dangerdave
Chief Bottlewasher
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2011
- Messages
- 2,729
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Tales of Grass-Roots Innovation...
So, yesterday, a friend of mine showed up at my front door with a smile...and 35 pounds of blackberries in one gallon Zip-Lock baggies. He asked me if I could make some wine out of them. I said, "Of course, but I don't have a crusher." He asked if I wanted them anyway. Naturally, I said yes.
Now, part of being a firefighter---and a country "red-neck"---is being creative in problem solving. I knew I needed to crush or juice them, and get them (and hopefully the pulp) into a fermenter for the making of the wine. To that end, I pulled out a big heavy-duty contractor trash bag and put it into my 32 gallon fermenter (aka, Rough Neck Trash Can). I dumped all the berries in there, forced out all the air, and secured the top of the bag with a big cable tie. I then proceeded to stomp on the bag of berries in the bottom of the trash can. <My wife said later that we should have taken pictures>
Once the berries seemed adequately squashed, I removed the bag and took it to the tub in our guest bathroom. From the Lab, I grabbed a fermentation bucket, several nylon mesh fruit bags, and a pair of scissors. My wife sat on the side of the tub, straddling the bucket, holding one of the mesh bags inside. I held the 35 pound bulging trash bag above the mesh bag and carefully snipped the bottom corned off the trash bag, allowing the juice and pulp to slowly flow out. We successfully captured the pulp and seeds in two mesh bags, and collected the juice in the bucket. We struggled a bit, but it worked perfectly!
In the end, I had nearly five gallons of juice and pulp. I tied the mesh bags closed and added them to the juice. A small amount of water (to bring it up to six gallons), a little sugar (to bring the SG up to 1.080), some sulphite, energizer, nutrient, pectic enzyme, and tannin and---BLAM!---I had a tasty-looking batch of blackberry wine on the make in no time flat! This morning, I added the 71B-1122 yeast, and---using my normal method of wine making---I'll squeeze the bags daily to release the remaining goodness from the pulp and flavor from the skins.
I'll share the batch with my good friend, but I get to have all the fun making it. What an unexpected bounty!
So, yesterday, a friend of mine showed up at my front door with a smile...and 35 pounds of blackberries in one gallon Zip-Lock baggies. He asked me if I could make some wine out of them. I said, "Of course, but I don't have a crusher." He asked if I wanted them anyway. Naturally, I said yes.
Now, part of being a firefighter---and a country "red-neck"---is being creative in problem solving. I knew I needed to crush or juice them, and get them (and hopefully the pulp) into a fermenter for the making of the wine. To that end, I pulled out a big heavy-duty contractor trash bag and put it into my 32 gallon fermenter (aka, Rough Neck Trash Can). I dumped all the berries in there, forced out all the air, and secured the top of the bag with a big cable tie. I then proceeded to stomp on the bag of berries in the bottom of the trash can. <My wife said later that we should have taken pictures>
Once the berries seemed adequately squashed, I removed the bag and took it to the tub in our guest bathroom. From the Lab, I grabbed a fermentation bucket, several nylon mesh fruit bags, and a pair of scissors. My wife sat on the side of the tub, straddling the bucket, holding one of the mesh bags inside. I held the 35 pound bulging trash bag above the mesh bag and carefully snipped the bottom corned off the trash bag, allowing the juice and pulp to slowly flow out. We successfully captured the pulp and seeds in two mesh bags, and collected the juice in the bucket. We struggled a bit, but it worked perfectly!
In the end, I had nearly five gallons of juice and pulp. I tied the mesh bags closed and added them to the juice. A small amount of water (to bring it up to six gallons), a little sugar (to bring the SG up to 1.080), some sulphite, energizer, nutrient, pectic enzyme, and tannin and---BLAM!---I had a tasty-looking batch of blackberry wine on the make in no time flat! This morning, I added the 71B-1122 yeast, and---using my normal method of wine making---I'll squeeze the bags daily to release the remaining goodness from the pulp and flavor from the skins.
I'll share the batch with my good friend, but I get to have all the fun making it. What an unexpected bounty!
Hope that turns out really good!
