Apple and blackberry wine recipe

Am planning on having a go at an apple and blackberry wine here is what I am planning on doing any ideas of improving the method or recipe ?



(Blackberry and Apple Wine Recipe)

Ingredients
3 lb / 1,350 grams blackberries
3 lb / 1,350 grams apples
3 lb / 1,350 grams sugar
1/2 oz / 14 grams pectin enzyme
2 lemons
Water up to 1 gallon
Yeast nutrient
Wine yeast

Method:
Chop the apples and put them in a fermentation bucket together with the blackberries and sugar.

Pour over the boiling water and stir well until all the sugar has dissolved. When cool add the pectin enzyme, lemon juice, yeast nutrient and wine yeast. Cover and leave to ferment for five days, stirring daily. Using a fine sieve strain the liquid into a demijohn and fit an airlock to seal the jar.

Store in a warm place and allow the fermentation to work. When fermentation has ceased, rack the wine into a clean jar and place in a cooler environment and leave for a further few months. When the wine is clear and stable siphon into bottles.

Use apple juice instead of chopped apples & you can almost eliminate the added sugar & water, depending on your target FG. Put your berries through a freeze/thaw freeze/thaw cycle to help break down cell walls & extract more juice/flavour. Lose the lemons, all they'll do is add acid & lower the PH, there's enough acid in the berries; if you think it needs more acid, you can always add more later. Campden tabs will help to make crtain anything that came in on those berries won't cause any problems later. Also you might think about putting those berries in a straining bag to contain the seeds & pulp, if you ferment in a bucket style fermentor. I've never measured pectic enzyme by weight, but 14g seems like a lot to me. I use between 1/8 & 1/2 teaspoon per gallon; your best bet will be to follow the package directions. You might want to use a blowoff tube during primary if you ferment in a demijohn, or just ferment in a bucket. Instead of jars, use a carbouy (demijohn) with an airlock for secondary. BTW, the blackberry is going to dominate, if not just plain take over the apple. Hope that helps.
Regards, GF.

That's fantastic thank you I might change all of that except the apples as I have a lot of apples I have been oven I am thinking about maybe grating them as I don't have a press would doubling the apple to blackberry ratio make a difference ??

And also I am assuming that red wine yeast would be best for this ? Do you thing it will need a can of concentrated grape juice or not ?

scorpien222 said:

And also I am assuming that red wine yeast would be best for this ? Do you thing it will need a can of concentrated grape juice or not ?

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In the words of Jack Keller: "Choose your yeast as you would choose a tool."
It's true, your yeast choice really depends on what you're wanting for an end product.

If you're wanting a high ABV wine and/or a dry wine, you'll have to go with a yeast with a high tolerance for alcohol, like a champagne yeast. If you're wanting a 14% ABV wine with a softer acid profile, go with 71-B.

Have a look at these yeast profiles & choose one that fits your needs:
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/strains.asp
If it were me, I think I'd probably go with the 71-B, though it will metabolize some of the malic acid & turn it into alcohol, thereby "softening the wine's acid profile.

As far concentrated grape juice, you can certainly add it if you want, it'll add sugar & acid to the must & will add a little more body to the finished wine; but you don't have to add any if you don't want to & it could still be really good wine. You could do the same sort of thing with chopped raisins.

Hope tis info helps.
Regards, GF.

Ok thanks for that GF as I said I am still quite new to brewing my own and could do with an idiots guide

I am going to do this recipe also this weekend (minus the lemons) it's my first try at winemaking

Turk3yluvr said:

I am going to do this recipe also this weekend (minus the lemons) it's my first try at winemaking

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I didn't put the lemons in either I tried a little of this the other day and I am not sure about it if you want a good starter wine try the recipe I posted for rhubarb wine it's delicious and pretty easy to make I think you will be a little disappointed with my apple and blackberry if im honest I will let you know if it improves.

This recipe didn't work it came out tasting like vinegar.

scorpien222 said:

This recipe didn't work it came out tasting like vinegar.

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That would be a fault with sanitation or fermentation, not the recipe's.

Was wondering how much apple juice I would need to replace the 3lb of apples. I have a large amount of blackberries, 12-15 kilo's, and I want to make the wine in one hit, in a beer fermenter, holding 6-7 gallons. Am I right in assuming I need to multiply everything up including the yeast?