To juice or not to juice

[n2tazmania]

Now that is the question.......

Got to get my blackberries out of the deep freeze to make room for the dimes. Do you guys mash up you blackberries in the fermenter or juice them with a juicer? Looks like it would clear better if you didn't put the pulp in the fermenter.

 

[Turock]

Juicing is not necessary. When you get the berries thawed, they will be macerated and you'll have a ton of juice from them. Remember----not including the pulp is a bad thing. The pulp has lots of goodness and flavor to it. Use no water if you want a blackberry wine with big flavor.

It's a good idea to bag this fruit to contain the seeds. And if you go with no water, you might want to bentonite the primary. Without bentonite, the wine is very dense and hard to get clear. Some people don't care about that, since it will be such a deep-colored wine. But if you want more clarity, bentonite is a good idea--we always use it for this wine. Add the bentonite on the 3rd day of the ferment so that the pectic enzyme has done its job by then, because bentonite inactivates enzymes if you add it early on to the ferment.

71B is the culture of choice for this fruit in order to manage the malic acid so you don't have a harsh wine at the end.

 

[Deezil]

I knew I forgot something: Bentonite!

Here's my 2013 Blackberry Melomel if you want something to read, n2tazmania

Between freezing & pectic enyzme, there isnt much left of the blackberries by the time the fermentation is rolling good. You can see, if you read through my batch, how much pulp I have (I siphoned everything to the carboy, to finish fermenting - so thats allllll the pulp).. Will be separating the wine from the pulp pretty soon

I didnt use 71B myself, but it is a good bit of advice.

 

[jamesngalveston]

although i have never used the 71b yeast, Turock is right on the money.
I use pasteur red, are premier curvee..

 

[n2tazmania]

Thanks guys. This will be my first batch of blackberry. Once it is thawed out, it might make 3 gallon. This was the first year for my blackberry plants. Should have a bunch more next year. I don't drink much wine. But of what I do, I can't leave the blackberry alone.