Blackberry juice

[dralarms]

I'll have try that. Do you use dust or chips?

 

[Julie]

I'll have try that. Do you use dust or chips?

Cubes, one package for the 5 gallon batch.

 

[dralarms]

OK, thanks.

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

We get about a gallon of juice from 10 pounds of frozen berries. Do not forget to add pectinase, some people say to add 50% more than normal and your wine will clear. Steaming blackberries is a lot of work, hot juice and steam, have to clean stuff, PIA really anymore. We have just been freezing as we pick, then thaw and crush them in a grape crusher, add pectinase and KM overnight and then press, lots of juice, you can add some water back to the skins, let it soak a little, mix it up good and press again. 100% blackberry wine can be made, its going to be a little acidic, if its to much acid some people add potassium carbonate or just dilute it until they get a good TA.

It is certainly easy either way to deal with just the juice and not all that pulp, sometimes we let it ferment on the pulp 3 days and then press, more like straining it thru a paint strainer bag and squeezing it.

Oak in blackberry is very good, so is honey, and honey and oak is even better together.

WVMJ

 

[jamesngalveston]

hey mountainjack, your talking pectin enzime as pectinase,correct.
i am going to press 100 lbs tommorow to make a large batch ..
your method of adding pectin, and km overnight is a sound idea, let the pectin brake down the fruit, the km keep it from spoiling....press again.
after the pectin has broken the fruit down you get more juice...
i will do that..... good info...thanks.

 

[saramc]

hey mountainjack, your talking pectin enzime as pectinase,correct.
i am going to press 100 lbs tommorow to make a large batch ..
your method of adding pectin, and km overnight is a sound idea, let the pectin brake down the fruit, the km keep it from spoiling....press again.
after the pectin has broken the fruit down you get more juice...
i will do that..... good info...thanks.

James be very careful when noting to use pectin when you mean pectic enzyme/pectinase. There are many new winemakers, with no experience with fruit and its makeup, whom have literally added pectin instead of the enzyme. They thought they were one and the same.

 

[dralarms]

Oh, that would be a mess.

If the blackberry turns out 1/2 as good as the blue berry, I'd better watch out.

 

[jamesngalveston]

pectinase is pectic enzyme isn't it...not many use the term pectinase

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

James, crush once, add pectinase and KM, then press. If we can add pectinase to your vocabulary all that much better WVMJ

 

[jamesngalveston]

thanks jack..will do just that..

 

[Jerry1]

Hey, I found my old (first) book on wine making. Written by an englishman, C.J.J.Berry. Supposedly one of Englands best at that time. The recipe I used called for 3 lbs of berries per gallon of wine. I remember this wine having a very good and strong flavor. So, if I used SBWs information and do a little tweeking on the numbers to bring them up to 15 lbs for 5 gallon, it would seem to me that two gallons of pure juice would make a very good five gallon batch wine. I tried drinking a little of the straight blackberry juice and it was too thick for my taste. Any thoughts?

 

[dralarms]

Jerry1, not sure what you are drinking but the juice from homewinery.com is concentrated and 1/2 gallon makes 5 gallons of wine. What I do is put the juice in the bucket, add 4 gallons water, add sugar to proper SG, then finish filling to 5 gallon mark ( if necessary).

 

[Julie]

Hey, I found my old (first) book on wine making. Written by an englishman, C.J.J.Berry. Supposedly one of Englands best at that time. The recipe I used called for 3 lbs of berries per gallon of wine. I remember this wine having a very good and strong flavor. So, if I used SBWs information and do a little tweeking on the numbers to bring them up to 15 lbs for 5 gallon, it would seem to me that two gallons of pure juice would make a very good five gallon batch wine. I tried drinking a little of the straight blackberry juice and it was too thick for my taste. Any thoughts?

Sorry but 3# per gallon is not going to give you a strong flavor. Drinking the juice as it is will not give you the correct comparison for when it is wine. What you are drinking right now was a whole lot of sugar and that sugar is going to become alcohol and the only sugar you will be tasting in the end is what you decide to put in.

I am not telling you to go straight juice if you are leery about that but do at least 5# per gallon.