Blackberry Wine 1

Started 23rd April 2012

We had about 10lbs of blackberries in the freezer from last year so they were next on the list for the wine. This time, we decided to go for a bigger 3 gallon / 15 litre bucket - that should be enough for 18 bottles. Why make small buckets (which give 6 bottles at a time) when we can make much more in the same time?!

The method here is slightly different to the raspberry wine recipes in that we put everything in the bucket on the same day and just let it do it's thing.

Blackberry Wine Recipe 1
Step 1:
Crush 9lbs blackberries in a 3 gallon bucket
Dissolve 7.5lbs sugar in warm water (do in smaller batches, like 2lbs in 3 pints of water) and add to the bucket
Add 3 teaspoons pectolase to help extract flavour and colour
Add 3 teaspoons yeast nutrient
Add 3 teaspoons red wine yeast
Cover and leave for one week then strain into demijohns

We did take an SG reading before adding the yeast, but can't remember the reading - whatever the reading was, it was ok as we carried on.

The mixture frothed up quite well - too well in fact - so after 2 days, we decided to take some out and put it in a 1 gallon / 5 litre bucket. The downside was that we couldn't guarantee the quantities of fruit / sugar etc in the amount removed being the ideal proportions. But hey ho, worth taking a chance!

Step 2:
Strain through sieve into cleaned, sterilised demijohns
Top up with cold water to the "shoulder" of the demijohn
Fit bung and airlock to demijohn
Leave to ferment for a few weeks (maybe 6)

Result so far ....
We strained both buckets into the demijohns. We filled 3 demijohns and the 4th needed about 1 pint of water to top up. They are a lovely dark red, hopefully will clear nicely. We have labelled the 4th demijohn so we know at bottling time if it tastes much different to the other 3 demijohns.