hooray Blackberry wine!

[scotty]

I think the answer is dont rush. Im not sur but a month is ok. Someone else will give you a more exact answer. I would let it ferment out in the secondary before racking off the lees.

 

[Waldo]

I agree with scotty, let er sit until fermentation has completely finished, making sure it is topped up with not too much airspace. A cople of weeks on the sediment will not hurt it but I wouldn't leave it much longer than that.

 

[scotty]

Looks like I woke up earlier than you this morning Waldo

 

[NorthernWinos]

Scotty...you probably hadn't been to bed yet...

 

[scotty]

Scotty...you probably hadn't been to bed yet...

I now knowthat I will regret the day that i started to tease you

 

[Danny]

Haven't posted in awhile, but recently cracked my first bottle of Blackberry wine made about 10 months ago --- WOW, it was as good or better than blackberry wine from a local winery. Gave a bottle to some close friends and they were amazed, too.


Used a one gallon recipe with 3 lb. frozed blackberries and a quart of Welch's Grape Juice for added body. Sweetened it somewhat before bottling.


My only regret is that I only have 3 more bottles. At least I kept good records and should be able to duplicate. This time, though, I should have fresh blackberries as I now have a good crop growing in my back yard.

 

[nasv]

Haven't posted in awhile, but recently cracked my first bottle of Blackberry wine made about 10 months ago --- WOW, it was as good or better than blackberry wine from a local winery. Gave a bottle to some close friends and they were amazed, too.


Used a one gallon recipe with 3 lb. frozed blackberries and a quart of Welch's Grape Juice for added body. Sweetened it somewhat before bottling.



My only regret is that I only have 3 more bottles. At least I kept good records and should be able to duplicate. This time, though, I should have fresh blackberries as I now have a good crop growing in my back yard.

That's awesome! I did mine from "fresh" blackberries (bought from local market grocery) and I hope it comes out as well as yours!

-Nico

 

[nasv]

So, I recently did the second racking and took a SG reading (it was at about 0.885) and took a taste. The taste was, ummm, not so good. It seemed completely out of balance, no real fruit flavors involved, instead a real overpowering alcohol with some slighter "side" flavors. I'm not sure this is something that will mellow some later or if this is a batch that might need to be sweetened to make it more tolerable.

I recently started another batch of strawberry wine and I thought to start with a much lower specific gravity (1.075 instead of the blackberry 1.092). Hopefully this helps retain more of the fruit.

So, any ideas here with the blackberry wine? Should it be like this at this stage and will it develop some later? I'm really trying to make sure I pick up on any "lessons learned" so I know how to repeat and not repeat certain outcomes.

Thanks again for reading!!!!!!
-Nico

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

Herein lies the greatest ingredient needed for winemaking...patience! Almost everything you make will not even resemble wine at this stage, more like jet fuel, age will bring the flavors forward and mellow the taste. Good move on the strawberry, as I have found lower alcohol content tends to help the fruits develop and retain flavor much faster. Bulk aging seems to move it to a palatable stage much sooner than bottling right away also.We tend to back sweeten ours a little if they were fermented to dry, that is a personal taste preference.

 

[grapeman]

All the things stated above will improve your blackberry, but I have to ask- is that a typo-.885????? I've never heard of one going that low. If it is that low, can't be you adjusted for temperature, or if you did, it isn't quite right. It would more likely be .990-.998 when finished fermenting. The high alcohol will definitely mask the flavors. If it's finished - stabilize it after adding the correct K-Meta and sweeten it up a little to taste. Then age it about 4-6 months and then bottle it. Wait another 6 months and it will be hard to believe it is the same wine.

 

[nasv]

appleman, good catch, adjusted for temperature it should be about exactly 0.990. When we took the SG reading, the hydrometer was "off the charts" (mostly under the wine), the 0.990 was just under the liquid, but adjusted for temperature, that should bring us back in the 0.990s, but very low.

I attempted a degass, but I don't think I got much of the CO2 out, I'm thinking of siphoning into primary fermenter (bucket) to really give it a good stir.

For sweetening, is this something that I should do sooner, or something that I could do as "bottling" approaches after a good 6 months of bulk aging?

I need to focus on the key ingredient: "Patience"!

Thanks again for the continued advice!
-Nico

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

I would be a little leery of transferring to the bucket, you don't want to incorporate a lot of air into your wine at this point. Bulk aging will also help with degassing, Like a soda pop going flat with time. I start to sweeten after I know the wine is stabilized, maybe wait a week or so, for me anyways,and no chance of restarting a fermentation. A little at a time and taste in a day or so, you can always add more to taste, hard to take it back out.

Keep in mind the flavor is going to develop, my experience is it is really easy to over do with the sweetening, it can taste good now, and be too sweet after a little age and flavors come forward. From the sound of it you guys are doing really good, off to a great start! Edited by: JWMINNESOTA