Blackberry wine question

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cowboytex

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I made a gallon of blackberry wine from a recipe from internet:• 4 1⁄2 pounds of blackberries. That takes about an hour or less to pick.

• 2 1⁄2 lbs. of regular old sugar, the white kind.

• 7 pints of water

• a red wine yeast (regular yeast will work too, but not as good)

PART 1 of the blackberry wine recipe: Here’s what to do: (Read these directions all the way through first)

1. Gather your blackberries

2. Crush the berries by hand in your bucket or pale and then pour on one quart of boiled water that has cooled. Mix it well.

3. Campden tablets kill any unwanted yeast. I made this wine for years successfully without them. Other wines I have had problems not using them. So, it’s your call. If you want them, crush one tablet and dissolve the powder in a little bit of warm water. Mix this with the fruit.

4. Leave the mixture alone for a couple hours. No worries if bleaching takes place.

5. WHILE you are waiting for those 2 hours to pass… take one third of the sugar and boil it for one minute in 3 pints of water (that’s 48 ounces). Allow this to cool to room temperature.

6. WHEN IT HAS COOLED… take a packet of the yeast and empty it into 4 ounces of warm water. Let it sit for 10 minutes.

7. Pour the syrup (sugar water) into the pulp.

8. Pour in the yeast. If you do not wait for the syrup to cool first, you will KILL the yeast. It is ALIVE.

9. Cover this with a clean cloth.

10. Let it sit for 7 days in a warm place.



Part 2 of how to make blackberry wine: AFTER SEVEN DAYS…

1. Strain the pulp though a fine muslin or other material and wring it out dry.

2. Compost the pulp.

3. Put the strained wine into your gallon jug.

4. Boil another 1/3 of the sugar in ONE PINT (16 oz.) of water. LET IT COOL.

5. When it cools, add it to the rest. If you do not wait for it to cool, then you’ll KILL your yeast.

6. Plug the top of the jug with an airlock or some cotton wool. I like the airlocks. They are cheap and clean. Just put a bit of water in it so the bobber thingie can go up an down. You can also put a balloon in it. It will trap all the CO2 in the balloon. The airlock lets it out. If you use an airlock, you should see the wine bubble, bubble, bubble!

7. Let this sit for 10 days…



Part 3 of the balckberrry wine recipe: AFTER TEN DAYS

I will post photos for this section later. When you get to this stage, check back.

1. Siphon out your wine into a spare jar or pot. Make sure you are keeping your equipment clean. To siphon, put you spare jar LOWER than your wine. Put the siphon on the wine and direct the bottom to the jar. With your head lower than the wine, suck hard on the tube making sure you do not drink the wine. The wine will flow into the tube and into your jar. Let the wine flow and leave the sediment in your jug. It should be obvious what to do.

2. Clean out your jug you used. Sterilize it, then return your wine to the jug you used before.

3. Boil the remaining one third of the sugar in the remaining pint of water. LET IT COOL.

4. Add it to the wine, plug the jug back up like you did before.

5. Leave it in a warm place until FERMENTATION STOPS! You’ll know cuz it will stop bubbling.

Part 4 of the blackberry wine recipe: AFTER IT’S DONE BUBBLING…

1. Siphon into another spare jar leaving sediment behind.

2. Get your bottles, clean them and sanitize them. Wine can still go bad if put in tainted bottles.

3. Put a funnel in the bottle, and fill each bottle to the neck.

4. Cork each bottle.

5. DRINK
I have followed the directions and have been waiting, I've checked the wine every other day or so and it seems to be stuck at 1.010. Because of the testing, I added a little spring water to bring the level up in my gallon jug. My question is, should I wait longer or drink ?
 
glad it tastes good! i'm sure tom, wade, and some of the others can give specific help, but it sounds like to me you're well on your way. congrats!
 
Depending upon exactly what yeast you have used you may have exceeded the yeasts abv tolerance. I dont really see the science behind this recipe unless it is designed for a high abv and to end up slightly sweet cause thats exactly what you will end up with by doing this. It is pretty hard to keep track of exactly what abv you will end up with this way. Its much better to add all your sugar up front unless you are trying for a port like recipe where as you are pushing the yeast to its limits and dumping that much sugar up front will shock the yeast into not starting or starting and stressing out and producing off flavors not wanted.
 
Depending upon exactly what yeast you have used you may have exceeded the yeasts abv tolerance. I dont really see the science behind this recipe unless it is designed for a high abv and to end up slightly sweet cause thats exactly what you will end up with by doing this. It is pretty hard to keep track of exactly what abv you will end up with this way. Its much better to add all your sugar up front unless you are trying for a port like recipe where as you are pushing the yeast to its limits and dumping that much sugar up front will shock the yeast into not starting or starting and stressing out and producing off flavors not wanted.

It had no problem starting and it is still bubbling but it is not getting any lower from I stated. I think it taste great but did not know if I should continue under airloc or go ahead and drink. I had not heard of S.G. or anything else when I started this wine. If I had read this forum first I doubt if I would have even attempted to make a batch of wine but when I read this recipe it sounded so easy!!! lol
thanks
cowboytex
 
It is as easy as what you did but more predictabe using a hydrometer to take an sg reading and know what you can produce without getting into trouble. Can you make a decent wine without these tools, yes, Will you have consistant results, probably not. Making wine is actually fairly easy, we may make it sound very hard at times but we are just pushing the limits to make the even better wine.
 
It is as easy as what you did but more predictabe using a hydrometer to take an sg reading and know what you can produce without getting into trouble. Can you make a decent wine without these tools, yes, Will you have consistant results, probably not. Making wine is actually fairly easy, we may make it sound very hard at times but we are just pushing the limits to make the even better wine.

Thanks Wade E, I understand what you are saying but I did not have a hydrometer at the time I started the blackberry and I didn't know I needed one. So, what would you suggest now......drink the wine and try to do a better job next time,,,,actually I am doing better....I bought a hydrometer for my plum wine. So, what about the blackberry...drink it now?

cowboytex
 
So, what about the blackberry...drink it now?

cowboytex

if it's ok when you bottle, it should be good to age. although, it doesn't seem you killed the yeast in the end. you should use k-meta before bottling to ensure yeast is all dead. just because its done bubbling doesn't mean it's not fermenting some. since you didn't back sweeten (didn't read it all, but the end and i didn't read anything about re-sweetening before bottling), it should be ok to sit. the way you did this sounds like it will be high in ABV. you might have other issues with bacteria or other off flavors. as wade mentioned, straining the yeast in any way, can and will create off flavors. i can't remember the bad tasting chemical (there's a 3 letter abbreviation for this, starts with a p?) that's created by strained yeast, but it is always there from fermentation. just much worse when the yeast is strained.

doing wine this way can be more hit or miss than using a hydrometer, acid tester and doing what wade described.
 
if it's ok when you bottle, it should be good to age. although, it doesn't seem you killed the yeast in the end. you should use k-meta before bottling to ensure yeast is all dead. just because its done bubbling doesn't mean it's not fermenting some. since you didn't back sweeten (didn't read it all, but the end and i didn't read anything about re-sweetening before bottling), it should be ok to sit. the way you did this sounds like it will be high in ABV. you might have other issues with bacteria or other off flavors. as wade mentioned, straining the yeast in any way, can and will create off flavors. i can't remember the bad tasting chemical (there's a 3 letter abbreviation for this, starts with a p?) that's created by strained yeast, but it is always there from fermentation. just much worse when the yeast is strained.

doing wine this way can be more hit or miss than using a hydrometer, acid tester and doing what wade described.

Thanks Midwest Vintner, I don't plan to bottle, I will leave in the jug and put in the frig to cool. I don't think it will last too long ! lol
 
Let the wine clear and age a little and it will taste much much better. All wine will taste much better in time. Most fruit wines will be better with some resisual sugar and most of us like to sweeten our wine after it ferments dry.
 
Let the wine clear and age a little and it will taste much much better. All wine will taste much better in time. Most fruit wines will be better with some resisual sugar and most of us like to sweeten our wine after it ferments dry.

ok thanks Wade
 

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