Natural Blackberry Wine

[JenJuhasz]

Hi All -

Newish here - about to try my hand at my first blackberry wine and I want to confirm the timing - as my plum wine is taking far longer than I realized it would.

The recipe I have is as follows:

to make 1 gallon / 6 bottles of wine

* 4.5 lbs fresh blackberries (I have around 9lbs of frozen blackberries from the summer harvest)
* 2.5 lbs sugar
* 7 pints water
1 packages Red Wine Yeast


Prep
Crush berries by hand in a sterile plastic bucket. Pour in 2 pints of cooled distilled water and mix well. Leave for 2 hours.
Boil 1/3 of the sugar with 3 pints of water for 1 minute. Allow syrup to cool
Add yeast to 4 oz of warm, not boiling, water and stand for 10 minutes
Pour the cooled syrup into the berries. Add the yeast. Make sure it's cooled as a hot temp will kill the yeast.
Cover with a clean cloth and leave in warm place for 7 days.

After 7 days -
Strain pulp through fine muslin cloth, wringing the material dry.
Pour strained liquid into jug/carboy.
Boil a second 1/3 of the sugar in 1 pt of wter. Allow to cool before adding to the jug.
Plug the top with airlock
Let sit for 10 days

After 10 days
Siphon or rack wine to a container. Sterilize the carboy and then return the wine back into the carboy.
Boil the last 1/3 of the sugar in last pint of water. Allow to cool before adding to the wine.
Airlock. Leave until fermentation has stopped.

After fermentation
Siphon the wine as before.
Sterilize the wine bottles and siphon the wine into the bottles. Cork and store.


So - is this a) a good recipe to go with (I would obviously double it as I have double the berries) and b) is the wine ready to drink after fermentation complete? Or does it need to sit another period of time (how long) before consuming?

Thanks so much! I'm hoping to tackle this in the morning. I'm sterilizing my plastic tub now and defrosting the berries in it.

Jen

 

[JenJuhasz]

Oh - I have a package of dried elderberries and a package of oak cubes...should I add those? At what point? I also have a complete 'kit' for making fruit wine (called Big Blue) that came with 500ml of grape base, but it calls for 14 litres of berries, and I have only about 9 litres. Should I just use the kit and do less wine? Thoughts? Really open to suggestions here! The fruit is just defrosting at this point.

 

[Julie]

I would use 5 lbs of blackberries, instead of a certain amount of sugar, add enough to bring your sg to 1.080. Squeeze enough juice from the berries to get a reading. A good formula to go by is one cup of sugar will rise your sg .018. You don't need to use distilled water, spring water would be better. Add the sugar to the water and warm it up until the sugar is dissolved. Lavlin 71b 1122 yeast is a better yeast to use for blackberry wine. Use your hydrometer to determine when to rack your wine. You can either snap the lid down on the primary and add an airlock when your wine hits 1.010 or you can rack to a carboy.

 

[Wuggs]

This is the exact same recipe I used for my first batch of homemade wine last summer/fall. It turned out great with a light blackberry taste. I would agree that you should increase the berry quantity to 5#/gal if you like a stronger blackberry flavor. We drank some just before and while bottling. I made 3 gallons and wish I had done at least twice as much; we hoard it like liquid gold. Planning to do at least 10 gallons next year but will use a hydrometer, thermometer and all the other recommended equipment and techniques. If all my wines turn out as well as this one, I will be very fortunate.

 

[JenJuhasz]

Oh wow! Thanks so much for the replies! Really looking forward to it now! Will make the recommended changes for a stronger fruit flavor.

 

[salcoco]

I would add pectic enzyme in the beginning. also hydrate your yeast with Go-Ferm and add a yeast nutrient like Fermaid-K once fermentation starts. also I would investigate finning additive if wine is difficult to clear after fermentation is complete

 

[Wuggs]

salcoco, I wish I had added pectic enzyme as you suggest. It was my first attempt at homemade wine and I just did what the recipe prescribed. I do have a little pectic haze in my bottled wine as well as some sediment. The flavor is superb and I don't mind a little fiber in my wine so it's no big deal but I do have to explain the sediment when I give a bottle to a friend.