Blackberry Wine: Any Good?

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mew

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I have a bunch of blackberries on my property and I'm thinking about making it into wine, but I've never had the opportunity to try blackberry wine. Is it any good? Does it taste even remotely like blackberries, as raspberry wine tastes somewhat like raspberries? or is it a different but good taste like grape wine is different than grapes yet still tastes good?
 
I have a bunch of blackberries on my property and I'm thinking about making it into wine, but I've never had the opportunity to try blackberry wine. Is it any good? Does it taste even remotely like blackberries, as raspberry wine tastes somewhat like raspberries? or is it a different but good taste like grape wine is different than grapes yet still tastes good?

It's great! It tastes like a red wine with a fruity taste behind it that does taste of blackberries. I like mine dry, but others sweeten it.
 
Brew it! I have my first batch a little over a week in. It still tastes like blackberries, but has almost a merlot taste to it as well. I can already tell its going to be very good.
 
It will definitely taste like blackberries. Unless you're a dedicated WinO. In that case, it tastes like a Pinot Noir. I'm hoping the crop comes in this year. Last year was very poor.
 
Wow! This sounds like a winner. I'll see if I can get enough berries to make a 6-gallon must. Thanks!
 
What do you all think about this recipe (from Jack Keller):

5-6 lb. Brazos blackberries
2-1/2 lb. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. pectic enzyme
7 pts. water
wine yeast and nutrient

"Wash the berries carefully but thoroughly in a colander. Crush them in a bowl or crock, trasnfer the must to a primary fermentation vessel, and pour 7 pts. boiling water over must. Allow to seep for two days, then strain through nylon sieve onto the sugar. Stir well to dissolve sugar, add pectic enzyme, cover well, and set aside for 24 hours. Add yeast and nutrient, cover, and set aside 5-6 days, stirring daily. Pour into secondary fermentation vessel of dark glass (or wrap clear glass with brown paper) to top of shoulder and fit airlock. Place in cool (60-65 degrees F.) dark place for three months. Rack, allow another two months to finish, then rack again and bottle in dark glass and store in a dark place. Allow 6 months to age, a year to mature."
 
I use the purple book recipe and it comes out great. I backsweeten a bit, but just enough to make it less dry.

Keep the berries in a cheescloth bag and leave in the primary, press every day for 5 days.
 
All of Jack Keller's recipes are great, but I'm not familiar with Brazos blackberries. If that's what you have, that recipe should work fine. If they are regular blackberries, use one of those recipes.
 
i never heard of brazo berries , but i dont boil water the pectic enzymes dose well on tmem on its on and theres very little pulp to get out later plus alot of seeds of course.
 
I have a blackberry that I got the idea from Mr. Keller's site. i twisted it a bit and it is awesome, defiantly will be using blackberries again
 
Never made it myself, but maaaaan I love Blackberry wine. Stuff is dangerous, sweet, blackberry and almost no alcohol bite to the stuff I tried. (Duplin - it's 100% blackberry, not blackberry flavored grape wine)
 
Up here on the Olympic peninsula we are having a bumper crop of blackberries, our bushes have more than I could possibly pick, let alone use. So many, I've ran out of airlocks and glassware. I am having to freeze/vacuum seal berries now.

From bushes to primary in under an hour :)

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we make blackberrie wine each year this year we have one big butt load of berries.
i do it this way and get a fine tasting wine.
18- 25+lb berries crush by hand but in a strianer bag place in fermenter. 18lb is good more seems to only take up space in the fermenter and does not add to the berrieness.
10 lb of sugar boild in 2gl water. add to fermenter. top up to 6 gl. add camdin 6 tabs.
wait 24hr add yeast and 2.5 teaspoon tanin, 2.5 teaspoon peptic enzime. let the yeast rock for a week or so. rack to carboy and set 2 months, rack and set 2-6 months, you know out of site out of mind. bottle store untill spring, summer and drink. have some 4 year old it ages well.
this year we are rich with fruit so i have one dry yeast 18 lb, one sweat 18lb, 0ne 33lb with juice from 69lb of white grapes this topped out at 12 gl no water or sugar added. dry yeast. last one i pressed this morring. did apples in the afternoon.
 
What do you all think about this recipe (from Jack Keller):

5-6 lb. Brazos blackberries
2-1/2 lb. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. pectic enzyme
7 pts. water
wine yeast and nutrient

"Wash the berries carefully but thoroughly in a colander. Crush them in a bowl or crock, trasnfer the must to a primary fermentation vessel, and pour 7 pts. boiling water over must. Allow to seep for two days, then strain through nylon sieve onto the sugar. Stir well to dissolve sugar, add pectic enzyme, cover well, and set aside for 24 hours. Add yeast and nutrient, cover, and set aside 5-6 days, stirring daily. Pour into secondary fermentation vessel of dark glass (or wrap clear glass with brown paper) to top of shoulder and fit airlock. Place in cool (60-65 degrees F.) dark place for three months. Rack, allow another two months to finish, then rack again and bottle in dark glass and store in a dark place. Allow 6 months to age, a year to mature."

I'm using this recipe for my first ever batch of wine, but scaled up for 5 gallons. I don't know what variety of blackberries I used (I think himalayan as they grow like weeds everywhere around here), but it sure looks/smells good so far. I started it a couple of weeks ago, and it's in the secondary now. I used 28lbs blackberries, but ended up scaling the sugar back to 10lbs, as that put me at an OG of 1.095. I transferred to the secondary after 7 days when the SG was 1.00, used Lavalin 71B-1122 yeast.
 
Wine, I think more then most beverages, is a to each his own type of thing. I don't generally like the extra jammy wines which the berry wines I've tried have always fallen into. I'd like to try one that is suppose to be a very good one though.
 
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