bilberry-wine-recipe

Recommended Equipment

Makes 4.5 litre (one gallon) Makes 10 litres (2.2 gallons)
10 litre plastic bucket with lid 10 litre plastic bucket with lid
5 litre plastic (or 5 litre Glass Demi John) 10 litre plastic bucket and lid drilled
Bung and Airlock for container Bung and Airlock for container
Small Fine Nylon straining bag Small Fine Nylon Straining Bag
Siphon and U Tube Siphon and U Tube
Hydrometer with trail case Hydrometer with trial case
Thermometer Thermometer
Funnel Funnel
Steriliser Steriliser
One Litre plastic food grade jug One Litre Plastic food grade jug
5 x 1Litre Plastic PET Bottles 10 x 1 Litre Plastic PET Bottles

Ingredients for both sizes

Camden Tablets Country Wine Yeast 400gms of Red Grape Concentrate 1.2 Kilo of Sugar Yeast Nutrient Pectolase Finings Citric Acid Potassium Sorbate Tannin For 10 litre just double up the volumes. 1.2 to 1.7 Kilos of Fresh Bilberries (the more you use the stronger the flavour will be). Use fully ripe and washed. Place in a suitable container and put in the freezer. When ready to make your wine. Remove from freezer and pour one litre of boiling water over them. Allow the fruit to reach room temperature and then squeeze in the water each one till they turn to mush (potatoes masher works well). If using fresh then place in container with boiling water and do the same. The freezing makes the fruit softer and easier to squash.

Making Instructions (Recipe)

Make sure all the equipment that comes into contact with the wine is Sterilised before starting. Put the squash Bilberries (temperature should be between 20-25C) in the plastic bucket with the water. If you have a couple of ripe bananas cut them up and throw then in they will give the wine some nice body. Add the Pectolase (one teaspoon) and leave for 24 hours. At this point feel free to add anything that you might think might enhance the wine and give it more flavour. The sort of things is Bananas Raisins Sultans Cranberries Blueberries. If they are hard adding at the time of boiling water if soft they can go in now. Cover with lid. We now need to remove all the juice from the Bilberries. This is best done with a fruit press (see web site for options) but if you don’t have one then place them in a straining bag and squeeze into the plastic bucket (with the liquid in). Now add to the Demi John the Juice half the Sugar(600gms) Yeast Nutrient Yeast Tannin (half a teaspoon) Citric Acid 20gms (two teaspoons) Grape Juice and 3 litres of water. There should be space below the neck on the Demi John so we can add the extra sugar later. Fit the airlock half filled with clean water. Leave to ferment for 5 days. Temperature should be 20-25C. After the 5 days add the remaining 600gms of sugar. If there isn’t enough room remove a little of the liquid. Leave again until fermentation is complete (depending on the temperature as to how long). This will normally be when the airlock has stopped bubbling but always use your hydrometer to make sure. It’s should be around 1.000 or less on the scale and will show the same reading for a few days. Siphon the wine off the sediment back into the sterilised bucket leaving the sediment behind. Clean out the demi john and then pour the wine back into it from the bucket. Add a campden tablet (one per 5 litres) and a teaspoon of potassium sorbate (per 5 litres). Stir or shake well. We need to get rid of the carbon dioxide in the wine before adding the finings. Once done add the finings. Leave in a cool place to clear. When clear you can then bottle your wine. See our guide on bottling Bilberry Wine can be quite dry so if you do want to add further sugar to the wine do this before bottling. It is best served as a medium dry style table wine, so a little sweetness is good but always try before adding. Really needs 6 months to mature.

General Guidelines for Fruit Wines

Always try to make sure the fruit is clean and bug free Make sure all the equipment that comes into contact with the wine at any stage of the process is clean and sterilised. Use a hydrometer and thermometer at all times Check out the Guides on the web site. Make sure when shaking a Demi John made of glass that you always release the pressure between shaking. Glass Demi Johns can build up a lot of pressure and can crack or split if this is not done.