Blueberry wine

Started a blueberry wine using 15lbs of frozen blueberries purchased at Sams:
Makes 5 gallons

• 15 lbs.  blueberries  (frozen in 3lb bags)
• approximately 9 lbs. sugar (1.090 SG)
• 1 can white grape concentrate to add extra body
• 2 tsp. acid blend
• 2.5 tsp. pectic enzyme
• 3 tsp. yeast nutrient 
• 1 tsp. yeast energizer (blueberries can be difficult to start the ferment)
• 1 tablet per gal. potassium metabisulfite
• 2 tsp. potassium sorbate (at finish if sweetening)
• 1 tsp. tannin
• Yeast (Montrachet)

1. Added frozen berries to 5 gallon primary and covered with enough water to cover berries and crushed
2. dissolved about 8 pounds of sugar in a small amount of water and added to primary then added water to just short of the 5 gallon mark (stirred well and tested SG)
3. Added 1 can of Frozen grape concentrate and dissolved another pound of sugar to bring SG up to 1.090
4. Added K-meta , stirred well, covered and let sit over night
5. Next day stirred again and added pectic enzyme, tannin, acid blend, YN, and YE.
6. After 5 hours I poured the yeast slurry/starter onto the blueberry must which had been sitting covered.
  Used the yeast slurry from the mojito that I racked that morning to make a starter. I added a 1/4 tsp. of Yeast nutrient and 1/8 tsp. of energizer and a tbs. of sugar to the slurry and sprinkled new yeast as well. The idea was to avoid a stuck ferment caused from the blueberries natural anti-yeast characteristics.
   I had about 3/4 gallon of fresh steamed blueberry juice in the fridge that I had used part of to flavor a Melomel and so I will use this for topping off after the first racking as well as a flavor pack addition to the finished wine.

Sub-lime Mojito

Started a Mojito style wine which will be labeled "Sub-lime". This will be a mint/lime flavored takeoff on Lon's famous skeeter pee lemon wine but with 60 oz. of 100% lime and 32 oz. of lemon concentrate along with a little mint for a light summer drink.

I decided to prepare this wine with a yeast starter instead of a slurry: Hydrate yeast in 1/4cup water and in a separate container mix 2.5 cup water with 1 tablespoon sugar and a pinch of nutrient and a dash of the lime sugar syrup.

1. Invert 16 cups sugar in 30 oz of lime juice for 30 minutes.
2. Allow inverted syrup to cool and add to primary along with other 30 oz of lime juice and water to 5.5 gallons.
3. Stir and check SG (I am looking for alcohol on the light side so 1.055-1.060)
4. Add 3 tsp of nutrient, 1 tsp of energizer, 3/4 tsp of tannin. (Same amount to be added again later)
5. Let sit for 24 hours stir and whip in oxygen and add yeast starter.
6. The remaining 32oz of lemon juice will be added when SG is approximately 1.040 along with the remaining nutrient and energizer.

I have decided there is probably little benefit to ferment the mint in the primary and so have decided to make a mint sugar syrup which can be used for back sweetening as well as mint flavor at the time of bottling. In this way the mint flavor can be controlled.