time for making blackberry wine

Regarding your comments: 4# of berries per gallon is the recipe I got from the little book I'm using (Winemaker's Recipe Handbook, Raymond Massaccesi, 1976), and it worked really well last year. I just bottled 31 bottles of last year's blackberry and it has a nice, dark color and rich flavor, though understandably a little raw just yet. I don't see any shortage of body in last year's wine.

I'm using the hydrometer all the time. I only tossed in a small amount of sugar at the end because I didn't want to add more water (turns out I'll need to do that a little later anyway). And i needed a little more SG to reach the 1.090.

The acid blend was, again, called by the recipe I'm using. I honestly don't know if it needs it or not. I have a pH tester and this year's batch tested at 3.6, last year's batch was 3.2. These would be interesting numbers if I had any indication of what a "correct" pH was for blackberry wine. I have looked but I haven't found anything other than a general admonition that it should be acidic.

Sugar is $2 for 4 lbs. That's probably cheaper than sweetening conditioners.

Today I racked the must into a carboy and squeezed the pulp out. It's only been three days but the SG was down to 1.022 already. It's been very hot the past few days and my basement temp is slightly above 70 F, but the primary was running about 78 F and the yeast was very active. The book calls for racking when the must gets below 1.030. Last year it took five days, this year three.

Now I get to wait a couple of weeks and watch the blackberry fizz in the bottle. In the meantime, I'm thawing out the 23 lbs of cherries that I had frozen and I'm going to start a batch of sweet cherry wine this afternoon. I should be able to get about 4 gallons of wine from these. Last year I only had 13 lbs and it made just a little over 2 gallons.

Thanks for the response and let me know what you're making this year.

Jerry

I picked my blackberries from my neighbor's plants, during a hot, dry summer. The sugar content was still abysmal, as usual (juice SG 1.020). I washed the berries and inserted them in a women's knee-high nylon stocking, and proceeded to squeeze out the juice in that manner. To the juice from 6.5 lbs of blackberries was added 1.5L of sugar and

3.3L of water. Also added the usual pectic enzyme, etc. About 1.4 gallons made it to secondary.

Two problems were experienced in turn: #1 was a hydrogen sulfide problem from hell. As in, "Oh my God, I can't breathe down here it smells so bad." I "fixed" it by using an aquarium pump and bubble stone, and aerating the wine for an hour at a time (making the basement uninhabitable). The idea is that the O2 reacts with the H2S to form SO2, which is more apt to leave the solution. POOF! no H2S contamination anymore.

Problem #2: A final titratable acidity of 0.7%. I added KCO3 to take it down to 0.35%, making it at least drinkable.

Final result: a thin, unremarkable berry wine with an uncomplicated nose reminiscent of of Manischewitz. *sigh*

Your mileage may vary, Marshall

Stephen,

Sorry for the delay in responding. I'd not thought about the percentage of berry juice. As mentioned, it was a dry year and the crop was meager, but it never occurred to me to reduce the juice/sugar ratio.

At any rate, when I said undrinkable, I meant undrinkable, as in straight lemon juice acidity -- this stuff made you pucker. I knew that not even added sugar would help it, so I knocked the edge off it with KCO3.

I may still be able to acquire the multiple pounds of berries for another shot at a gallon batch this year, so I may give it a go, and this time I'll lay off the rehydration. :)

Thanks, Marshall