Blackberry wine

Made my first batch of blackberry wine with the following recipe

4lbs berries (frozen)
4 1/2 cups sugar
1tsp yeast energizer
1tsp acid blend
1tsp pectic enzyme
1campden
1 large lemon
1pkg lalvin bourgovin RC 212

Boiled water and added sugar to dissolve (clear). Put juice of one lemon to invert. Boiled for 20 more min. Defrost berries then juice in a juicer. Drain juice through fine stainless screen ( sugar sifter) into 1 gallon glass bottle. Let sugar cool. Add sugar water to bottle. Put fresh filtered tap water to pot which contained sugar and bring back to boil to get re sing sugar from pot. In bottle add energizer, enzyme, campden. Let water cool and add to bottle. Wait 24 hrs for campden to dissipate. Rehydrated yeast and added.

36 hrs later airlock plugged and popped off. I resanitized airlock and put back. 30 days later I racked. 3 weeks later I racked again. Tasted wine and it is quite sour (like drinking oj that has spoiled).

Is the wine ruined or just too young?

Thanks
Jeremy

Maybe a combo of very young, and also high acidity level, 1 large lemon for 1 gal seems like alot, but I've never tried it so I could be wrong.

Give it time, it should age out. I'd leave the lemon out next time though.
Regards, GF.

Thank you for the quick reply.

I make blackberry wine every year with good results (lots of bushes near by). I only use fresh berries (rather, berries i picked and froze, or fresh; either way, only berries i picked). When i've bought frozen berries, i've noticed a considerable taste difference. Part of this is attributable to the breed of black berry, as most frozen berries for purchase from the store come from farms in the south, if i remember correctly (i'm in the pac nw). Part of it is also that the berries I use are really ripe. So, probably the sour taste is just that the berries fermented out all the way, coupled with the inherent flavor of the store-bought berries picked at sub optimal sweetness.

So, what i'd suggest you do is make a gallon of banana wine, and get some wine conditioner. The banana wine, made with about 5 pounds of bananas per gallon, along with about 2 pounds (4-ish cups) of sugar per gallon, can be blended with the blackberry wine sparingly. It'll add body and sweetness, but the flavor of the banana will be lost to the blackberries. blend a small amount til you have the body and mouth feel you like, then scale that up to your entire gallon of blackberry wine.

Then, when that's done, buy some of that 'wine conditioner' and sweeten the wine with it to taste. Or, use potassium sorbate and sugar. Either way, coupling the back-sweetening with the banana wine blending will go a long ways to making that blackberry wine rich and flavorful.

my two cents.

SouthBay said:

what i'd suggest you do is make a gallon of banana wine,

coupling the back-sweetening with the banana wine blending will go a long ways to making that blackberry wine rich and flavorful.

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When making a batch of wine like this that will be used here and there for blending, how would you bottle/keep the wine since it won't all be used up at the same time?

Keep my Blackberry wine in the carboy or one gal jugs..until ready to blend with other red wines....make sure the air lock stays filled and the carboy is topped off..

think he was talking about the bannana wine

Although I dont have the answer

I have done blackberry wine. Tasted horrible at 4 months but a month later ... All I can say is wow this is gonna be a cracking wine. Give it time I'm sure it will mellow out as mine did and now tastes very soft and fruity

Bottle it like normal. then, uncork the banana bottles as necessary for blending

How long do you keep in bulk fermenter before bottling?

As long as you have your airlock on and topped up.......for as long as you like.

If the wine hasnt dropped any lees for 60 days after racking its ready to bottle.

I racked off the lees last night. Added one campden (1 gal) tablet. During the night the air lock popped off. I re sanitized the air lock and re fitted. Should I add another campden? Don't know how long it went without an airlock because happened in middle of the night.

Does anyone else have trouble with starsan and bung corks? Every time I use it the cork is too slippery even after allowing to dry for a while and will pop it self out of the bottle. I started rubbing with a napkin soaked in vodka to help remove soapy residue before inserting into bottle. But they still want to pop off sometimes.

It may not hurt it since you resealed it as soon as you found it. I might be a good idea to re campden and let it sit another couple of weeks before you bottle it to off gass a little. I would try to get a larger plastic fermenter and make bigger batches to get more out of your haed work. I have never had a airlock pop out of them.

Thanks. Only reason I have been using 1 gallon bottles is because I am still learning and I don't want to ruin a large batch. As soon as I get more comfortable with the whole process I will switch to larger 5 gallon containers.

jtrux said:

Thanks. Only reason I have been using 1 gallon bottles is because I am still learning and I don't want to ruin a large batch.

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Same here.........I want to learn on gallon sizes, and if I make something realy good I will try and duplicate it in 5 or 6 gallon size.

jtrux said:

I racked off the lees last night. Added one campden (1 gal) tablet. During the night the air lock popped off. I re sanitized the air lock and re fitted. Should I add another campden? Don't know how long it went without an airlock because happened in middle of the night.

Does anyone else have trouble with starsan and bung corks? Every time I use it the cork is too slippery even after allowing to dry for a while and will pop it self out of the bottle. I started rubbing with a napkin soaked in vodka to help remove soapy residue before inserting into bottle. But they still want to pop off sometimes.

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I tape mine in with blue painters tape. I go over the top of the bung on 2 sides and then make a wrap around the neck to hold those down. Haven't had one pop out yet.