[TNFISHRMAN]

I am wanting to make a 6-gallon batch of Blackberry and I am not sure I can get all 24lbs. of berries in the large straining bag. Any suggestions?? Is it absolutly necessary to use a straining bag in the primary. Thanks, Lynn

[peterCooper]

Get a metal sieve and place a large bowl underneath. Put the blackberries in
the sieve and mash with the back of a spoon. the juice will run into the bowl.
Once you have the majority of the juice out, put the remains into another
bowl. Repeat for all 24 lbs. The collected remains go in the straining bag.
the juice goes straight in the primary.

[Waldo]

This process will work much better too if they are well frozen first and then thawed. They will almost juice themselve.

[MedPretzel]

I've done it the way that it has been described, and I've plopped the whole shebang in the primary. The way that was described is certainly easier and less time intensive, but the other way is fine too.


You'll just need to rack more often to get the pieces-parts out.


I've "primary-transferred" (what i call it) where after fermentation has started and the must is all goopy, I just take the one primary, and slowly dump it over a large sieve into another. At this point, oxygen is okay, and so I've never had any problems with it. This takes an hour or so, depending on what's left of the pulp, and how fine your sieve is. I let the sieve sit on the (now empty) primary at least overnight, and then dump the remaining juice that is in there into the "receiving" primary. I let fermentation go a couple of days longer in the "receiving" primary, and then transfer to a carboy.





I don't know if this is "correct" winemaking procedure, but it's the one I've used. And it works.





M.

[PolishWineP]

You can also use a combination of the above, but instead of using the sieve, when you pour from 1 to the other you can have someone hold open a straining bag which is in your 2nd primary fermenter. (1 or 2 sanitized clothes pins holding a bit of it to the top edge of the 2nd primary will be very helpful at this point) Pour from the 1st primary into the second primary, pouring into the bag that is in the 2nd primary. Juice runs out, pulp mostly stays in. Then you can lift the bag, treat it like your honey and give it a squeeze, and then set it on the sieve in a big bowl to finish draining. Pour the liquid that drained from the bag and through the sieve into the 2nd primary. T'da! It's much easier than I made it look here. And freezing the fruit in advance really does help juice it up!

[pkcook]

The freezing part will make the juice much easier to squeeze out. Another way that I have tried is sanitize your hands and dump a part of berries in the bag and, using your clean hands, squeeze the juice out of the berries into the primary. Continue filling the bag until all the berries have been dumped in andsqueezed well. Tie up what pulpis left in the bag and drop it in the primary to ferment with the must.


Winemaking is like math, there are usually a few different ways to get the same results.

[OldWino1]

what about your own puree from blender I relize it would take some time. But a blackberry would puree pretty fast.