Blackberry Mango

[Vertumnus]

So it's summer time in western Washington and that means it's Himalayan blackberry season. Just from around various parks and trails in Seattle, I've been able to harvest 9lbs which is sitting in the freezer. My first question is how much kmeta will I need to apply when its thawing?

I'm thinking of making a 3 gallon batch (though I may be persuaded to do a double fruit DB batch with them if it's more convenient). I realize that 9lbs is probably not enough for that in any case if I want to make wine and I've heard that blackberries' acidity can be a problem so I though I would balance that with maybe up to 50% or another 9 or 10lbs of mango. Plus, it sounds delicious ! I have EC-1118 on hand which should work fine, but I hear 71B has a better time of processing the malic acid. Will the malic be a problem for the fermentation or afterward if I use the EC-1118? I was planning to just adjust SG to a certain level and put PH at 3.4, but are there any other additives (tannin, nutrient regimen, etc.) I need to consider?

 

[jensmith]

So it's summer time in western Washington and that means it's Himalayan blackberry season. Just from around various parks and trails in Seattle, I've been able to harvest 9lbs which is sitting in the freezer. My first question is how much kmeta will I need to apply when its thawing?

I'm thinking of making a 3 gallon batch (though I may be persuaded to do a double fruit DB batch with them if it's more convenient). I realize that 9lbs is probably not enough for that in any case if I want to make wine and I've heard that blackberries' acidity can be a problem so I though I would balance that with maybe up to 50% or another 9 or 10lbs of mango. Plus, it sounds delicious ! I have EC-1118 on hand which should work fine, but I hear 71B has a better time of processing the malic acid. Will the malic be a problem for the fermentation or afterward if I use the EC-1118? I was planning to just adjust SG to a certain level and put PH at 3.4, but are there any other additives (tannin, nutrient regimen, etc.) I need to consider?

I prefure lavin 1122 over the 1118. You can use whichever of corse. If 1118 leaves it too acidic you can cold crash it to drop out the tartic acid after it is done. With just 3# of fruit per galleon it may be fine. Some people use pure juice with no water. That would bring up the levels of acid, resulting in steps needed to reduse the acid.
Use nutriants. One campton tab per galleon of wine. You can use the whole dose to cover the frozen fruit during thawing.
Adding mangoes to the mix does sound good. They should help balance the blackberries.



Sent from my iPod touch using Wine Making

 

[Deezil]

No one really knows if it will be too acidic or not, until you mix it up. We could all guess, but we cant know for sure. The acidity of the berries and the mangoes will vary from year to year, and from how you pick the fruit - whether its underripe, ripe, or overripe. Does sound good though..

I would go with the 71B, if it's not too much of a hassle.. I dont know what part of the Sound you're in, but there's homebrew shops scattered all around the area here that should have it. It will chew up some of the malic acid from the blackberries (mangoes are mostly citric acid) and help the finished wine to be smoother and more approachable.

There is a chance that you'll end up with something thats more-blackberry & less-mango, but that's just because of the strength of the two flavors in the two amounts of fruit.