irish guy with 5kg of berries

[mrxireland]

Hello everyone, Im from the west of ireland and im now looking to get a new hobby after succesfully finishing my last hobby building a cedarstripboat(youtube cedarstrip rowingboat leeso2011. for anyone wants to see my lovely boat). Im now looking to make some homemade blackberry wine. Me and my kids picked 5kg of blackberries 2 days ago and the berries are now in the freezer waiting for the next step.

Ive been watching a few clips on youtube thou there is a few conflicting ways its getting done so i thought id pop in here to get some advice on what to do next.

I was also on ebay lookingg to buy a kit and the guy whos selling treplied with this

Brewing bucket (at least one)
Syphon tube
wine Bottles and corks

You may also find it useful to have.

Hydrometer
trial jar
long plastic spoon
airlocks

As for ingredients, I'd suggest finding a recipe you like the sound of, there are so many out there to choose from each giving different results. Once you know what recipe you are going to follow it is easier to see what ingredients you will need, what bucket sizes etc.



I already have buckets and some old wine bottles and i was thinking i could make up a Syphon tube out of some garden hose. I could also use something else about the house for a trail jug and also use something from the kitchen instead of buying a plastic spoon. My money is low after getting my kids back to school and also just finished building myself a boat so im trying to keep the costs as low as possible.

He says mentions that ill need an airlock. I seen someone on youtube use a plastic pipe and he bent it in a circle and put some duct tape to hold it in place. Im thinking of also doing this to say buying one as it looks like its doing the same job as one you buy. Would this be ok ?

As for the Hydrometer, ill have to buy this and to be honest, i dont know what it is used for but i guess it for some reading ill have to take.

Im thinking of going and picking another 5kg of blackberries at the weekend and making 2 batches. One blackberry/elderberry and the other just blackberry.Ive been told that the one with the elderberry takes longer to mature. Ive still to find elderberries thou.

This is what ill be ordering this week on ebay. If theres anything else can yous let me know please.


Syphon tube 1/4 inch bore X 2 meters
Hydrometer with Trial Jar
18 inch plastic spoon
2 x airlock
yeast, nutrients, tannins, acids

 

[Deezil]

Pretty sure elderberry harvest season is over
But if you picked more blackberries, you could have a really nice batch

5kg is roughly enough for about a gallon of wine - 5 bottles or so - the more fruit to water, the heavier the body/flavor will be, the less fruit to water, the thinner, more delicate it will be but should still have some blackberry notes

More berries would definitely be the way to go, if you could get to 15-25kg of berries you could make a really nice 4-6 gallon batch of blackberry wine

The hosing - its usually food-grade, clear tubing that stands up to the repeated use of an acidic liquid (wine) without leaching anything.. That said, you could probably use a garden hose, if it were brand new, once... But it'd cost a lot more than the clear tubing, and you might taste it anyways - not sure on that.... Clear tubing is an easy fix, and cheap

Airlocks are cheap, about a dollar a piece.. It's a plastic mold that holds water (depending on what type you get, S-type or 3-piece) and only lets the Co2 from fermentation out without letting the atmosphere back in

The hydrometer is your tool to measure how much sugar is in the wine that you're making.. Under the tutorials section of this website theres a lot of useful information you could pick through, among it is how to use and read the hydrometer correctly - be careful with the instrument as its glass & breaks easily (most people buy 2-3 because its one of those winemaking tools that its hard to do without)


Crucial to winemaking:
Hydrometer (measures sugar)
Titritable Acidity kit (measures acidity)
Airlocks + bungs - the rubber gasket-type piece that fits into the neck of the carboy/jug, holding the airlock

Potassium metabisulphite - keeps wild yeast, bacteria and spoilage organisms at bay, keeps oxidation at bay
Pectic Enzyme - helps break down the pectin, think the opposite of jam/jelly
Yeast nutrient - keeps the yeast happy, so they dont make off flavors & smells
Yeast energizer - has the micro nutrients - its the "salad" and "baked potato" to the nutrients "steak"-yeast-dinner
Tartaric acid - sometimes people get "Acid Blend" but it has citric and malic acids in it, which arent bad but they are harsher to the human palette so if you can find just Tartaric, it'll make for smoother acidity to your wines in the end

Tannins, oaks, etc - arent "dire necessities" but they can help kick your winemaking to the next notch.. But before worrying about all that, i'd do some reading on winemaking procedures, gather lots more berries, and just try to get the basics down this year - sanitation, a finished fermentation, dodge oxidation & spoilage, clear/stabilize/bottle it... If you make it that far (feel free to ask for help anytime), then next year it'll be easier to for you to understand the workings of whats going on and how any "tips"/"tricks" might alter the outcome

 

[Arne]

Get the berries you have in the freezer. That way they will not spoil and when thawed they release their juice easier. You can just use a food grade bucket for your primary. Or if you have one, an old crock will work fine. After your wine gets done with the primary ferment, it will go into secondary. You should have some kind of carboy for it to be in at that time. This is when your airlocks will come into play. You can use gallon jugs (5 liter over there maybe,) or if making bigger quanities can get a 3 gal. 5 gal. or 6 gal. They make much bigger ones than that, but the smaller ones are easier to handle. Do some more reading on here, find a recipe that suits your fancy and get ready to get started. Don't understand the recipe, just get back on here and ask away. Somebody will try and help. We almost all started out the way you are starting. Kind of intimating when starting, but it isn't rocket science. Good luck with it,
Arne.

 

[mrxireland]

Thanks for your reply arne . All the berries are in the freezer now all froze. I just need to know what to oreder before i take them out to thaw when all teh gear arrives. I have a 20litre bucket here to use for my 1st stage. Im wanting to know can i use the same size bucket for my secondary stage.

As for a recipe, i dont understand what you mean by that. I thought that blackberries and yeast, nutrients, tannins, acids was the recipe

 

[Arne]

If you go to the recipe section, there are recipes for most any thing you mite want to ferment. They just give you an idea on what to do that has worked for others. For your secondary I would use either glass or a better bottle. Your bungs and airlocks will fit in them, many different sizes of bungs,tho. Glass and better bottles do not let oxygen thru and the better bottles are formulated so they do not give off flavors to the wine. Good luck with it, Arne.

 

[mrxireland]

I found this on this forum, would this be good to go. Ive also noticed that some use grap concntrate juice as well. can you tell me why this is.


3-4 pounds berries


1 tsp. yeast nutrient


1/4 tsp. yeast energizer


3/4 tsp. pectic enzyme powder, (if you have liquid, follow package directions)


1 gallon spring water


sugar to SG 1.085-1.090


2campden tablets, crushed finely


5 grams Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast


1/4 tsp K-Sorbate

 

[mrxireland]

Thats my wee son helping me pick the berries. Theres a few red ones in the picture but i picked all them out and just used the black ones. Hoping to pick some more because i want 20 litres of wine for a party next year im having.

 

[robie]

I am not a fruit wine maker, but I would say the reason for grape concentrate would be to replace some of the water. This should give your wine more body and flavor.

Nice bunch of berries and a handsome young man!

 

[Deezil]

I am not a fruit wine maker, but I would say the reason for grape concentrate would be to replace some of the water. This should give your wine more body and flavor.

Pretty much!

Lends some sugars, fills in some gaps in the profile of fruit wines - they arent always as well-rounded as grapes can be

Cant say i use them though, i prefer honey & making a mead/melomel when i want something with more body than the fruit itself brings to the party
There's some other additives you can use to help boost body and mouthfeel as well... But thats what they use the grape concentrate for in these cases