Where to start

[jmyers63]

I'm just getting started in this winemaking thing and see so many posts on making fruit wines. I just started a small batch of blackberry and am anxious to see how it turns out. Now my question, we love full bodied, dry grape wines but are unfamiliar with fruit wines. Any suggestions on what we might like?

 

[Sirs]

most any fruit you ferment will make a good wine far as i'm concerned if you want a fruit wine like what your describing you'll need to do a couple of things. 1 use as much extra fruit as you can get per gallon for instance if normal recipe says 4 pounds per gallon use 6 or 7 and get the starting sg to at a minimum of 1.085, I prefer a higher starting sg myself. The main thing is patience with a dry fruit wine you have to give them time to smooth out back sweetening just a small amount will make it drinkable a lot sooner in my opinion. You'll find as you get into this hobby/obsession that you'll try more and more ways to do this craft as there is no wrong or right way only certain things you must do to achieve the end result which is good wine that you like. Also ask questions for anything you don't think is right or wrong.

 

[Sirs]

try finding a fruit you like blackberry is a good one to start with only thing is when dry it will have a bit of a bite/bitterness to it when young. Apple is a good fruit or peaches both can have plenty of body

 

[docanddeb]

Elderberry and Sour Cherry make nice wines too... Like Sirs said... there are so many choices, and we all have our favorites. You'll need to start a lot and try them all! Oh... get more jugs, carboys and anything else you can get your hands on. Check Craigs List, Freecycle... all of it!

Debbie

 

[mrpoland]

Bitter flavor in blackberry wine is created by seeds. When you start fermentation with fruit remove fruit after 3-5 days. Also blackberry wine sometimes has grassy taste. To avoid that, add some sour cherry or blueberries. 20% of all fruit should be enough. Sour cherry and red ribes berries are great for beginners. Very easy wines. Doesn’t take much time and they clear very easy by them self, without any chemical help. Debbie gave you a great idea! Search for equipment!!! When you make 1 wine and you will find some free/cheep fruit because of the season start new wine. Making wine takes time so when one will be finish another one will be getting ready! I like to do experiments so it is good to use something small. I know you can get wine in the store in big bottle bottles [3liters] bottle not very big but perfect size for making experiments and looking for your favorite flavor! When you take a bottle like that for meeting with friends after the party the bottle is ready for second use!

Good luck!

 

[jmyers63]

Thanks for the suggestions on the blackberry. The recipe I used instructed to pull the fruit after a couple of days and prior to fermenation. Now that I'm half way through fermentation, is it too late to add some additional juice (blueberry or cherry) to soften this up? Last night's SG was 1.042 and it's bubbling like crazy.

 

[mrpoland]

You can add, juice, fruit or sugar any time when fermentation is going on. You just have to be careful with the sugar to not put too much.

One more thing from my side. Grapes are perfect fruit for wine you just get the juice and you will make wine. With fruit wine is a little bit more complicate because you have to adjust sugar level and acid level. Blackberries contains 5-8% [lets say 6,5%] of sugar it means that using just fruit you will make very weak dry wine, around 4% of alcohol. It means that you have to add some sugar to make it stronger that yeast will produce more alcohol. I was reading that you are looking for dry wine and black berries continues 1% of citric acid what is high for dry wine. To reduce the acid level you have to add some water. You can always use only the juice but dry wine will be sour. Since it is your first wine just try and who knows it might be something you like. Add some sugar to the juice to make it strong enough and then you will see.

In a very short way I do it this way:

A*1,7*B=C

Where A the % level you are looking for in the wine B volume of the juice you have in liters, C the sugar you have to add to the wine.
Example:
I have 5 liters of juice and I want to make wine 14%

140*1,7*5=1190g

It means you will need to add 1190g of sugar into 5 liters to get 14% of dry wine. As I said this is the shortest way. It is not going to be exactly 14% since there is some sugar in the juice and adding sugar will increase the volume of the juice but for the begging it works fine. Just don’t put all sugar at one time! In your case I would just make it simple and make blackberry wine to see how all this process works.

 

[jmyers63]

Key ingredients in the recipe were:
6# blackberries
2.5# sugar (I used less)
7 pints water

My starting SG was 1.102 with less than 2# of sugar, so I held at that point. Overall, it looks like I'm close to your recommendations. We'll let it go and see what happens. The worst that could happen is we don't like it, but have a basis to start adjusting from.

Thanks...

 

[mrpoland]

The real taste of the wine will come at least after 6 months. Right now there is too much yeast cells. I think this is all magic! You have juice and after the time it taste totally different! Then you put into the bottles forget it for few months and you can’t believe that it was made from juice! When you will experience this magic then everything about wine will be up to you. How strong you want to make it, sweet, dry, very special or just something for lunch there is so much to discover…. But it takes time.

Have fun, read more and good luck!

 

[jmyers63]

Well, we bottled the blackberry last week and were thrilled with the results so far. I'm sure it will improve with age, but overall it is very drinkable and something both of us will enjoy. For the next batch, I may try some light oak and I believe it would benefit from some tannins. Possibly adding some grape juice into the mix may just be what it needs. But we are absolutely not displeased with our first batch!

 

[bob1]

I oak the blackberry it is good.

 

[tchuklobrau]

Thats the best part of fruit wines, the sky is the limit. If you are fortunate enough to be like me and live in a large fruit growing region, even better. If it sounds yummy make it, no fears. My 1st was 5g of red currant, while talking with my wife we discussed blends, and because she said yum I made red currant blueberry, and red currant rhubarb. Friends who buy gallons of cheap a$$ wine are the best, I now have 6 1g bottles for experiments.