Looking for Blackberry wine yeast advice

Hi all, new member here. Introduction first and foremost....I'm Adam and its been a pleasure reading as much information as my brain can absorb from everyone that has been kind and generous with their time in sharing a lot of their knowledge here! Been lurking for ages and finally registered so I could get some input on a batch of blackberry wine I plan on starting once the juice is available from a local farm.

As a background, I've only done one wine before which was a winexpert kit. Riesling reserve which came out fantastic. I back sweetened to taste and am very pleased with the results. I mostly brew hard cider, and thanks to CvilleKev for all his help and experience, have gotten accustomed to stopping fermentation (cont...)

At the desired sweetness level to preserve the natural fruit sugars to retain a more fruity, natural flavor profile. (Apologies for the multiple posts, text stopped showing up after that point in my first post). My question is if there was a specific yeast for blackberry win (such as S04 for ciders) that works well with not fermenting all the way to dry.

Also just out of curiosity, has anyone tried or have any experience with stopping ferment at around 1.010 with a combination of cold crashing and racking off lees? Thanks in advance for any help and insight, and apologies if anything I've said is noobish! This go at it without a kit!

I tend to use premier cuvee or other champagne yeast, but if you have berries that are very high in malic acid, Lalvin's 71B-1122 is a good one.

I don't recommend trying to stop fermentation and then racking off of the lees- sometimes it works, but then if it doesn't bottle bombs would result. It might work for some, but I don't think it will work great with wine yeast which is pretty hardy and hard to stop long-term.

It's easier to start with a decent OG and let it ferment out, then stabilize and sweeten to taste, and it's more predictable.

Never done blackberrys (they're expensive in my area!) But I use d-47 or K1-1116 for my fruit. I like the extra mouthfeel of d-47, but K1-1116 has been great in my ciders!

Thanks for the advice. I've been going about crashing and racking and haven't ever had a problem with bottle bombs.. I should also have mentioned I'm waiting at least two months after several racks with the carboy at room temp to make sure there's no re-ferment before going into bottles. Never have come close to a bomb and in fact wish there was more carbonation but its usually still as can be. I understand using blackberry could be a little different however I'm 99% sure bombs won't be any issue if its stopped early.

Any ideas on what the result would be from using an ale yeast or a wyeast pack? I can just see it now...my basement covered with gallon test bottles...

I made a wonderful blackberry wine with Cotes de blanc.

I will however have to second what yooper said about stopping fermentation. Beer yeasts, typically, flocculant and clump rather well and fall out of solution easily (even faster with cold) whereas wine yeast typically do not flocculate very well. Couple this with the relatively nutrient poor nature of apple juice/cider which causes the yeast to stall out and then, thanks to the flocculant nature of the yeast, falls out of solution it becomes easier to stop a fermentation with cold crashing (yeast are already stressed and give up easier).

With a more nutrient dense substrate AND a yeast that does not settle out quickly it will be challenging to stop.

I have found myself wondering if you could use an ale yeast at typically wine OG's (~1.09) or if they would be too stressed and produce off flavors. I really like the flocculant nature of ale yeasts and would like to take advantage of it however there probably is a reason people don't typically do that

I use Cotes de Blanc and it makes great wine, just enjoying my first bottle from last years batch right now and it is great.

Ale yeasts tend to drop dead around 10% abv, so putting thhem in a 1.090 brew will leave sweetness for a still cider.

I think I'd go with either 71-B or RC-212. The 71-B will give you a softer, rounder end product. The RC-212 will give you a sharper end product in need of longer aging. Here are a couple links you may find useful:
http://www.lalvinyeast.com/strains.asp
And
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/strains.asp
Regards, GF.

I just transferred (and tasted) my batch with Cote de Blancs. It had a lot more mouthfeel than what I remember from last year's batch with 1118. But it filled my whole apartment with egg fart smells for about a week (even with added nutrient).

Thanks for the input everyone. I'll keep in mind that the wine yeast will be harder to stop ferment than an ale yeast but I'm set on finding a way to stop it with minimal use of k-meta. I have 8 growlers that I'm going to play around with using different yeasts and techniques. Will certainly be using the suggested yeasts mentioned in this thread and interested in cote de blanc in particular.