Blackberry Wine
INGREDIENTS
- 4 lbs Blackberries (frozen or fresh)
- 7 pts Water
- 2¼ lb Sugar
- ½ tsp Acid Blend
- ¼ tsp of Tannin
- 1 tsp Pectic Enzyme
- 1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
- 1 Crushed Campden Tablet
- 1 pkg Wine Yeast
Starting SG: 1.090 - 1.095
Directions
- Dissolve sugar in 7 pts of very hot or boiling water and set aside. Allow sugar water to cool down to room temperature.
- Harvest fully ripened berries. Remove any stems, leaves, and foreign matter. Wash and drain berries to remove any dirt.
- Put berries in nylon straining bag, mash and strain out juice into primary fermentor. Keeping all pulp in straining bag, tie top and place in primary. Add Campden tablet.
- Stir in all other ingredients EXCEPT yeast. Check S.G.. Cover primary.
- After 12 hrs, add yeast and cover primary. When fermentation starts up, check the S.G. daily with an hydrometer. Also as fermentation picks up, the straining bag with pulp will rise to the top of fermentor. Be sure to punch down the bag in the must on a daily basis.
- When ferment reaches S.G. 1.020 (about 5 days) strain juice from bag and discard pulp. Rack wine off sediment into a clean jug or carboy and attach airlock.
- When fermentation has ended the S.G. will have dropped to 1.000 or less. Rack wine off sediment into a clean glass jug or carboy and reattach airlock. To help wine clear, rack again in 2 months and again if necessary.
- When wine is crystal clear, age it for 6-8 months or longer before bottling.
Note
This recipe makes one gallon of dry wine. If you want to sweeten the wine, add ½ tsp of stablizer (Potassium Sorbate) and sweeten to taste.
Dewberry Wine
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The dewberry (Rubus Cuneifolius) is a close relative of the blackberry (Rubus Eubatus), and like the blackberry, the dewberry makes a very tasty, though slightly mellower wine. Typically, during mid to late April, dewberries began to ripen throughout Southeastern Louisiana and brambles can be found in fence rows, highway ditch banks, and pastures. Dewberry season in Southeastern Louisiana is short-lived, only lasting about a month. I located a large patch of dewberries along side a road leading into a subdivision and to my astonishment, the dewberries was large and there was plenty enough to pick to make a 5 gallon batch of full bodied wine.
Dewberry wine, like blackberry has a deep rich blueish purple color, but the color will fade rapidly if the wine is exposed to sun or fluorescent light. For that reason, the must should be fermented in a dark place where light cannot affect it. I bulk age my wine in a carboy in a dark cool closet for at least 4 - 6 months before I bottle it.
INGREDIENTS
- 4 - 5 lbs of fresh wild dewberries
- 2½ lbs of granulated sugar
- ½ tsp Acid Blend
- 1 tsp Pectic Enzyme
- 1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
- ¼ tsp of Tannin
- 1 Campden Tablet
- Enough water to make one gallon
- 1 pkg of Lalvin K1-V116 Yeast
Starting SG: 1.093
Directions
- Dissolve sugar in very hot or boiling water and set aside. Allow sugar water to cool down to room temperature.
- Harvest fully ripened berries. Remove any stems, leaves, and foreign matter. Wash and drain berries to remove any dirt.
- Put berries in nylon straining bag, mash and strain out juice into primary fermentor. Keeping all pulp in straining bag, tie top and place in primary. Add Campden tablet.
- Stir in all other ingredients EXCEPT yeast. Check S.G.. Cover primary.
- After 24 hrs, add yeast and cover primary. When fermentation starts up, check the S.G. daily with an hydrometer. Also as fermentation picks up, the straining bag with pulp will rise to the top of fermentor. Be sure to punch down the bag in the must on a daily basis.
- When ferment reaches S.G. 1.020 (about 5 days) strain juice from bag and discard pulp. Rack wine off sediment into a clean jug or carboy and attach airlock.
- When fermentation has ended the S.G. will have dropped to 1.000 or less. Rack wine off sediment into a clean glass jug or carboy and reattach airlock. To help wine clear, rack again in 2 months and again if necessary.
- When wine is crystal clear, age it for 6-8 months or longer before bottling.
