Blackberry Wine

[Alan Clark]

Well, it's that time of year again.

On Friday & Saturday last week I went on a picking frenzy, gathered 21 1/2lb of blackberries. The 1 1/2 spare went to my mum for pies, crumbles etc. The other 20 was squashed with a tatty masher and boiled for a short while in our massive stock pot along with 4 kettle loads of water.

It then went into a 5 gallon bucket and was topped up.

I was out all day on sunday (got home after nearly 16 hours of none stop with a splitting headache) so got back to it on Monday. The OG of the juice came out at 1019 so went to Aldi and bought 5kg of sugar for £3.40, dissolved 3lb 2oz in some of the juice in a pan and added it back to the must, brought the SG up to 1041, just as well I decided to only add 1/3 of the sugar as it brought the liquid a little too close to the top of the bucket for comfort.

To that lot I added the required amount of tannin, pectolase (just about) and nutrient and finally the yeasties.

This lunchtime it was down to 1032 so the yeasts are happy yeasts.

I'll be moving it to a closed 5.5gal container later in the week and either adding the rest of the sugar then or in stages over a few days. My aim is to get an equiv OG of 1090 and then I'll let it ferment out, hopefully to around 990.

We tried some of last years recently and it is aging well, only did a 1 gallon batch last year as it was the first time I had made wine.

Just waiting for the elderberries now, which around here (near Stockport) are mostly still green.

 

[Moley]

Nice write-up. :thumb:

You may have only started last year with a gallon of this, and I don't know what else you've made in the meantime, but it sounds like you've got it sussed.

It has been a poor year for blackberries for me, I've had a few pounds but my usual bramble banks have been quite sparse. Just waiting for the elderberries now, which are mostly still a greeny-purple.

 

[babe10]

Went to my secret bramble patch yesterday and some greedy blighter has swiped the lot!!!!
stripped bare they are. Got loads last week from a overgrown garden on our estate. The person was only too pleased to let me have them. It just goes to show you don't have to go out into the wilds to find em as, long as they are not near a road their fine. I wont be brewing them though that seems it takes forever. I will be batch cooking my exceedingly tasty apple and blackberry pies served with custard and hopefully soon washed down with a chilled glass of wurzela's (rose wurzels) :grin:

 

[Alan Clark]

Quite a lot of the brambles are not good this year, but a few are excellent, two areas near home and a couple on my uncle's farm. Quite a bit of elder on the farm as well, that is where I collected flowers from in June.

 

[Alec]

I spent an hour collecting near us tonight, only got enough to make a gallon, and have the nettle stings and thorn marks to prove it!!!

 

[Alan Clark]

Yep, got more than a few of those as well.