I've read up about making port style wines and how they uses alot of fruit and take maybe years to make only for you to fortify it with a brandy.....my idea to throw out there is, how about just crushing the blackberries and mixing it with a brandy diluting it to the strength of a port (16-20%) i know its a kind of cheat but surely it would work??
blackberry port?
- Thread starter ctwtp
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It would take a lot of brandy, the blackberries wouldnt be fermented and wouldnt taste like wine, it would just be blackberry juice with brandy. A better tasting way would be to ferment the blackberries with EC1118 or some other strong yeast, start at 1.095 and whenever the gravity drops to 1.01 add sugar to boost it to 1.02 and let that ferment and keep feeding until the yeast gives up and then clear your wine and add the brandy. WVMJ
Beernoulli
Active Member
I'm doing this with cherries (with vanilla and elderberries), modeling it after a sherry I had at Messina Hof winery. They use K1 (1116) and claim it lets them get their ports and sherries all the way to around 21%. They don't add any brandy. It might take a while to age to the desired smoothness though.
Beernoulli, great tag, how are you using your elderberries in this? I made a dessert wine with blackberries, elderberries and black cherry concentrate with K1V1116, I accidentally added 2 jars of cherry concentrate and made it to acidic, we had to dump in a bottle of everclear and a couple of pounds of sugar to bring things back into balance but man those elderberries and cherries really go together well. WVMJ
Beernoulli
Active Member
Thanks, I'm actually an aerospace engineer, so it's a fun mix of the 2 things I enjoy.
This was my first time using them, so I'm not sure if I did it "right". I put 2oz of the dried elderberries from the LHBS in a little water and heated it on the stove. My thinking was it would re-hydrate them a little before going into the must. The water got really dark, but the berried didn't really change in appearance. I call it a half success.
I also used a 2 gallon bucket and mesh bag for the first time, and I'm never dumping everything in loose again.
This was my first time using them, so I'm not sure if I did it "right". I put 2oz of the dried elderberries from the LHBS in a little water and heated it on the stove. My thinking was it would re-hydrate them a little before going into the must. The water got really dark, but the berried didn't really change in appearance. I call it a half success.
I also used a 2 gallon bucket and mesh bag for the first time, and I'm never dumping everything in loose again.
