Blackberry

[goosehunter75]

I’m a beer maker not a wine maker so excuse the dumb question! I have several gallons of frozen homemade blackberry juice that my grandma made. She recently died and relatives have been making jam/jelly out of it but have grown tired of that. They know I brew beer so asked if I could make a wine. My question is what would I end up with if I added a packet of Premier Rouge dry yeast straight to the blackberry juice? Any suggestions on a simple wine I could produce without getting overly involved?

 

[toadie]

Hey goose it's pretty simple but you are probably going to have to add a lot of sugar. You want to test with your hydrometer and get to 1080 - 1090. I usually boil chlorine free water and add sugar, mix and then add to juice. You can also add pectic enzyme to help clear it but really the biggest thing is that after a week or so when fermentation is done (usually in a pail with a lid loosely sitting on it) rack it to a carboy with little air exposure and wait. There are a lot of other little things to do but basically wait as long as you can before bottling. Also look up recipes on this site, they are a big help. Good luck.

 

[goosehunter75]

Hey goose it's pretty simple but you are probably going to have to add a lot of sugar. You want to test with your hydrometer and get to 1080 - 1090. I usually boil chlorine free water and add sugar, mix and then add to juice. You can also add pectic enzyme to help clear it but really the biggest thing is that after a week or so when fermentation is done (usually in a pail with a lid loosely sitting on it) rack it to a carboy with little air exposure and wait. There are a lot of other little things to do but basically wait as long as you can before bottling. Also look up recipes on this site, they are a big help. Good luck.

thanks for the advice! What would you recommend on volume of water added to volume of juice? As far as sugar woild corn sugar be ok or should I use something like honey?

 

[toadie]

Honestly regular sugar is best and cheapest. Smallest amount of water is best too. Pour it in hot the higher temp will help the yeast get going faster.

 

[Tennessee Brew]

Honey would make it more of a mead however blackberry mead sounds really good now Im thinking
or even a traditional beer with a hint of blackberry? hmmm

 

[Seamonkey84]

If it is straight pure juice, you’ll prob want to add some water to that s well, to reduce the acid. Usually you’d use 3-6lbs per gallon of must, any more and you’ll likely have to make it sweet at the end or reduce the acid with something alkaline like potassium carbonate (calcium carbonate can make it chalky)

 

[Tennessee Brew]

If it is straight pure juice, you’ll prob want to add some water to that s well, to reduce the acid. Usually you’d use 3-6lbs per gallon of must, any more and you’ll likely have to make it sweet at the end or reduce the acid with something alkaline like potassium carbonate (calcium carbonate can make it chalky)

We started up a poor mans brewing thing on YouTube. Our recent project is a concord grape wine. It started up quick. Then we started a tropical fruit with concentrate with a heavy mango added. it started slow to the point of nearly not starting at all. We added about 1/4 of the total volume in water and it picked up quick. Water is critical, like every living organism it too needs it to survive and function.