Looking for ways to improve my Blackberry wine

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Main man

Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2020
Messages
31
Reaction score
10
Last September I made 2 gallons of Blackberry wine using 8 lbs of fresh Blackberry's. Looking through the posts on this forum, I probably should have used more than 4 lbs per gallon to start with. The wine tastes good now but I would like to kick it up a notch to get more blackberry flavor and a little more sweetness out of it. I have 5 lbs of fruit in the freezer that I was saving for other things. I'm interested in adding that fruit to the existing wine but I'm not sure if I can or should do that. If I can, I don't know what the best approach to doing that is. I love port and it crossed my mind that maybe this is an opportunity to make port but again, I'm not sure of the best approach. I have never made port before. Can anyone give me some guidance on if I can add the fruit to the wine now and what that process should be? Do I have an opportunity to consider making port with what I have at this time? The PH is at 3.51 now if that is relevant to where I'm at and what I might end up doing. Thanks for your help!
 
Just start another batch. Although it sound silly perhaps - do a 3/4 gallon batch and you can then blend that into your existing wine. Just going from 4 to 5 pounds per gallon will increase the flavor of the new wine but won't give you a really stronger wine to use for blending. I use wild blackberries and they are great at a rate of 5 lbs per gallon because they are lower water content - more concentrated, Domestic berries, store bought or home grown, tend to be somewhat pumped up with water and lower flavor.
 
There's a lot of directions to go with this.

@Scooter68's idea is my first thought as well. You might even cut the water to 1/2 gallon to get a higher fruit ratio. OR purchase frozen blackberries or other dark fruit and make a gallon batch with 10 lbs of fruit. Normally I wouldn't recommend that much, but since you'd be blending in 1:2, this will give the final blend a better blackberry flavor.

If you want a higher ABV, e.g., a port-style wine, start the new batch with a SG 1.100 or a bit higher, use a high potency yeast, and when it hits 1.020, feed it a bit of sugar at a time until you max out the yeast. Bulk age for at least 3 months, let it clear, stabilize with sorbate/K-meta, and blend with the first batch.

That's the quick explanation. If any of this is of interest, ask questions regarding anything that is not clear.
 
Thanks! The timing to start another batch is not good for me. I'm thinking of going the F-Pack route and topping up with blackberry brandy to up the alcohol. What do you think of that idea?
 
@Main man, your idea should work fine. If you add enough brandy to push the ABV over 18% you can skip sorbate, but I'd be cautious regarding that.

You can probably use a Pearson's Square to determine the ABV after adding the F-Pack, and again when adding the brandy.
 
Main man, my very first project was a blackberry port style using this recipe Making Blackberry Port | Saanich Sommeliers
I made it without having a clue what I was doing. I put some of it in bottles to follow its progress. 6 months in I'm pleased with the results. The recipe calls for cognac which drives up the price but it does taste like port.
 
F-pack plus adding brandy would work,
option 2 ,,, if you are adding extra alcohol would be cleaner making an extract of one part fruit to one part 190 proof alcohol (like making vanilla extract)-> age a month-> press the pulp (could do the extract process in a nylon bag) -> settle a few days in a tall jar (spaghetti jar) -> add the clear liquid to your wine,,,,, has highest yield of flavor ,,,
option 3 ,,,, freeze berries -> press to create a filtrate/ juice -> mix one to one with a grain alcohol-> age mixture for a month in a tall jar (could run less than 1 to 1 since 20% ABV is stable/ kills everything) -> pull the clear liquid off with a turkey baster and add to the wine
Thanks! The timing to start another batch is not good for me. I'm thinking of going the F-Pack route and topping up with blackberry brandy to up the alcohol. What do you think of that idea?
 

Latest posts

Back
Top