Blackberry Wine - adding concentrate and honey?

Getting ready to start a batch of Blackberry wine from frozen berries, I've got 20 lbs. of berries and I'd like to make a big bodied wine with some oak to it. I've read some about about using some grape concentrate to add body and i've got some Alexander's Barbera concentrate on hand that I was thinking of adding, but not sure exactly how much since it's concentrated to like 64 Brix. I've read no more than 10% of the must, so that would be enough concentrate to make 1/2 gal? How much of a 96oz can would be a good estimate? I've also go some honey on hand that I was thinking about adding as a substitute for some of the sugar, but I'm not sure if anyone would recommend against this.

This is what I am thinking about doing

5 gal batch

30 lbs Frozen Blackberries
4 lbs Table sugar
1/2 of 96oz can of Barbera concentrate (64 brix)
3 lbs Honey (from brew store)
Lalvin 71B
1 oz Hungarian Oak


Not sure what kind of OG this is putting me towards so I may have to adjust.

Any suggestions or concerns?

I have done the the 96 oz can of Barbera and oaked it this year for the first time. I have done 50% blend of Barbera and I have used two cans that I put into my primary and both came out great.. Would not use honey.

I have made several batches of blackberry. Couple of comments. You will have a lot of liquid that a single 7.5 gallon primary will not hold unless water is cut way back. I also wouldn't use honey but up the sugar. 48 oz. of 68 brix concentrate is going to make your initial s.g. sky high. Using a couple of lbs. of chopped raisins instead will give your wine a lot of body. I also add 5 oz. glycerin to my blackberry.

Is there a need to crush the berries first, or do you normally just let them dissolve through the fermentation process? I've got them thawing in a bag in the bucket right now, but wasn't sure if I should smash them or what.

After thawing, I run them through a quick grind in the blender with the addition of water. The water used is also figured in the total water that I add.

I follow Jack Keller recipe for medium body blackberry wine. It turns out really good. Made over 100 gal last year. Just google jackkeller and his site comes up.

Oh, just checked everything last night, and a correction the Alexander's is 46oz can (although you probably knew what I was talking about). So far I mashed the berries with a potato masher in the bag, added 24oz of the Barbera concentrate (about 1/2 can), 4lbs of sugar and topped up to about 5.5 gal, but that was only about 2.5 gals of water added. When I lifted the bag to stir it, the volume was only around 3 gal, will i need to add more water after I discard the berries?
Also, if I were to use the rest of the can of wine concentrate, if I need to boost OG, would that overpower the Blackberry flavor? It's my first blackberry wine so I do want to get a feel for what the true flavors are before I start blending heavily.

I would add the rest of the 46 oz can...bring all up to 5 gal...to a SG of 1.090. have also used there 46 oz can of Melot to mix with the blackberries. Rule of thumb is 3 cans per every 20 to 23 lbs of blackberries..

you will need to add pectic enzyme to this to break down the berries. there is no need to mash the berries. freezing does the trick. I personally think that you could have done without the concentrate. I use 6 pounds per gallon as a normal measurement of berries and i make killer good blackberry wine. I start AT 1.09 as well. honey is ok to sweeten.

I ended up adding the full can of concentrate and didn't have enough sugar on hand to get to 1.09, so I pitched the yeast anyway (71b) and it started to foam a little bit but by 24 hours later there were no signs of fermentation, it's like they died off. So I rehydrating another package of 71b and pitched it, and added an additonal 2 lbs of sugar, which should have gotten me around 1.090 or a little higher. I threw in some chopped raisins, pectic enzyme, and yeast nutrient as well. I probably doctored it up more than I should have, but we'll see what happens. I plan on throwing some Hungarian Oak on it when I rack it. I haven't added any acid blend to it, because it seems like I'm always adding too much too soon and then working to sweeten it to balance it out, or adding potassium bicarbonate to modify.
It's been actively bubblying away for almost a week.

I think you did perfect(in other words what I would have done)71b is the perfect yeast for blackberry. I try to keep it fermenting about 68 to 70 degrees. At 66 it seems to stop so as cool as possible help maintain berry flavor. You may want to consider adding a f pac at end

Ok, so it's been about 10 days, I just pulled the fruit bag out and checked the gravity and it's as 1.020. That seems way to high at this point. I discarded the fruit bag and strapped my brew belt back on it (it was 60) to see if that will change anything. Technically I have two packs of yeast in there and it was running high 60's most of the time. There seemed to be lots of suspended CO2 at this point, could that be keeping my hydrometer up that much? Heating it up shouldn't hurt it so I'll check it in a few days I guess.

Check SG 3 days in a row, just because you dont see it working, doesn't mean it isn't. Eyes are not the best judge.

So, this morning after getting the temp up to about 68 after a night with the brew belt on, there was some airlock activity already popping.

use you hydrometer. Airlock will pop even without fermentation when raising temp because wines and meads will naturally de-gas at warmer temps

Turnerdude1 said:

I have done the the 96 oz can of Barbera and oaked it this year for the first time. I have done 50% blend of Barbera and I have used two cans that I put into my primary and both came out great.. Would not use honey.

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I just threw 2 oz of American heavy toasted oak in some vodka to sanitize it. How much oak did you use and how long did you let it sit on it?

I would never run fruit with seeds in a blender to break it up... you'll end up with a bitterness from those seeds that are now cracked open. Freezing and a light mashing should work fine!

Debbie