Blackberry Wine

[BamaProud]

Started in July 2, 2013(a year+ ago)
This was my first Country Wine, I plan on loosely following this recipe by Jack Keller http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/blackbr2.asp

but plan on increasing the amount of berries and adding some Oak for about a month during the final racking.

With the additional berries, I think a cup or two of raisins should make it a heavier bodied wine and keep it balanced. I am leaning towards letting it clear naturally, so I think it should be ready in somewhere between 12 and 18 months.

25 pounds of blackberries:


freezing the berries should help maximize the amount of juice I get out of them:

[BamaProud]

Wow, crushing/juicing 20 pounds of blackberries is harder than it sounds. And MESSY!

[BamaProud]

July 10, 2013:
Coming along nicely. I will probably rack this afternoon or tomorrow. The must wouldn't all fit in my #1 fermenter, so I had to ferment half of it in my bottling bucket. I should have around 5.5 gals after racking it into secondary.



Racked and in my fermentation chamber.

[BamaProud]

July 7th 2014

One year later...its in the bottle.



I will open a bottle in Sep, but just a couple of months ago it still tasted very young. I expect it will hit its stride in the Fall.

Its a deep red:

[timberjack86]

Very nice! I had a friend that would make me some blackberry wine every so often but he recently passed away so it looks like I will have to make my own from now on.