Advice for the clueless, anybody?

[dbcatz]

I had a whole bunch of blackberries in the freezer & thought... maybe wine instead of jam. No computer access at home so I just defrosted them overnight, poured almost a gallon of distilled water on them then squeezed them thru some cheese cloth into a 3 gal. jug. Now with the little I've read I see this can get technical. Can I start with just the juice or do I need the pulp? I have a good 2 gallons but a small opening; no way to get pulp in a bag in there. I'm not looking to do anything fancy, just some hillbilly hooch. Yikes, am i offending anybody by being in the wrong place? lol Anyway, my friend picked me up some wine yeast in the city; the wrong kind. It will have to do though & I can already hear you groaning. Some good news,
I have some campden tablets & pectic enzyme, imagine that, funny huh? So..., being what it is, do you think I can just move on and add some sugar & the yeast. Go ahead & let me have it, i won't be offended. And yes, my stuff was clean :~) .We did this years ago & we just winged it. It turned out really good.
Unfortunately, I don't remember what we did. Maybe it was better that way; not knowing. lol
Any advice would be nice.

 

[Johnd]

I had a whole bunch of blackberries in the freezer & thought... maybe wine instead of jam. No computer access at home so I just defrosted them overnight, poured almost a gallon of distilled water on them then squeezed them thru some cheese cloth into a 3 gal. jug. Now with the little I've read I see this can get technical. Can I start with just the juice or do I need the pulp? I have a good 2 gallons but a small opening; no way to get pulp in a bag in there. I'm not looking to do anything fancy, just some hillbilly hooch. Yikes, am i offending anybody by being in the wrong place? lol Anyway, my friend picked me up some wine yeast in the city; the wrong kind. It will have to do though & I can already hear you groaning. Some good news,
I have some campden tablets & pectic enzyme, imagine that, funny huh? So..., being what it is, do you think I can just move on and add some sugar & the yeast. Go ahead & let me have it, i won't be offended. And yes, my stuff was clean :~) .We did this years ago & we just winged it. It turned out really good.
Unfortunately, I don't remember what we did. Maybe it was better that way; not knowing. lol
Any advice would be nice.

You’re not in a bad place at all. Move the juice into a bucket type fermenter and add the pulp back to it, along with some pectic enzyme and a crushed Campden tablet or two, mix it up well and check your specific gravity with a hydrometer (under $10 from a home brew store). Adjust you SG with sugar to yield the final alcohol content you desire, and add your wine yeast (K1V1116 is a good fruit choice) 12 - 24 hours later. You can screen out the pulp, seeds, etc. later when fermentation is nearly over. If you have the means, it’s a good idea to check pH and adjust if needed before pitching yeast.

 

[tamwood53]

Blackberries and black raspberries are a strong flavor fruit, so not using the pulp will work. You will be sacrificing a bit of the flavor, and some tannin from the seeds. Should be good either way.

 

[BernardSmith]

But better would have been to add spring water. Yeast prefer the minerals in spring water to water that has been distilled to filter out anything but H2O. Distilled water is for those working in a lab or for making cheese to dissolve the Ch Cl or the rennet, but for wine making (and brewing beer) I think you want water with some mineral content.

 

[dbcatz]

You’re not in a bad place at all. Move the juice into a bucket type fermenter and add the pulp back to it, along with some pectic enzyme and a crushed Campden tablet or two, mix it up well and check your specific gravity with a hydrometer (under $10 from a home brew store). Adjust you SG with sugar to yield the final alcohol content you desire, and add your wine yeast (K1V1116 is a good fruit choice) 12 - 24 hours later. You can screen out the pulp, seeds, etc. later when fermentation is nearly over. If you have the means, it’s a good idea to check pH and adjust if needed before pitching yeast.

 

[dbcatz]

My friend came back from the city (3 hrs. away) with my yeast today. They sold him D47 for Chardonnays & he told them it was for Blackberry. Anyway, I'll be in the city next Friday, so I hope the hydrometer can wait until then. Can I use a stainless soup kettle cleaned with the campden & h2o? And how much sugar should I add before I get the hydrometer? Really winging it again, aren't I ? Im so glad you answered my post, thank you with much appreciation!

 

[dbcatz]

But better would have been to add spring water. Yeast prefer the minerals in spring water to water that has been distilled to filter out anything but H2O. Distilled water is for those working in a lab or for making cheese to dissolve the Ch Cl or the rennet, but for wine making (and brewing beer) I think you want water with some mineral content.

Thanks, that's good to know. I use the distilled for the radiator; well water is too hard on them.

 

[dbcatz]

Blackberries and black raspberries are a strong flavor fruit, so not using the pulp will work. You will be sacrificing a bit of the flavor, and some tannin from the seeds. Should be good either way.

Guess I'm putting the pulp back in since I didn't toss it. Thanks.

 

[Johnd]

My friend came back from the city (3 hrs. away) with my yeast today. They sold him D47 for Chardonnays & he told them it was for Blackberry. Anyway, I'll be in the city next Friday, so I hope the hydrometer can wait until then. Can I use a stainless soup kettle cleaned with the campden & h2o? And how much sugar should I add before I get the hydrometer? Really winging it again, aren't I ? Im so glad you answered my post, thank you with much appreciation!

It’s hard to say how much sugar to add without knowing where you’re starting from, but let’s take a shot. On a website I found, the average SG of blackberry juice is 1.04, lets get your must to 1.09, that will take 2.5 pounds of sugar and get you just above 12% ABV. Mix it well and make sure it’s all dissolved before proceeding. Get a hydrometer as soon as you can, you may also need some nutrients like Fermaid K.