Blackberry bliss

[Woodbee]

I had to go pick up a wood splitter from the friends that got me into making wines. They are the kind of neat people that you just can't say hi and good bye to. So after two hours of shooting the breeze I finally got the splitter hooked up and got gone. But not before I had tried some of her newly bottled Blackberry wine. Wow was I impressed. She had done a beautiful job. Generally they go for the highest abv possible. Sometimes the wine there bites back. But not this time. It only had 8% and great taste and nose. Then she gave me about 10 lbs of frozen blackberries to make a batch of my own. I hope that I can do as good a job as she did. Then walking out the door she said "Here take a bottle with you". Life can be a great thing.
Brad

 

[Wade E]

Now thats a friend to keep! Just goes to show that abv aint everything and usually just ruins a good thing. I would rather have 2 glasses of real good stuff and barely catch a buzz then 1 drink and be buzzed but say when I left that that stuff was swill!

 

[Tom]

All goes to what Wade and I been saying about fruit wines. TASTE comes before alcohol. Hence start around 1.085 and have a great wine.
Of course better if you add a f-pac and back sweeten.

 

[Midwest Vintner]

would this be the same couple i met?

the aisen pear wine was good. i think the aisen was the prevalent flavor, but darn good.

 

[Woodbee]

Yep same couple. We just went in halfies with them on a 40lb. block of frozen peaches. It will take days to thaw them out. So I am going to start a batch of Blackberry/Port tomarrow. And yea, the asian pear turned out pretty well. Thanks.
Brad

 

[Midwest Vintner]

Yep same couple. We just went in halfies with them on a 40lb. block of frozen peaches. It will take days to thaw them out. So I am going to start a batch of Blackberry/Port tomarrow. And yea, the asian pear turned out pretty well. Thanks.
Brad

nice. they were definitely good company as we like to talk too. the pear went fast and normally i don't really like anise flavor (never had as a kid even), but it was much better in wine.

blackberry port is a great choice there.

 

[myakkagldwngr]

It seems alot of the members here like blackberry for wine. I know that the only problem with my blackberry is I only made five gallons.
I tried another bottle a few days ago. Finally was able to let it sit another month and couldn't believe how it had cleared up and tasted better.

 

[Woodbee]

I just got my first batch mixed up yesterday & will pitch yeast this afternoon. I had a problem though. Friends gave me about 8 lbs of frozen berries. I bought another 15lbs of those pricey little buggers. I had them all about half thawed out and I decided to go ahead and put them in a primary so I could break up the remaining clumps. As I pour in the third bag I notice that two of the three bags were Elderberrys.@#$%^&. So I spent the next half hour with my hands in this freezing soup sorting out the Blackberries from the Elderberries. Frozen purple hands. My recipe called for a small amount of dried Elderberries so I left a few in the batch. I presume that a blend wouldn't have been a bad thing but I am really after the Blackberry thing.
Frozen masses of the two look remarkably alike. So all is well now.I called my buddy and told him to come and get the Elderberries for his wife to make jam.I still have about thirty pounds of them in the freezer and 10 gallons in carboys. I just don't have room or the inclination to make more wine out of them at this time.
Brad

 

[outdoorsmadness]

I wish I could find some frozen ao fresh elderberries, Where did you get them at? I bet the blackberies and elderberries would make a good combination, like to know how it turns out.

 

[Woodbee]

Both of these fruits grow wild here. I did have to purchase some extra blackberries to fill up the primary.
Brad

 

[arcticsid]

Brad, we all like our wine,but i think we all like our drink as well. Sometimes it takes ALOT of berries to make wine with.

I live in a place where we don't have natural fruit growing and sometime to pick enough berries can be a pain, especially if the bears beat you to them! No kidding!

You could always make a liqueur if you don't have enough for wine. We have talked about that in here quite a bit. It is really nothing more than soaking those wonderful berries in grain alcohol, and then strain the pulp and add some sugar.

There are those in here, especially Tom, who has shared his recipes to do this. It is an option for you. If you want to know more, just ask.

Still cracking up trying to picture you trying to sort out those berries.

I do admire your honesty and integrity on this and hope you get some jam out of it!! Somethig to consider is when you are using berries or even fruit is to use a paint straining bag, tied of course. Or even 100% nylon panty hose. It will keep everything to gether and is alot easier to deal with.


Troy

 

[myakkagldwngr]

Troy, I think we should have started a petition while SP was still the governor.
You should be able to shoot all them berry eating bears and save the fruit for wine!