

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Yeah it’s not far at all, thanks for the heads up. I’m going to need supplies for sure.

Pluss when you make conversation you get help with whats going on with your batches and how to get rid of bacteria, and sanitations. It will teach you.

I actually did a natural selection of the yeast from various strains. I placed them all (various packets of yeast) at the same time and the survivors, I used as starters for the bigger batch.

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Depends on my mood. I love Blueberry-Cabernet Sauvignon most of the time. In summer, I love my chilled Pineapple-chardonnay. The Passion Fruit wine is so good that I can pair it with ice cream. Most of the wine judges didn’t expect that I was able to change their opinions about fruit wines. When you are in our neck of the woods, just drop me a message and I’ll check if I’m available to give you free wine tasting!

I also make pure grape varietals that are best of class.

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I had a Durian shake at the McDonalds in Singapore in 1984. Not a fruit with any shelf life. Can’t imagine making wine from them. Congratulations! You sound like an interesting character! I was a career chemist and now retired and grafting fruit trees. Have to to get some of your wines when I’m out west. Care to share your location and contact information?

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I made one gallon of durian wine. It stunk the whole garage for 1 month, but the wine was so good it didn’t last 1 week. Wify didn’t approve of the smell so it’s a forbidden fruit to make wine out of in our house.

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Trying any new combo’s (varietals) this year, Joe?

Joe,

Years ago I used to make some absolutely fantastic blueberry wine from my grandparent’s backyard blueberries. That house is now sold. I’ve tried making blueberry wine with store-bought blueberries and it’s terrible. I have several blueberries in the back yard but the patch here is only getting established, I’m not yet at the point where I’m going to be able to make 5 gallon batches of wine from backyard berries. I can of course add to what I have. Are there any particular cultivars you’d recommend for wine-making?

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I would like to see some one try to grow organic Pluots here in Kansas lol.

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Our Jubilee Blueberry won Double Gold Medal at the California State Fair.

Also if you don’t have enough blueberry, you can use Merlot Grapes, mixed 50-50 and then adjust the brix with Merlot Grape concentrate (you can order from wine supply stores or California Concentrate). I freeze the Blueberries if I don’t have enough. Frozen blueberries bleed better when thawed and you’ll get darker colors in the wine. So I freeze the blueberries until the Merlot can be harvested. Blueberry Merlot also won double gold medal at the California State Fair.

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Oh, a SHB! Does the Jubilee blueberry have a bit of acid, or is it very sweet?

When I was managing my grandparent’s berries I’d eat more blueberries than any reasonable person would for a month, I’d drop a decent amount while picking, the birds would get some but not a lot, and other people would eat fresh berries. I’d still freeze over 100 quarts. It’s too bad I have no idea what varieties were planted there!

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I harvested the Jubilee when they have the appropriate sweetness and acidity. Southmoon have also excellent potentials for wine as it has tartness when ripe but I just acquired one plant this year. I’m hoping to propagate it some more and have decent harvest 2 years from now. It is a challenge to plant blueberries here in our alkaline soils. Planning to graft them to sparkleberries.

For me, there’s very little variations in flavors of blueberries when you harvest them at their peak flavors. The technique that I use is to have the proper balance of sweetness and acidity when I harvest the blueberries by sampling them, taste test. For overly sweet harvests later in the season, you can rejuvenate the acidity of the juice by adding citric acid, which is the dominant acid in blueberries.

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only SHB types can tolerate California soils, well water and would still be productive.

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I grow them in Nebraska and they do great. Not one has ever died.

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I imagine the tree could live here, getting any fruit especially organically I would not have bet on.

How often to you lose a crop to a late frost? What’s your spraying program? What varieties do you grow?

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If I don’t have access to merlot grapes, could I make a wine from blueberries and merlot concentrate? How would I go about that?

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You can order Merlot grape concentrate or juice.

https://storefront.ldcarlson.com/storefrontCommerce/itemDetail.do?item-id=2259&order-quantity=1&item-index=0&customer-item=3572&order-uom=&warehouse-id=2&item-number=3572

https://storefront.ldcarlson.com/storefrontCommerce/itemDetail.do?item-id=2259&order-quantity=1&item-index=0&customer-item=3572&order-uom=&warehouse-id=2&item-number=3572

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Here’s all the listing of Merlot
https://storefront.ldcarlson.com/storefrontCommerce/search.do?searchType=keyword&keyword=merlot&emailAddress=#

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Hi Folks does anyone here have experience with making Eau de Vie from fruit? If so, can you recommend a really good Alembic Still? I found some from Portugal. One was soldered and one was a Bain Marie. Here is a link: 20 L Soldered Copper Moonshine Alembic Still

Does anyone have a preference and, if so, can you please tell me why?