Blackberries

In message , Mike writes

Jack Keller's site has quite a wide selection of them, check under

My experience is that lighter blackberry wines (made with 3 - 4 lbs of fruit per gallon) take a year or so at least to be pleasantly drinkable, as the tannins mellow, whereas heavier wines, with 6lbs per gallon, are very full-bodied, and drinkable much sooner.

Here's a recipe for a medium-bodied blackberry I've got going at the moment. I'd expect the result to be getting drinkable about this time next year, after at least 6 months in the bottle. It should end up about

8 lbs blackberries

Put the berries in the primary, add 2½ lbs of sugar, pour on the boiling water, and mash them thoroughly. Add 2 campden tablets. When cool, add pectolase sufficient for 2 gallons. Cover, and leave to soak for 2 days.

Strain into another primary to remove the pips and pulp. Add vitamins, yeast nutrient, and sufficient sugar to bring the SG up to 1090, then pitch the yeast - I just used an all-purpose yeast. Cover with a cloth, and stir twice daily; I generally find the fermentation will go off like a rocket. It may give off a smell rather like hydrogen sulphide, but this disappears later, and isn't so far as I can tell a genuine H2S problem.

When it's finished fermenting vigorously - a week or 10 days should do - rack off into secondaries, fit airlocks, and leave it to ferment further. When it's finished, after a couple of months, it will have cleared extremely well, but thrown an unfeasible quantity of sediment. Rack off the lees into another secondary, and leave it another 6 months at least, before bottling. It may seem harsh and thin at this point, but it matures very nicely.

It's important to keep it in the dark, or use dark-coloured glass, because sunlight will fade the colour.

cheers, robin

Huh? Our blackberries here in the UK are just nicely ripe now.

Surely they're an early autumn/late summer fruit.

Or does 'blackberry' mean something different to you and me?

In article , snipped-for-privacy@isbd.co.uk writes

We have been picking blackberries, or brambles as some call them, for about two weeks now. I find that the earlier berries are better suited for fresh eating and freezing because they are firmer, and the later ones for wine-making as they tend to be softer by then. I shall either make the popular favourite blackberry and apple wine, or a blend of blackberry, elderberry, blackcurrant, and any other suitable red fruit available.

Here in Oregon we have three varieties. I don't know their names, but I do know their habits. One tends to grow closer to the ground and up over bushes and fences, and ripens around June. The other two varieties are the "bramble" type that mound up on top of themselves to make an impenetrable thicket and are ripe right now. We've been picking them for the last couple weeks. Not sure if I'll try to make wine from them this year, I've been disappointed by my past results. But my blackberry jelly recipe is pretty reliable.

--arne

You didn't check his email address; he's down-under!

Yes I did, that's exactly why I asked the question! Our blackberries in the UK are ripe now, I couldn't understand how they could also be just ripening in New Zealand unless they were something different.

I am with you Chris -- he seems to be out of season in the southern part of the southern hemisphere! Months to go I would have thought