Hmmm, all this fruit left over, what to make?

[infinitenexus]

When I was purchasing blackberries for my first batch of wine, I kinda forgot how many I bought, then bought a few extra, just in case. Twice. I also picked up a few pounds of other berries on the way. So now I have 5 pounds of blackberries, 3 pounds of wild blueberries, a pound or so of pomegranate seeds, and about 2 pounds of dark cherries. I have a few ideas, but I'm new to this, so I'd like to play it a little safe. Any suggestions? My ideas so far are:

1 gallon cherry zinfandel - but I'd have to split the 5 gal recipe up, likely not difficult to do, but I'm new to this and I don't want to mess it up.

1 gallon blackberry-blueberry port. Never made a port, but I love them, so maybe this would be tasty.

 

[Wade E]

Ooops, when you went to hit the Post reply button you must have hit the Red triangle right above it instead by accident and that hides the post until any admin or mods check it out. That button is for users like you to alert us about spammers or inappropriate conduct on the forum. I fixed it for you.

 

[infinitenexus]

Ah, thanks. I was wondering why I typed all this out but it never showed up.

 

[Wade E]

I think a Blackberry Blueberry wine would work but as far as a port I think you would want more fruit. Pomegranate seeds?? Ive never seen seeds used. Ive never made wine with cherries but I think of you blended it with enough concentrate or juice it would work form a 1 gallon batch of blend like you stated.

 

[infinitenexus]

Well, when I say seeds I mean the little seed-shaped pods that are inside the pomegranate. I forgot what they're actually called. I was thinking of using all 5 pounds of blackberries, 3 of wild blueberries, and 2 of dark cherries together to make a very full-bodied wine, but I don't know if that would be overkill, and I have no idea if I would need to adjust anything to get it to work together right. I'm still really considering the cherry zinfandel. I think I've caught the wine making bug, my first batch is still in the second day of fermenting and I already want to brew 10 more gallons.

 

[Wade E]

It wouldnt be overkill as most of use around 8 lbs per gallon or all fruit period with no water added at all.

 

[Duster]

I kind want to persuade you into a blueberry, blackberry, pomegranate port. if you need more fruit then add 100% juice from your supermarket. I only say this because I made a blueberry pom sweet wine that that I wanted to turn into a port but never did. I think this would make a great port however I would be much help for I have never made one.

 

[infinitenexus]

The only thing really holding me back from making a port is that all the blackberry port recipes I've seen include a cup or a half cup of malt. I don't have any of that, and I'd rather just use fruit. What is the basic, dumbed down process for making port? Do I continually add some more syrup while it's fermenting, to raise the sweetness level, then fortify at a certain time?

 

[Wade E]

You dont need malt although its very cheap and will make your port all the much better. Without of coarse you can still make a nice port though and yes you could do the Chaptalization method which includes starting with an sg of around 1.125 or there abouts and wait for it to ferment down to around 1.020 and then boost it back up some. You need to know that you should use a strong yeast for this like EC1118 or Premier Cuvee. Doing it this way you can just keep bumping it up using math of coarse until you have exhausted the yeasts abv toleranceand end up sweet or you can just push it a littlke and the fortify it using Brandy or Everkleer. Here is a link on how to do that and its called Pearsons Square.
http://mysite.ncnetwork.net/resqu17p/convhelp.html#pearson

 

[infinitenexus]

Thank you. I'm leaning toward this port idea. If by chance I don't, then I'll make the cherry zinfandel. Oh, a question on oak chips - is there anything special about the toasted oak chips that we use in wine? Has it been treated in any particular way, or could I take some fresh oak, cut it in small pieces, toast it myself and use it?

 

[Medieval]

It's definatley treated special for wine.. I have a batch of mixed fruit and I don't think I would do it again simply because it's probrably better to make pure blackberry or pure blueberry and then mix the wine when it's finished to see how it taste together. That is just my personal preference for what I am going to do from now on if I ever want to mix and match.