Blackberry Wine

[windy0062]

My first post, and I just joined this forum/web site after finding the web site by ad in WineMaker Magazine.

I'd like to extoll the virtues of blackberry wine. There are at least four varieties of blackberries available pretty much all across North America - the northern reaches, anyway.

These are Native (found in old burns, logged off areas, etc), Himalaya (pointed oval leaf w/serrated edges, found just about everywhere), wild other (highly serrated leaf with nasty thorns, firmer berry) and cultivated thornless blackberries.

The wild blackberries run anywhere from 4 to 7 1/2% sugar and 2 quarts of juice per 2 gallons of berries. The cultivated blackberries run typically 4-6% sugar and about 3-4 quarts of juice per 2 gallons of berries. Usually the higher sugar yield?

My recipes for wild (any variety) blackberry wine are found at http://www.windydawn.com/index5.html. There are recipes for more than just blackberry, and these are proven recipes over 5-15 years, depending on variety.

For 2006 we also tried a blend of raspberry and blueberry with some astounding results, many of which we're still discovering. But the most important one is the absolutely delightful flavor and aroma of the 2:1 blend. And it tastes as though it is a several-year-old, well aged wine.

Contact me directly at [email protected] and try at least twice.

 

[Wade E]

Welcome Windy, Will have to check them out.

 

[kutya]

Windy: Welcome... Do they grow in MT?????

 

[NorthernWinos]

Welcome Windy...am also a lover of Blackberry Wine....Glad to see that you are mixing fruits in your wines..........thanks for sharing!!!Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[windy0062]

My wines are "pure fruit", not mixed with grapes. Except for the odd batch of Merlot, Cabernet, now and then I make only and exclusively "pure fruit" wines from the ground up. Windy

 

[windy0062]

The native "wild" blackberries do. And the cultivated and thornless "may"? However, the "imported" Himalay and other mentioned sadly do not. I have never seen them above "near sea level" - they just do not grow in the mountainous regions. Windy

 

[NorthernWinos]

Windy...liked your Recipe Web Site...

Blackberry is such good wine...we love it and save it as we no longer have a source of blackberries....tho where we lived before the wild ones did not produce every year....
Seems that most Blackberries grow in zone 4, we are in zone 3, so might try to grow them with some extra care.
I noticed in your recipes you use 5 gallons of fruit...is that fresh fruit, or..5 gallons of juice??? How many pounds of fruit would you think that would be??? I usually use 20-24 pounds of fruit per 5-6 gallon batch...never figured gallons....tho I can fit about 5 pounds into a one gallon Zip-Lock bag and freeze them till I have enough to make a batch.
Where do you live to have such good sources of blackberries, blueberries, etc.????Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[windy0062]

Hi, Northern Winos, and thanks for the kind comments.

I'm in Vancouver BC. Where are you located? You can reach me by direct email at [email protected], subject: Wine.

I've noticed that even as far from the coast as Whistler and Princeton, even Boston Bar, the blackberries just don't seem to grow. For some reason they seem to proliferate in the lower coastal regions only, and this is even the native wild north American variety.

Actually, we have three distinctly different varieties of wild blackberries growing hereabouts, as well as the thornless cultivated blackberry.

I pick the blackberries in gallon containers, thus all of my measurements are "in gallons". I have no idea of how many pounds of fruit = a gallon, nor am I really interested in learning. Gallons are my natural measurement criteria, both for picking the fruit and for making the wines, and the system works just fine. Converting everything to pounds becomes an unnecessary complication.

However, when I used to waste my time crushing the fruit in a fruit press I learned that 2 gallons of blackberries generally produced 1/2 gallon of juice. Then I learned that the "act of fermentation" successfully leached the juice from the fruit and pressing/crushing was a waste of my time and effort, and also not doing it saved a heap of cleanup of both my clothes and the kitchen, which both became heavily blackberry stained from the spatter of the press.

Knowing the approximate volume of juice to fruit I can quickly calculate the results of different volumes. I use 3 gallons of berries per prime fermenter (6 gallon capacity), 2 1/2 gallons of filtered water and 10 lbs of granulated sugar. Two of these produce approximately 6.5 gallons of blackberry wine and 2 gallons of fruit pulp to be discarded. I never squeeze the pulp - for the extra cup of dregs its simply not worth it. Although I do sometimes take the pulp off the 6 gallons and put it into a 6 gallon batch of Burgundy or Merlot for a week.

Thus, this year I got about 90 gallons of blackberry wine from 84 gallons of blackberries and I used some 300 lbs of sugar. By the way, I do not measure my sugar by the pound, I measure it in litres. I use 7 litres of sugar per 3 gallons of blackberries (raising the SG to 1.2). I purchase sugar in 40 kg packages, or 88 lbs. I get 9 containers of 7 litres each out of 1 bag of sugar, which is just under 9.9 lbs each. I simply call it 10 lbs for convenience of not specifying an exact weight of approx. 9.89 lbs. And 10 lbs of sugar - that little fraction more - will raise the SG to something like 1.21? Maybe?Edited by: windy0062

 

[smurfe]

Is a gallon the same in Canada as it is in the U.S.? Just wondering as I thought everything there was in metrics. I believe an Imperial gallon is different than a US gallon isn't it? Do your recipes refer to US gallons?


Smurfe

 

[NorthernWinos]

Hi, Northern Winos, and thanks for the kind comments.

I'm in Vancouver BC. Where are you located? You can reach me by direct email at [email protected], subject: Wine.

I went to see my brother on Vancouver Island last year, his land was covered with forbidding brambles, must have been Blackberries of some sort.
I have lived out there too, Kelona, Abbotsford and on the Island, my grandpa had an orchard in Chilliwack...am originally from Edmonton area...Am still a citizen of Canada...married an American and have lived in Minnesota for 30+ years...
It gets very cold here...the wild Blackberries would bloom so early that some years the blossoms would freeze and then they wouldn't produce.
You live in a beautiful place...lots of fruit in the valley....
You mentioned you use grape juice in some of your recipes, is it local???

 

[windy0062]

Hi, Smurfie - I'll get back to your other post later on - I'm on the way out to a wine-tasting and I'm starting to run late.

A US gallon is 4 ea 32 ounce quarts. An imperial gallon is something like 4 ea 40 ounce quarts? What it boils down to is that 4 US quarts = 1 US gallon and 5 Imp Gallons = 6 US gallons and they both = 23 metric Litres, approximately.

My measurements are in US Gallons. I only deal with imperial measurements (they went out with the close of the commonwealth about 28 years ago or so) when I'm buying my 40-ounce duty free booze at the border on returning to Canada from 48 or more hours in the US.

While I can give measurements in Imp. and metric I find its easier to just use US gallons as that's the size of all my containers.

 

[Cracked Cork]

Hi Windy, for all the rest of us that use weight when making wine, how
much does one of your gallons of blackberries weigh? Crackedcork

Hi, Smurfie - I'll get back to your other post later
on - I'm on the way out to a wine-tasting and I'm starting to run late.



A US gallon is 4 ea 32 ounce quarts. An imperial gallon is
something like 4 ea 40 ounce quarts? What it boils down to is that 4 US
quarts = 1 US gallon and 5 Imp Gallons = 6 US gallons and they both =
23 metric Litres, approximately.



My measurements are in US Gallons. I only deal with imperial
measurements (they went out with the close of the commonwealth about 28
years ago or so) when I'm buying my 40-ounce duty free booze at the
border on returning to Canada from 48 or more hours in the US.



While I can give measurements in Imp. and metric I find its easier
to just use US gallons as that's the size of all my containers.

 

[bmorosco]

Hi Windy!!


Those are some great looking recipies...Make your mouth water

 

[NorthernWinos]

Hi Windy, for all the rest of us that use weight when making wine, how
much does one of your gallons of blackberries weigh? Crackedcork

I have never weighed Blackberries, but this summer I was freezing raspberries, strawberries and chokecherries...I would pick them into a 4 or 5 quart ice cream bucket and then freeze them in Zip-Loc bag....the bags were holding about one bucket full and averaged around 5 pounds..
I use 20-24 pounds of fruit per 5-6 gallon batch..sounds like a lot in gallons, but when you pick them a little bucket at a time it doesn't seem like so much...
Plus I always add two 500 mil bottles of WinExpert Wine Grape Concentrate, for added body, color and flavor.They say WinExpert Concentrates are about 68*Brix, so it adds sweetness too...I think they say it's like adding 1 gallon of grape juice...some people use raisins, I use the Concentrate instead.
I use the recipes from Winemaking by Anderson and Anderson and also the Wine Makers Recipe Handbook [little purple one] They call for a bit less fruit, but I like the fruity flavors so use a bit more....Plus I steam extract my juices and use more fruit because I have never seen a recipe for that method of juice extraction for wines.
Hope this has been helpful...Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[windy0062]

Hi, Corky - - As I don't have a scale anywhere handy that would weigh my blackberries, and as my "scale of measure" for all my recipes is "1/2 of a 6 US gallon bucket" for the fruit, I really don't have a clue as to the weight. Your guess is as good as mine.

In addition, while my recipe calls for crushing the 3 gal of blackberries (with a potato masher) I don't even do that any more. I simply let the act of fermentation leach the liquid from the berries - very effective, labor saving - and then rack the liquid off the berries.

I don't strain or drain or squeeze the resultant mush because my experience is about a cup of liquid will result and it bears all the yeast sediments and other stuff we don't want, anyway. I do use this mash when I make blackberry-Merlot or blackberry-Burgundy, but even then I separate the "top" from the "bottom dregs".

You seem to have hit upon a very practical and pleasing method of wine making. And you are following recipes that are proven over time by hundreds, if not thousands, of others. That has to be good.

I started making wine with no outside guidance of any kind simply because.... It worked. I developed my own recipes and methods, modified my recipes after the fact when called for, and have now proven my own methods and recipes over an 11 year period. They work.

I've had a lot of bad luck with peaches. My only vinegar result, in fact, came from peaches. There's a significant difference in flavor between peach win with and without the skins. But with skins you run serious risks of the whole batch turning bad! I've also had bad results with the grapes I just did this year. I should have sulfited them first, apparently? And I started my first wild rose hip attempt at wine and after 3 months of it never even starting the fermentation I finally gave up and threw it out!

One lives and learns, and I'm not quite ready for the laternative. But I'm thanking everyone who has responded to my posts with their own comments and suggestions. I feel I've learned more in the last couple of days than in my first 11 years of winemaking? I freely confess to being a "maverick" as winemakers go....but every one of my recipes is proven over years and by the raves of the people with whom I have shared them.

It was my third year of blackberry wine making, and I had two huge 7-gallon US pails of wine perking away. I lifted the covers, popped a finger (recently sanitized) in and took a taste. mmmmm BAD! I tasted the second pail. oooooh equally BAD! I panicked. My sweetie is an experienced winemaker and I told her, and that I was taking a bottle of each out to Spagnols (Toronto and Vancouver) to be tested. But if it was bad, I'd have to throw out the whole batch. Hey, that's 16 gallons of berries, about 16 hours of picking, lots of effort to waste!

Well, the tests came back - on both - and Ray, the tester (who's retiring next spring), said "Hmmmm! You don't have any taste at all, do you?" "What makes you say that, Ray?" "Well, this wine is perfectly good and is running about 14.5% alcohol. Its a little hot but its a really good wine is why?" When I got home and told my wife she said essentially the same thing - "If you had told me the problem in the first place I could have told you the same thing, sweetie?" So okay, I just make it, I don't pass judgement of any kind anymore.Edited by: windy0062