Hi from the Pacific Northwest ...

[timber]

Hi 1ChuckGauthier,

Yes, I think some home made wine about this time of year (for me next year) will be most welcome to any of us living in the Northern states and I'm pleasantly surprised to see so many from Washington.

Blackberries are very prevalent in these parts as well.
I personally can't wait to get some Huckleberries to add to the mix next year.
Huckleberries are difficult to pick in large batches but I think I'll do my best to try to make up at least a gallon batch to age for a while and savor a year or more later. I can't imagine that it wouldn't taste divine.

Thanks for the welcome!

 

[timber]

The berries work better if you freeze them first anyway. When ice forms it brakes open the berries cells. Blackberry is good at 6 pounds per gallon. Dont add acid blend, blackbeeries have more than enough acid in them. Ha Chuck, he lives in W.Washington, have you seen any place in Western Washington where there wasn't all the blackberries you want to pick

Blackberries may take over the world one day, bustin' up all the asphalt and concrete, they'll be growing over all the traffic lights and signs, scratching up the sides of those shiny new Humvees on the highway, growing up the sides of buildings to the 20th floor ...
... but I get the feeling we'll all be happy campers here.

Yup, I can remember laying out a section of the extension ladder as a youngster to get to those HUGE ripe ones out in the middle of the patch ... that's where you'll be seeing me again ... now that I'm learning to turn them to gold (er ... I mean wine).

 

[pioneergirl]

We used to live WA, 6 years ago, and my kids STILL talk about all the blackberries!!!!We had an adjacent acre of them and they used to "carve" out their forts and trails in them and bring them back if they wanted jam or a pie! WINE sounds even better! Where we are in Idaho, they are far and few between to find. We have now gone over to huckelberries; and finally we have found a really good patch of them to harvest from IF we can ever collect enough....They eat them as they go...How dare they!Let us know how your wine turns out; it might inspire me to really venture out to find some local growth - as I know they're around somewhere. Carolyn

 

[timber]

Hi Pioneergirl,

Sorry, I'm as slow responding to posts as I am at making wine.
The blackberry (just a gallon) turned out well for a first attempt.
It went through fermentation and clearing lickity-split. It's degassed and sitting in the gal jug (I plan to wait until X-mas to drink it). Needs some back sweetening and/or oak chips yet but I figure I can do that most any time.

Red raspberry from the yard is next (when I get around to it).

The huckleberry wine sounds wonderful ... do give it a try and let us know how it goes. If you collect and freeze the huckleberries you can go out multiple times to get enough. Dang, I bet it would taste wonderful! Watch out for the bears, they love 'em too.

Welcome to the forum!

 

[soccer0ww]

So how is the wine making coming along? Would love to get my hands on those blackberries. I think they would make a great wine.

 

[mmadmikes1]

Allow the blackberry to age a year and you will glad you did

 

[timber]

Hi SoccerOww & Mmadmikes1,

Yes, as extremely difficult as it is, I'm letting it sit for a year.
Really want to add a mild oak flavor to it and may do so as it bulk ages.
Should be good around X-mas this year.

Thinking about making a small wine cellar in the crawl space, I want to dig it out, put in concrete floor, insulated walls to make standing room with enough storage for future batches to age. If I keep making batches I should eventually have some to drink as it ages. I'll put a trap door in the floor with stairs down. Can also double as panic room or emergency shelter ... can't think of anyplace I'd rather be in an emergency than in a wine cellar.

 

[robie]

In the photo, those are huge black berries!

Are those wild or a hybrid?

 

[timber]

Those are about average size for the wild blackberries around here.
Of course the thorns are generous in size as well ... lol
I always end up with a few battle scars every time I pick 'em but it's well worth the carnage. (Just have to reach for those huge ones just beyond reach, ya know).
Soil types vary from sandy loam to forest duff to sandy clay but mostly the former with good drainage most anywhere locally. Lots of rain mixed with more rain in spring, beautiful mild but sun filled summers blending into late fall and more rain just make 'em grow like weeds (most actually are weeds if you ask any one around here trying to grow anything else). We have multiple varieties of blackberies, Oregon evergreen or cutleaf blackberries, Himalayan blackberries (neither of which are native) and lots of naturally-occurring varietals too numerous to name. (Actually I just don't know the names).
Armed with a few 5 gal buckets and a ladder section to bridge your way to the center of the patch, it's good pickin' most any year.

 

[hobbyiswine]

I grew up in WA for my first 21 years. Best berries on the planet. When we go camping in the cascades you can find wild blackberries that produce very small berries from small bushes. Not the huge monster vines but little ones that grow on the ground in the cascade foothills. Takes a while to get a gallon but These make the BEST pie. If I had dime for every blackberry and raspberry that I have eaten or vine that has cut my hand I would be rich! I get back to WA in the summer but usually before the berries are ripe. Should get my relatives to FedEx me some berries!