Blackberry Wine

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Yooper

Ale's What Cures You!
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BLACKBERRY WINE (2) [Medium Bodied Dry] (from Jack Keller's website)
4 lb blackberries
2-1/4 lb granulated sugar
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
1/2 tsp acid blend
crushed Campden tablet
7 pts water
wine yeast and nutrient

Pick fully ripe berries. Wash thoroughly and place in nylon jelly-bag. I freeze the berries first, and then use a mesh bag from the homebrew store. The big bags will line an "ale pail" fermenter. Use more than one bag, if necessary, so that the berries aren't packed in tightly.

Mash and squeeze out all juice into primary fermentation vessel. Tie bag and place in primary fermentation vessel with all ingredients except yeast. Stir well to dissolve sugar, cover well, and set aside for 24 hours.

Add yeast, cover, and set aside 5 days, stirring daily. Strain juice from bag and siphon off sediments into secondary fermentation vessel of dark glass (or wrap clear glass with brown paper, or cover with a blanket or towel) to protect from light, filling only to the upper shoulder of the secondary, and fit airlock. Leftover must should be placed in a 750-ml wine bottle with airlock (a #2 bung fits most wine bottles) or a sanitized growler, and used for topping up. Top up when all danger of foaming over is past. This is in a few days.

Place in cool (60-65 degrees F.) dark place for three weeks. There should be quite a bit of sediment by this time. Rack, allow another two months to finish, then rack again and bottle in dark glass. I usually bulk age here, especially if I'm oaking.

Allow a year to mature to a nice semi-sec. [Adapted from Raymond Massaccesi's Winemaker's Recipe Handbook]

I really like this dry, with 30 days on French medium toast oak. Multiply the ingredients if you're making more than one gallon of wine. 1 oz of oak is good for a 3 gallon batch, in my experience.
 
Do you have any more experience with this recipe or anything else you'd add? I'm about to get a 6 gallon batch going, once the threat of hot weather is over. (24 pounds of blackberries is a LOT of blackberries) With all of the blood, sweat, and sunburn that's going into this one, I want to make sure I have all of my bases covered!
 
Do you have any more experience with this recipe or anything else you'd add? I'm about to get a 6 gallon batch going, once the threat of hot weather is over. (24 pounds of blackberries is a LOT of blackberries) With all of the blood, sweat, and sunburn that's going into this one, I want to make sure I have all of my bases covered!

I make it fairly often- I wouldn't change it. I still have some from '06- it aged well.
 
I made a slighly different version of this back in January and just bottled not too long ago. It will be a very good wine in a few more months, and an incredible one in a year.
 
Well, I've got 22 lbs so far and I think I'll use this recipe. I also looked at the full-bodied recipe, but I'm thinking that might be a bit much. One more day's picking should do it.

I'm thinking about aging it in a cornie for the first year. I've got lots of them, including one with a filter.
 
Using the Keller website, I made 9 gallons of the medium body semi sweet. It is almost ready to bottle. I find it a little dry for my taste and did slightly sweeten it. It seems just right now.

Actually I used Apache variety and wild dewberries in this batch.
 
We didn't get any blackberries in 2009, but this year we've got an abundance! We'll be making blackberry wine, 3 gallons, again this year. While I love this recipe, this time I'm going to use Jack Keller's "heavy bodied" recipe. It's basically the same recipe, but with 6 pounds of blackberries per gallon. I may oak, since I like blackberry wines dry or slightly off-dry with a bit of oak.
 
We had a ton of blackberries here too. I made 1 gallon of your wine here. I put two in to regular winebottles and the rest is in beer bottles and are going for some sparkling blackberry wine.

Thank again for another good recipe.
 
Good crop so far. Some are molding already, but I've got ~20 lbs. I'm making jelly out of the Oregon Evergreens and a cider out of some of the Himalayans. I need to reserve ten pounds or so for cobblers throughout the next year. Forecast is sunny with occasional showers for the next week or two. Good weather for picking.

I plan on 3 lbs per gallon and an OG of only 1.040 for the cider. Last year's wine is coming along, but I want something lighter.
 
Well, I only had 18 pounds but I went ahead and made 5 gallons of wine with them. The OG was 1.100 and I used K1V1116 yeast.

I just did the second racking, and this wine is FANTASTIC!

Here's a photo of Bob sampling it:
DSCF5318.jpg
 
Thanksgiving weekend I made 6 gallons of this with 26 pounds of berries. I've only racked it once out of primary. I'm going to rack it again this weekend and top it up with more of the wine. Do I need to add anything to it, or just rack it and set it aside for a month or 2? I read on the Keller site he added campden and something else, not sure hwat it was. Do you do this Yooper?
 
Lyons audio. How is your blackberry sparkling wine coming. What sg did you prime and bottle at? I have picked 4 pounds of wild dewberries and ill be starting this one tomarow.
 
I'm planning on making this in the next week or so, as soon as the wild blackberries are at their juiciest. I think I might go for two gallons, though. Does everything in the recipe need to be doubled, or just the fruit, sugar and water? (This will be my first wine.)
 
Well, I only had 18 pounds but I went ahead and made 5 gallons of wine with them. The OG was 1.100 and I used K1V1116 yeast.

I just did the second racking, and this wine is FANTASTIC!

Here's a photo of Bob sampling it:
View attachment 19298

Well, we opened a bottle of this last night. It's super early, but we had to! It was so good.
 
I am making this now and was a little sad to see my OG is a little low. I guess the sugar content of my berries was a little low. I will add some more sugar before I pitch the yeast to get my OG up. I plan on using cotes de blanc at lower temps. Hopefully it turns out great!

Anyone use anything to clear the wine after or just wait it out?
 
I don't have a good scale at the moment, and am looking to figure out the volume to pound ratio for ripe blackberries. Any one have a good figure? I have 1 gallon is about 4 pounds... Sound right?
 
My father has been trying to make blackberry wine for some time now.
He picks hundreds of pounds every year from his bushes.

I know he has tried multiple recipes, maybe even this one. The problem is that they are all very hot. Other than cutting back the sugar, what can I tell him to do to prevent/lessen this flaw?
 
This looks really good! I'm starting a batch this weekend. I have tried different variations of JAO with blackberries substituted for the orange. I was wondering what everyone's thought have been on the amount of blackberries to add per gallon and what resulted from their experiments.

Thanks!
 
My father has been trying to make blackberry wine for some time now.
He picks hundreds of pounds every year from his bushes.

I know he has tried multiple recipes, maybe even this one. The problem is that they are all very hot. Other than cutting back the sugar, what can I tell him to do to prevent/lessen this flaw?

To make sure the OG isn't above 1.090 and that the fementation temperature never goes above 75 degrees. Also, aging is important. A young wine will taste hot, but in two years it won't.
 
I figured that much.
3-6 months is just way too soon.
I wasn't sure how common this was in a wine.
 
I tried some of this wine months ago and super surprisingly It tasted good only a few months old! so I gave some to a co worker and I drank the rest. but I have kept one bottle stored away in a 360 vodka flip top bottle. and decided to save It till thanks giving. well wile getting the food ready this morning me and my wife decided to taste the wine. I flipped the top and pop apparently when I had thought this stuff had finished fermentation this stuff is carbonated! I flipped the top back down and I had been burping it. looks like I have dew berry champagne for thanksgiving! I cant wait for the carbonation to reduce so I can try the stuff. so what do you think guys should I refrigerate the stuff? It seems that a sparkling wine would be better cold. or do you think I should age it longer? my best guess is just to get a taste. but your opinion is what I truly want! Happy Thanksgiving HBT! :mug:
 
I tried some of this wine months ago and super surprisingly It tasted good only a few months old! so gave some to a co worker and i drank the rest. but I have kept one bottle stored away in a 360 vodka flip top bottle. and decided to save It till thanks giving. well wile getting the food ready this morning me and my wife decided to taste the wine. I flipped the top and pop apparently when I had thought this stuff had finished fermentation this stuff is carbonated! I flipped the top back down and I had been burping it. looks like I have dew berry champagne for thanksgiving! I cant wait for the carbonation to reduce so I can try the stuff. so what do you think guys should I refrigerate the stuff? It seems that a sparkling wine would be better cold. or do you think I should age it longer? my best guess is just to get a taste. but your opinion is what I truly want!

I like carbonated wines chilled, and the blackberry wine is really nice chilled rather than room temperature anyway.

We're having blackberry wine and crabapple wine (both, since we couldn't pick one!) for Thanksgiving dinner today.
 
Awesome Thank you so much yoop! Happy Turkey Day! I just put it in the refrigerator I have been Burping it every once in a wile hoping to get a taste. this will be a great treat to go with our feast im also making a dewberry cobbler
 
I made a gallon of this recently with added blueberries I got free from work. At least this is the recipe I followed...kinda. :eek:

OG was 1.075. Primary at 70 for 14 days measured SG at 0.994. Racked to secondary and dropped to 65deg today. Taste test, seems to be the most dry thing I have ever made. Here's hoping for good aging.
 
I have a question about volume in primary fermentation with this recipe. I am going picking this weekend and want to make a 5gal batch of this. So it will be 20lbs of blackberries + 4gal 3pints of water.

I have a bucket that I can use for fermentation that's about 8.5gals (this would be filling it totally to the rim, no air room at all). Will this be large enough for 20lbs of berries and over 4 gals of water, or do I need a larger vessel?
 
I have a question about volume in primary fermentation with this recipe. I am going picking this weekend and want to make a 5gal batch of this. So it will be 20lbs of blackberries + 4gal 3pints of water.

I have a bucket that I can use for fermentation that's about 8.5gals (this would be filling it totally to the rim, no air room at all). Will this be large enough for 20lbs of berries and over 4 gals of water, or do I need a larger vessel?

I'd just add water up to my volume (or a bit past) and then top up more later when putting it in the carboy.
 
Nice one ... Think ill give this a go tomorrow nite ... Got my blackberries in a freeze thaw cycle will take em out in the morn and start tomorrow nite
 
If I used 4.5 lbs* of blackberries, how much sugar should I cut out?


*Will have to buy frozen berries in 12 oz packs. Six 12 oz packs is 4.5 lbs. I'd rather up the berries to 4.5 than reduce them to 3.75.
 
If I used 4.5 lbs* of blackberries, how much sugar should I cut out?


*Will have to buy frozen berries in 12 oz packs. Six 12 oz packs is 4.5 lbs. I'd rather up the berries to 4.5 than reduce them to 3.75.

I'd start with a bit under 2 pounds, and check the SG. If the SG is bit low, you can add some more sugar.
 
Question re: nutrients. When do you add the nutrients?

I'm using the Blackberry wine (heavy body) & the Blackberry wine (medium body - dry) from the jackkeller.net site. After last years failure (made quite a few mistakes), I've been reading and studying like crazy to prepare for the bumper crop of blackberries I have this year. thought I had it all down until I read this while ordering more nutrient: Use one teaspoon per gallon of must. Add to must (wine) 24 hours before adding yeast to provide the yeast with a healthy environment with much needed vitamins and nutrients.

Apparently I need to learn a bit more. I just followed the recipe and added the nutrient WITH the yeast. Have I already ruined the wine before I even got started?:confused:
 
Question re: nutrients. When do you add the nutrients?

I'm using the Blackberry wine (heavy body) & the Blackberry wine (medium body - dry) from the jackkeller.net site. After last years failure (made quite a few mistakes), I've been reading and studying like crazy to prepare for the bumper crop of blackberries I have this year. thought I had it all down until I read this while ordering more nutrient: Use one teaspoon per gallon of must. Add to must (wine) 24 hours before adding yeast to provide the yeast with a healthy environment with much needed vitamins and nutrients.

Apparently I need to learn a bit more. I just followed the recipe and added the nutrient WITH the yeast. Have I already ruined the wine before I even got started?:confused:

No, that's fine. You can add the nutrient at any time. It's just easiest to mix up the must all at one time (including the campden/sulfites) and add the yeast 24 hours later.
 
No, that's fine. You can add the nutrient at any time. It's just easiest to mix up the must all at one time (including the campden/sulfites) and add the yeast 24 hours later.

Thanks Yooper! If I may ask another question....

I noticed in one of your posts you oaked one of your blackberry wines. I was thinking of trying it with the 5 gallon batch I started a few days ago. Thinking I'd try using these: Oak Infusion Spirals - 2 pack - American or French Oak - Treats 6 Gallons from http://www.homebrewit.com/wine-making-oak-alternatives.

Of course, I'd have to research "oaking" wines. Totally new concept for me.

Could I please have your insight on this? Good product? Bad product? For the novice?

Thanks!
 
Thanks Yooper! If I may ask another question....

I noticed in one of your posts you oaked one of your blackberry wines. I was thinking of trying it with the 5 gallon batch I started a few days ago. Thinking I'd try using these: Oak Infusion Spirals - 2 pack - American or French Oak - Treats 6 Gallons from http://www.homebrewit.com/wine-making-oak-alternatives.

Of course, I'd have to research "oaking" wines. Totally new concept for me.

Could I please have your insight on this? Good product? Bad product? For the novice?

Thanks!

Oh, yes, those are very nice spirals! I prefer the fullness (and less harshness) of the French oak, but the American is ok with some age.

I'm cheap, and often use chips or cubes but if I wanted something really special, the spirals are great. I've used them in expensive wine kits, and loved the results.
 
Oh, yes, those are very nice spirals! I prefer the fullness (and less harshness) of the French oak, but the American is ok with some age.

I'm cheap, and often use chips or cubes but if I wanted something really special, the spirals are great. I've used them in expensive wine kits, and loved the results.

I'm taking your advice, ordered some French oak chips and will hope they come in on time. I'd like to try American oak in one batch/French in the other. :)
 
Oh, yes, those are very nice spirals! I prefer the fullness (and less harshness) of the French oak, but the American is ok with some age.

I'm cheap, and often use chips or cubes but if I wanted something really special, the spirals are great. I've used them in expensive wine kits, and loved the results.

Yooper, I have my French Oak chips, and have read so many different thoughts on the subject that I wanted to know when you add them and for how long....assuming you add them to blackberry wine (because I can't seem to find the post where I thought I had read that you do :confused:).
 
Yooper, I have my French Oak chips, and have read so many different thoughts on the subject that I wanted to know when you add them and for how long....assuming you add them to blackberry wine (because I can't seem to find the post where I thought I had read that you do :confused:).

Oh, sometimes I do! It depends on the wine from each year. Some years, the berries are "lighter" and wouldn't hold up as well to oak.

I oak after the wine has been clear for quite a while and no new lees have dropped after at least 60 days. I rack onto the chips, and let the wine sit for about 3-4 weeks. I sample, and when it's just slightly too much (as it will fade in the bottle), then I rack and bottle or bulk age some more.

Oaking is the last thing I do to the wine, generally.
 
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