What do think

[Angell Wine]

Started a blackberry puree tonight. I'm thinking about sending through a Malolactic fermation. I'm planing on making this in to a port using Christian Bros. Brady when the time comes. Should I put it though a Malolactic fermation or not? Do you think the Brady will over power the creaminess or it is a bad idea all together?

 

[Dean]

I think you will want to keep all the acid you can with this to offset the sweetness of the port. Of course that is if you plan on keeping this with residual sweetness as well. Ports typically stop fermentation due to high alcohol while they still have plenty of sugars to ferment. You can do this 2 ways:

1.) Keep feeding your port sugar until the yeast die, then fortify with your chosen Brandy
or
2.) Start with a high gravity must and when the SG gets to the point that you have enough residual sugar, add a neutral extremely high alcohol brandy to kill the yeast! They use about 190 proof to do this in portugal. This is the traditional method for making port.

Personally, I would choose option #1! Again, this all assumes that you are going to make a sweet port, at which point you need the acid to brighten up the sweetness of the wine.

 

[earl]

Be careful adding 80 proof brandy to the wine. If your wine has good flavor it may water it down a bit. 80 proof is 40% alcohol, 60% water. The higher the proof the more body and original flavor you will keep.


earl

 

[Angell Wine]

I've been experimenting with a blackberry & Brady. The way the Brady takes the edge or tannins off the blackberry makes for a good port. If you do a sugar feed port the waiting time is I would guess 1 to 2 years. I'm not ready for the master wine maker award yet. Just want to drink right now. Dean & Earl Thanks for your input. Still Haven't decided yet.

 

[pkcook]

Angell Wine,


I made a gallon of blackberry wineat the beginning of the year and let it ferment dry and then added .750L of clear 35% Christian Brothers brandy and sweetened to taste. I started with a pretty high SG on the blackberry (1.105) and it still went dry. The brandy is very notable in this port, but the sweetness takes the edge off. I'm bulk aging it for a while before I bottle, but I think it will need lots of time in the bottle to mellow

.


I hadnever made a port until the blackberry, so I'm not sure how this mixture will develop. But if I ever choseto make another, I'd try the everclearmethod withmaybea peach wine.

 

[paubin]

Making your own high proof liquor is your best bet. Using everclear and
then soaking fresh or froken blackberries in it to give it flavor that
wont get away from the original will be better than using brandy. That
way you can use much less distilled alc and wont ofset the flavors of
the wine. Try to get as high of a PA out of the wine as possible. I'm
currently making a raisin sherry and will go as dry as possible. The
wine will be 15% and if I use brandy at 80 proof I would need 1 part
brandy too 2.5 parts wine. If I use 120 Proof I only need 1 part alc
too 8 parts wine. These figures are for going to 20% alc. So you can
see that the higher the alc in the fortifing liquor the better as far
as keeping the taste in the original wine goes.



GOOD LUCK and I hope I wasn't saying anything you didn't already know.

The pearson square is your best friend with ports and sherrys

 

[Angell Wine]

Racked the blackberries over to the carboy today and add a cup of sugar to it. I guess I decided to sugar feed it. Let you know how it turns out.