Simple wholesome blackberry wine

[johnnyginge]

First post!

Well id like to make a dry wine that pretty much is just blackberrys and water, with no added sugar, and preferably no added yeast (if possible). This would be my first try at brewing.
One thing im quite curious of is how to make the end result dry, while still having a 12% or greater abv (i know that depends on yeast genetics), without adding sugar
Id like to keep it as simple and organicish/natural as possible, but will learn from any advice

I feel i know a bit of the theory behind brewing (as im sure everyone says there first try), but no practical experience

Any tips would be much appreciated
Thanks

 

[delvorak]

I think the only way you could get to 12% without adding sugar is if you took a TON of blackberries and boiled then down until you hit the right starting gravity.. but that would be a LOT of blackberries..

Why are you opposed to adding sugar?

 

[johnnyginge]

I would also like to use the least heat possible

Iam oppossed to refined sugar (only oppossed to refined) because its an extracted macro nutrient, and can be easily abused. Also iprefer dry wines; and sugar in excess has severe health effects.
That being said, if i need to add sugar for the yeast to complete its life cycle and convert as much sugar as possible before dying, i would do so, but i would prefer the least amount possible in the end result

 

[ong]

Well, the point of adding sugar isn't to have a sugary wine. It gets converted to alcohol and CO2. Blackberry juice is itself a dilute sugar solution, and the point of adding more is to increase the ABV, not the sweetness.

 

[Heavywalker]

You have to add sugar to a blackberry wine in order to get the proper balance. Blackberry juice and water itself will not have enough sugar to get the ABV where it needs to be for a wine, and blackberry juice by itself will be horribly unbalanced acidly. You can add sugar and have a dry wine, dry wines come from allowing the yeast to ferment out all the way and NOT back sweetening, or adding sugar post fermentation. Look up jack kellers website for some very good blackberry recipes, follow those instructions and do not back sweeten and you will have a nice dry blackberry wine.

 

[johnnyginge]

Thanks, I will take a look at his site.


I realize the sugar is converted to alcohol. Yet excess sugar is not converted to alcohol, when the yeast has had enough sugar and dies.

I guess i was assuming there was enough natural sugars in blackberry to produce at least 12% abv. Is this wrong? If only the balance,or taste, is compromised (subjectively), i would still like to try an experiment with only berries

 

[Heavywalker]

There is not enough sugars to produce a 12% wine in just blackberries alone. With pure juice you may get close to 9-10% but like I said the balance would be waaaaaaaay off. If you follow the recipe on kellers website you will not have too much sugar for your yeast to ferment. You will have a nice dry wine that is well balanced.

 

[saramc]

On death of yeast by ETOH toxicity, even assuming you use a wine yeast with a range of 12-14% ACV you would likely have a residual sugar because those yeast cells do not die just because the range says 12-14%...every single one can exceed their range when aiming for toxicity. Practical experience. But you were referencing a wild yeast ferment, so who knows what wild yeast will do and if the final product will be palatable. Are you planning to pasteurize in order to stabilize your wine?
Here is a link to a chart which gives you an idea of what to expect in terms of sugar content and acidity of common winemaking goods... http://www.brsquared.org/wine/CalcInfo/FruitInf.htm

...Sara

 

[WVMJ]

You are setting yourself up for a dissapointing wine, to harsh with the acid levels, ripe blackberries are around 1.040 specific gravity, especially as a dry wine you wont be able to drink it. I would like to suggest a better idea would be to find some natural raw honey and use it to boost the sugar levels to something reasonable to match the fruit, then you can stay simple and natural. Also get a winemaking yeast, there is no reason not to start out with a good yeast. WVMJ

First post!

Well id like to make a dry wine that pretty much is just blackberrys and water, with no added sugar, and preferably no added yeast (if possible). This would be my first try at brewing.
One thing im quite curious of is how to make the end result dry, while still having a 12% or greater abv (i know that depends on yeast genetics), without adding sugar
Id like to keep it as simple and organicish/natural as possible, but will learn from any advice

I feel i know a bit of the theory behind brewing (as im sure everyone says there first try), but no practical experience

Any tips would be much appreciated
Thanks

 

[johnnyginge]

Being abeekeeper i do have some awesome honey on hand! Adding honey instead of refined sugar Sounds like a great idea.

Would sugar balance an acidic wine? Honestly i dont even know what is referenced by "balanced" in winemaking. pH?

But i do consider myself somewhat of an experimenter/observer, so i will definatly be playing with some natural yeasts, and, champagne yeast or wine yeast.
Also i consider myself a raw whole foods freak, for nutrition (among other things), and i know that by heating natures food, especially fruit, it almost destroys the nutritional value of the food; which is why i previously stated i would like to use the least heat possible. However i dont want my wine to be contaminated.
When you say pasteurize, are you speaking of pouring boiling water? Seems more like a near sterilization to me.

I appreciate all of the tips, i realize i probably sound like an ignant newbie
Thanks

 

[Bluespark]

A wine with too much acid is not very good, likely nearly undrinkable if dry. You could help balance an extremely high acid content with sweetness, but its still not going to be half as good as a balanced wine. That's why in good wine recipes the high acidity of many fruits is diluted with water. Very few fruits can be fermented as straight juice and make a good beverage.

Wild yeast is a huge gamble, you may end up with a wine that tastes awful, a yeast that has a very low alcohol tolerance, etc. wine yeast is just wild yeast that has been chosen and cultivated for its aptitude for making wine. You are sure to get a decent product(as far as the yeasts contribution) by using wine yeast.

If you want to ferment a straight juice, you will end up with a low abv cider, not a wine. You add fermentables to up sugar content, to make it wine strength. I like honey the best, but agave is good too.

Choose a yeast with a higher tolerance, follow a good recipe, and you will end up with a good dry wine.

 

[WVMJ]

I recommend you dont reinvent making wine if you are at this level. Get a hydrometer, smash up 6 pounds of blackberries/gallon of wine, add honey until it gets to 1.095 on the hydrometer, add 1/4 tsp potassium metabisulfite for every 5 gallons of must, stir it in, let it set overnight and pitch in a Winemaking yeast. Simple. No need to heat anything, the sulfite will knock out the bad bugs and protect your wine. You are a newbie, if you dont want your wine contaminated you need to do this step. Also you dont really get the idea of wild yeast used in a grape vineyard, those wild yeasts are the ones chosen to make the modern winemaking yeast in a packet. The vineyards grow their grapes year after year, their "wild" yeast grow and outcompete other yeasts in the vineyard and float around the whole winemaking operation. Who knows what grows on blackberries. We grow blackberries and make a lot of blackberry wine, with the amount of work it takes to grow and pick them I would not under any circumstances risk letting a wild yeast take over, because they also come with bacteria, vinegar etc.

What kind of honey have you got? The darker the better with blackberries.

WVMJ

 

[Heavywalker]

I don't know if you are opposed to using sulfites but they would be a better route to go if for sanitation rather than heat if you heat your wine/juice you may set the natural pectin and your wine may not ever clear, without the use of pectic enzymes.

 

[johnnyginge]

I likethe idea of the potassium metabisulfite until i get the hang of it.

Atm, we got some very dark poplar/blackberry honey, and wewill be spinning gallons off of new spring honey here in a week! It looks fairly dark aswell!

Do you recommend using two fermentation vessels?