Blackberry and apple wine

[rickthebrew]

Found a couple of kg`s of last years blackberries in the freezer - so thought i`d stretch them to a couple of gallons with some apple juice :thumb:

Quick easy recipe with what i had in as i was brewing an AG today as well :party:

defrosted blackberries in a tub with 3litres boiling water and 3litres apple juice - added 1.5kg sugar dissolved in the water and gave it all a good stir and squash! Juice of 1 lemon and 1 campden tab, when it had cooled 2tsp of pectalose.

will leave it 24 hours give it a good stir and take a hydro reading to see if i need more sugar - had a sachet of burgundy yeast so this will go in tommorrow, along with some nutrient. Five days in the bucket then strain into two dj`s and ferment out.

:drink: looks lovely already :thumb:

 

[leeboozer]

Youve been a busy lad today rick ,bout time you changed yer name to rickthebrewmachine :clap:

 

[bandit081]

Looks good Mate, I reckon I would have been more inclines to boil up the blackberries and use the liquid without bothering with the berries, but hey each to their own.

I had a bargaon on the weekend, picked up a lot of apple juice cartons (42) for 2 quid lol. should be able toput some nice cider on,

Anyone local to wales that wants to know where it is, Besthma market on a saturday morning at the fruit stalls, he has got hundreds there.I also picked up 22 cartons of strawberry smoothie, put 5 galls on on sunday. :thumb:

 

[Tony]

Hey Rick
what would you expectto see on the hydro if you don't need to add more sugar?

 

[rickthebrew]

tony - checked the gravity tonight and it was 1100 - so that would be around 14% depending on if i need to add water to top up, IIRC the % of sugar in blackberrys is about 8%. So i pitched the yeast :party:

Bandit - will leave five days then strain into DJ - don`t know if this would give a better / worse result then boiling up and straining straight away :hmm:

:drink: i love brewing :lol:

 

[Sean_Mc]

Rick I've 5gallons mellowing away from a similar recipe from last September, I just used normal GP yeast though.

Its still a tad on the harsh side, but don't expect it to be ready until the summer anyway. It smells great though and can't wait to drink it when its ready.

Must pick more blackberries this year :)

 

[Moley]

I quite agree with Rick's method and Sean's comment about maturing.
From my own notes:

Started 19/8/09
9 lbs Blackberries
4.5 litres Apple Juice
2.5kg sugar
Water to 3 gallons
3 CTs, 2tsps Citric, 1tbsp Pectolase
Pour boiling water over sugar, stir to dissolve, add frozen berries + juice + CTs, pecto when cool, yeast & nutrient on day 2, strain on day 5.
OG 1.096
Rack 1: 30/9/09, FG 0.990, + CTs + sorbate +150ml WGJ/gal SG 0.993
Rack 2: 2/12/09, SG 0.993
Cost £4.67, Yield (18), Unit (26p), ABV 14.4%

So, 6 months old and still in DJs down the cellar, crystal clear, no further sediment, mellowing nicely, I'm in no hurry to bottle it yet, would reckon 9-12 months for blackberry.

 

[rickthebrew]

:thumb: Spot on Moley - this ones going to sit in the DJ`s to mature - I made and bottled 3 gallons of straight blackberry last year as I was eager to get more brews on - I have since got more DJ`s so can use some for long term storage I have two gallons of crystal clear rhubarb and orange (rhubarb from the garden :thumb: @17%) which will be bottled around august after a year to mature. As Moley has said before proper country wine needs proper maturation I tried a bottle of blackberry and it had improved since being bottled last year - I have around eight bottles left for longer storage, trying to build up good stocks - seems the more I brew the quicker it goes :lol: Can`t wait for summer and lots of free supplies of wine ingredients, will be making lots this year!!!

 

[speedtippledan]

Have to agree with the storing of country wines, my apples and pears are nice after a year but really nice after 2yrs i,ve got 50bottles of sept 08 left and 21gallons of 2009 in dj's waiting for bottling even got some 07 left which i,m going to try in the summer to how good they kept

Dan

 

[Moley]

Have to agree with the storing of country wines

Thanks Dan, I am frequently surprised at what some people are prepared to drink (not necessarily on this forum but there have been a couple of absolute head-cases on another forum I frequent) and some seem genuinely horrified when we start talking in terms of many months to a year or more, but patience will usually reward you.

Fortunately, we have Wurzels and other juice wines to tide us over while the other stuff is maturing.
My own are rarely permitted more than 3 months' shelf life : :party:

 

[speedtippledan]

My missus gets the hump some days because i won,t release them from the garage... they must be good cause i have non Homebrewers converted to drinking them. Thats when i let them out of storage :geek:
I did my 1st apple wines in 2007 so i want to stretch them to see at what point they peak and go down hill.

I,ve got enough beer and cider to see me through the thristy days :drink:

 

[rickthebrew]

Dan how did you make your apple wine and pear wine? I`ve made apple wine from windfalls by chopping them up and covering with water and adding yeast and pectalose - leaving 3 to 5 days and straining into DJs and topping up with sugar and water to get the OG i want. I made a pear wine like this viewtopic.php?f=39&t=5070&hilit=+pear+wine

the apple turned out great and the pear was a little thin so thats been left to mature :thumb:

 

[rickthebrew]

Strained into two DJs yesterday (her mother was around so like to keep busy ) had about 4 litres for each DJ so topped up with a little sugar syrup and water - had no apple juice but if I did this would`ve gone in instead. OG still around 1100 then, took a reading which was around 1020. Plopping away at a good rate :

 

[garwatts]

I had a bargain on the weekend, picked up a lot of apple juice cartons (42) for 2 quid lol. should be able to put some nice cider on,

Anyone local to Wales that wants to know where it is, Besthma market on a Saturday morning at the fruit stalls, he has got hundreds there.I also picked up 22 cartons of strawberry smoothie, put 5 galls on on Sunday. :thumb:

You got a bargain there then :thumb:
Where's Besthma market? Nothing appearing on Google :?