Blackberry wine coming soon

[u/themattimusmaximus]

Having made many bad grape wines, I have wanted to make a lackberry wine for a long time. Thoroughly enjoying the flavor at 7 days already. I think this may be my talent instead of grape.

Recipe used:

5 lbs blackberry

1/4 tsp superfood

2.25 lbs sugar in a simple syrup

Lalvin 71b yeast

Topped off with water to get to about 1.2 gallons

Targeted about 1.090 OG. After 7 days in primary, I am down to 1.000, so close to 12% abv right now. Yeasts are still bubbling pretty hard. Trying to decide how far to take it in secondary, but will likely go about 6 months. May have to stabilize and back sweeten, and I have a bunch of honey I could use for that. Will update later with the success or failure of my adventure.

[u/themattimusmaximus → u/[deleted]]

Thanks! This was mainly following a recipe from northern brewer forums and the yeast choice was a recommendation from the local brewer supply. When I go to bottle after clarifying, I think I want to introduce some weirdness among them. Likely, I will do one bottle with some oak chips in it, add honey to one, simple syrup to one, and leave one just as the basic expression. With how many berries there are still, I could start another batch this year and compare some method choices.

[u/Wine_Maker_68]

The primary acid in blackberries is malic acid so if you do a secondary, your acid level will become a lot less noticeable and you can end up with something a bit flabby. Best thing to do is let the secondary complete and then do some bench tastings adding tartaric acid back in. This will help with any bitterness and give it that good crisp acidity that isn't sour.

[u/themattimusmaximus → u/Wine_Maker_68]

This is great info to get, thanks!

[u/Bitter_Blackberry831]

press now or risk over-extraction

[u/themattimusmaximus → u/Bitter_Blackberry831]

This was after pressing and removing the bag of skins and seeds. The flavor seems good right now, but time will tell.

[u/salamander_salad → u/Bitter_Blackberry831]

That’s not really a thing for blackberries.

[u/Professional-List975]

Looks great! Did you press and remove the blackberries yet, or are you leaving there until you rake off to another container? I have some blackberries in the freezer that I intend to use for a melomel but was thinking of leaving in the must for only 5-7 days max
The consensus seems to be that longer than that risks too much tanins and astringency.

[u/themattimusmaximus → u/Professional-List975]

I pressed on day one for the juice but left the bag of skins and seeds in. It is off the skins and seeds now, 7 days total on primary fermentation. Racked over to secondary to get the last of the sugars fermented and hopefully start clarifying. I plan to rack a few more times over the next 6 months to not have it sitting on lees for too long.