Blackberry hard cider

[Symons3rd]

I’m gonna try a blackberry hard cider. I typically make fruit cider by fermenting till dry in a pressurized keg, then mixing with juice in a new keg, typically either tart cherry or pomegranate, using about a 1/3 juice to cider ratio, and force carbonate. I then either serve it from the keg and never let it get warm or use a counter pressure bottle filler to bottle the carbonated cider and then pasteurized the bottles.

I plan on using 20 pounds of blackberries, by freezing them, and then putting them in a screw press.
How much blackberry juice do you think I will get?
What ratio of juice should I use in my cider?
Should I cold crash the blackberry cider and then transfer to a new keg, after I had the blackberry juice? Let the fine particles drop out of the blackberry juice.

 

[Yooper]

I’m gonna try a blackberry hard cider. I typically make fruit cider by fermenting till dry in a pressurized keg, then mixing with juice in a new keg, typically either tart cherry or pomegranate, using about a 1/3 juice to cider ratio, and force carbonate. I then either serve it from the keg and never let it get warm or use a counter pressure bottle filler to bottle the carbonated cider and then pasteurized the bottles.

I plan on using 20 pounds of blackberries, by freezing them, and then putting them in a screw press.
How much blackberry juice do you think I will get?
What ratio of juice should I use in my cider?
Should I cold crash the blackberry cider and then transfer to a new keg, after I had the blackberry juice? Let the fine particles drop out of the blackberry juice.

I make blackberry wine, so not straight juice but I can give you an estimate of the amount of juice I think. First, I freeze the berries to break them up and release more juice. I also use pectic enzyme in the must to get as much juice as I can. I use about 6 pounds per gallon of berries, and get probably 1/2 gallon out of them if they are big juicy berries.

There is quite a bit of sediment in blackberry wine, so I let it sit for a bit longer than other berries so the sediment packs down a bit. At first, it's pretty light and fluffy lees. If you can stick it in the fridge before racking for a few days, that would definitely help

I don't know what you mean about ratio of juice?

 

[Raptor99]

What ratio of juice should I use in my cider?

Regarding the ratio of fruit to apple juice, it depends on your goal. Do you want a hard cider, with a subtle blackberry flavor, or strong blackberry cider with a hint of apple? Depending on your goal, you could use anything from 1 to 6 lbs. of blackberries per gallon of final product. Experiment to find the ratio that you like best.

 

[Maylar]

Regarding the ratio of fruit to apple juice, it depends on your goal.

The OP doesn't say where he/she is from. In some parts of the world wine is from grapes and any other fermented fruit is cider. Blackberry wine in the US is blackberry cider in Italy.

 

[Raptor99]

The OP doesn't say where he/she is from. In some parts of the world wine is from grapes and any other fermented fruit is cider. Blackberry wine in the US is blackberry cider in Italy.

Good point. Definitions vary. For me "Blackberry cider" might mean hard apple cider, with some added blackberries. If I fermented blackberry juice alone, with a target ABV of 5-6%, I would probably call it "blackberry cider." But if I ferment it to 11-12% ABV, I call it "blackberry wine." That's what makes sense to me.

In the U.S., for tax reasons, "hard cider" is defined as a beverage made from only apples, with no other fruit, and an ABV between 0.5% and 8.5%. If the ABV is higher, it is considered a "wine" and taxed at the higher wine rate. So from a tax law perspective, in the U.S., anything we make that is fermented with fruit other than apples, is a "wine" rather than a "cider." https://www.ttb.gov/faqs/cider#c21

Of course we an call our home fermented products anything we want, because we are not selling it. I would find it helpful to have a category for fermented fruit beverages with an ABV in the cider range. In Great Britain, and possibly elsewhere, a fermented beverage made from pears with an ABV in this range is called "perry." I wonder if we could coin a new term, "fruit cider" for "cider" made from fruit other than apples, similar to "fruit wine," made from fruit other than grapes?

I typically make fruit cider by fermenting till dry in a pressurized keg, then mixing with juice in a new keg, typically either tart cherry or pomegranate, using about a 1/3 juice to cider ratio, and force carbonate.

In reading the original message, it looks like he is fermenting blackberry juice, then adding "either tart cherry or pomegranate" after fermentation, then carbonating it.

 

[Maylar]

In the U.S., for tax reasons, "hard cider" is defined as a beverage made from only apples, with no other fruit, and an ABV between 0.5% and 8.5%. If the ABV is higher, it is considered a "wine"

Yes, and as you said definitions vary. In the US and UK cider is made from apples and any other fermented fruit is wine. In Italy, wine is made from grapes and any other fermented fruit is cider.

We had an Italian lady here a couple years ago asking about strawberry cider. Google was failing her and she posted on the cider forum here. We directed her to the wine forum.