# Heavy Bodied Blackberry



## mainecr (Aug 20, 2009)

My blackberry wine adventure started off this winter when my uncle and i settled on a pruning for blackberries deal. Then my wife found Black Gold, fruity sweet blackberry wine from Florida when visiting my snowbird parents. I pruned this spring, and never saw so many blackberries as we did last weekend. My sweetheart and I picked 55 pounds of berries last saturday.

So I smashed and mixed up 9 gallon for Jack Keller's recipe.

6 lb blackberries 
2-1/2 lb granulated sugar 
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme 
7 pts water 
wine yeast and nutrient 

The SG was 1.035 before adding sugar. I sweetned to 1.085, added 1 tsp nutrient per gallon, and used lalvin 1112 yeast. 
The recipe didn't call for acid, so I didn't add any...and I've got acid test kit questions I'll ask in the equipment forum. 

Questions..
Is there enough acid in 6 pound per gallon blackberry?
Will this be a bold fruity wine?
Thanks...purple fingered bob


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## Wade E (Aug 20, 2009)

As far as acids go I use 2 tsps per 6 gallon batch but that will vary from from year to year and from bush to bush. It should get you in the ball park though. That is a nice ratio of fruit and is what I use unless Im making a port and then I use 10 lbs per gallon.


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## mainecr (Aug 25, 2009)

Thanks...I'll add your note to my recipe.
It fermented to dryness quickly in the heat and is now in secondary. I need to figure out how to use my acid test kit. 
It's going to be yummy...


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## Madriver Wines (Aug 25, 2009)

Dang sounds good to me.


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## Wade E (Aug 25, 2009)

These acid test kits are hard to use on darker wines such as red wines and blackberry and the such.


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## Stumpman (Aug 25, 2009)

Agree, wheres a good easy to use tester, there has to be one?


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## Wade E (Aug 25, 2009)

Try thiswith your test kit.
When you dilute a red wine with distilled (always use distilled) water you are adding neither hydrogen ions (acidity) nor alkalinity, which neutrailzes acidity. Tap water contains varying degrees of alkalinity, so you don't want to use that as it will give you an atrificially low reading.

The titration test is like counting the hydrogen ions in the sample. Thus, since distilled water adds no hydrogen ions, you can add as much distilled water as you need to and it won't change the test result. You don't even need to measure the distilled water, as it has no effect on the results. No matter how much distilled water you add, no correction factor is needed when calculating acidity from the results of your test.

So pretend you never added water to the samples and re-calculate your results. That will be the real acidity.


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## mmadmikes1 (Aug 25, 2009)

55 pound, I bled a quart, picking wild blackberries today and only got 10 pounds. I am detemend to pick enough this year for a real batch. I have way to many empty 6 gallon glass


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## Wade E (Aug 25, 2009)

I hear you there, those blackberry prickers are ferocious! I have been picking them for quite some time and only picked about that much as they are only small patches. I wish there was a big patch of them around here like the raspberries.


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## mmadmikes1 (Aug 26, 2009)

there are plenty here but I only pick till I cant stand the pain anymore. I usually just save what I get to flavor other wines


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## Stumpman (Aug 26, 2009)

When I picked my raspberries I put a band aid at the end of my index finger and then wrapped surgical tape around that. It covered the whole tip. I was sick of getting pricked. Another good idea is take an old coffee can , tie a string to it and hang it from your neck, then both hands are free to pick.


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## Sacalait (Aug 26, 2009)

I use a pair of soft leather gloves and cut them at the first knuckle so that only the fingertips are exposed. Hated to ruin a good pair of gloves but I use them year after year.


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## Wade E (Aug 26, 2009)

I just man up and endure the pain. I was doing all this in shorts also and have all the scratches to prove it!


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## St Allie (Aug 26, 2009)

Wade E said:


> I just man up and endure the pain. I was doing all this in shorts also and have all the scratches to prove it!



hehe.. we use a phrase that is not polite in mixed company so I won't repeat it ( Harden up! is the abbreviated version..)

this is the lovely, sweet, polite, version......'suck it up, buttercup!'

Allie


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## mmadmikes1 (Aug 26, 2009)

finger tips are fine, its arms legs that get the **** torn out of them Wild blackberries are nothing like picking raspberries. they grow in thickites. picked 10 more pounds tonight total 20 pounds so far. I will make a 6 gallon batch I will


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## Midwest Vintner (Aug 27, 2009)

mmadmikes1 said:


> Wild blackberries are nothing like picking raspberries. they grow in thickites.



try having enough wild black raspberries and grapes (probably concord, but possibly other as the land used to be used for grape growing decades ago) to make atleast 10 gallons of wine or more (as i don't know how much grapes come off a vine) and it being so thick with the raspberries and poison ivy. you can get to the edge of the raspberries, but forget about the grapes 20 ft above them!


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## Wade E (Aug 27, 2009)

I know what you mean about the raspberries vrs, the blackberries(BIG DIFFERNCE) Those blackberry bushes ripped me apart but I was always coming from work where I wore shorts as its just under 100* in the shop the last few weeks in a row. Its finally cooling down today and tomorrow.


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## mmadmikes1 (Aug 27, 2009)

I picked in shorts and flip flop Sunday(dumb I know) I found an easy patch today, hardly any scratches and another 5 pounds, I will make a 6 gallon batch I will


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## Wade E (Aug 27, 2009)

Flip Flops? Okay now youve taen it too far, I always have work boots as I have to wear thn to work.


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