Foolproof Blackberry Wine recipe for noob

[Horners]

Morning Winemakers

Spotted a lot of blackberries on my morning run this morning so fancy having a go at some blackberry wine this year. I have not made wine before (other than some elderflower champagne which I am yet to sample). I have all the beer making kit you can imagine plus a couple of 5L glass demijohns.

To this end I was hoping someone can hit me up with their go to foolproof recipe and method for 5L of blackberry wine.

Thanks in advance

Horners

 

[An Ankoù]

Courtesy of Berry, First Steps in Winemaking.

I'm making wine as we speak. Haven't got enough blackberries so I'm going 2 lb blackberries and 1½ lb elderberries.

Hope this fits the bill, I'[ve done it many, many times.

Spotted a lot of blackberries on my morning run this morning [Endquote]

If you can face a run in the morning, you didn't have enough to drink the night before!

 

[Nottsbeer]

View attachment 53228
Courtesy of Berry, First Steps in Winemaking.

I'm making wine as we speak. Haven't got enough blackberries so I'm going 2 lb blackberries and 1½ lb elderberries.

Hope this fits the bill, I'[ve done it many, many times.

I'm also making a blackberry wine. Pretty much following a recipe similar to that posted above. Mine was from recipe UK site I think, googled to find a recipe. Only difference was adding the sugar with the boiling water rather than when transferring later. I'm a week in and ready to transfer the liquid to a Demi john...going to be interesting trying to sieve out the gunk without making my kitchen red!! Good luck with yours BTW, there was an interesting recipe in the Guardian last week (article on 10 recipes to do with blackberries). The wine one used honey, sounded good. Saw it a day too late, and don't have space to make another batch, otherwise I'd have the kids out picking another few kilos for me

 

[An Ankoù]

I'm also making a blackberry wine. Pretty much following a recipe similar to that posted above. Mine was from recipe UK site I think, googled to find a recipe. Only difference was adding the sugar with the boiling water rather than when transferring later. I'm a week in and ready to transfer the liquid to a Demi john...going to be interesting trying to sieve out the gunk without making my kitchen red!! Good luck with yours BTW, there was an interesting recipe in the Guardian last week (article on 10 recipes to do with blackberries). The wine one used honey, sounded good. Saw it a day too late, and don't have space to make another batch, otherwise I'd have the kids out picking another few kilos for me

I'll see if I can find it in the online version of the Guardian....
Got it.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...recipes-from-chilli-chutney-to-jelly-and-wineI'll give it a good looking at this evening. Thanks.

His advice about using salty water to get of bugs is not a good idea as it'll also draw the juice through osmosis. Don't worry about indects, a quick rinse with cold water is sufficient.

 

[Horners]

View attachment 53228
Courtesy of Berry, First Steps in Winemaking.

I'm making wine as we speak. Haven't got enough blackberries so I'm going 2 lb blackberries and 1½ lb elderberries.

Hope this fits the bill, I'[ve done it many, many times.

That looks easy enough. Reason I was out running first thing was I came home from work p*ssed and I needed to get out the house before SWMBO was up and about!

 

[Nottsbeer]

I'll see if I can find it in the online version of the Guardian....
Got it.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...recipes-from-chilli-chutney-to-jelly-and-wineI'll give it a good looking at this evening. Thanks.

His advice about using salty water to get of bugs is not a good idea as it'll also draw the juice through osmosis. Don't worry about indects, a quick rinse with cold water is sufficient.

I saw that and sort of passed over it. I gave the berries a rinse with water prior to squashing. As someone mentioned heating fruit to a temp over 40oC will kill off any wild fungi etc, I just presumed the boiled water does this.

I've just racked off the blackberry wine from the fermenter into the demijohn. I decided against filtering due to not having a good system for that. Apart from a few floating bits of berry, I don't think filtering is needed yet.

 

[Nottsbeer]

Hi, I've just checked a blackberry wine I'm making....ready for the next stage

On taste, the wine is quite gassy. As I've only done kits before, and they generally ask you to de-gas the wine, I'm going to do this for a couple of days. Is there anything else I should consider? Thx.

 

[Irishwizard]

I think blackberrys make a magnificent wine, however for the future you may wish to try this...
Use half your blackberrys and add a tin of Wilko grape concentrate...
This way you can get 2 demi jons of top wine on the go and the results are marvellous
Another one to try is goose berries - stick a small bush in the garden and forget about it
The wine is stunning - all the best

 

[Horners]

Hi, I've just checked a blackberry wine I'm making....ready for the next stage

On taste, the wine is quite gassy. As I've only done kits before, and they generally ask you to de-gas the wine, I'm going to do this for a couple of days. Is there anything else I should consider? Thx.

Just added some stabiliser to mine to ahed of back sweetening sometime this week as it is very very dry

 

[Nicks90]

Don't back sweeten it yet. It's only been on since August.
Rack the wine to fresh demi's and leave it for another 6 months somewhere dark.
Blackberry wine takes a while to come good or its quite tart/dry/acidic.
Get used to a yearly cycle. When you are picking next year's berries, this year's is ready to bottle. That's the time to taste and back sweeten if required.

 

[Horners]

Don't back sweeten it yet. It's only been on since August.
Rack the wine to fresh demi's and leave it for another 6 months somewhere dark.
Blackberry wine takes a while to come good or its quite tart/dry/acidic.
Get used to a yearly cycle. When you are picking next year's berries, this year's is ready to bottle. That's the time to taste and back sweeten if required.

Boo! I guess even more patience is needed than brewing beer

 

[user 41945]

Boo! I guess even more patience is needed than brewing beer

Yes, that is very much the way with wine. If you make it as a light dry wine you can maybe drink it a bit sooner, for a full bodied wine it can take longer.
The problem, from past experience, is that you can make it faster than you can drink it unless you're careful.