# Blackberry



## Wade E (Nov 1, 2009)

I started a Blackberry from Vintners Harvest wine bases today(2 per 6 gallon) These come out pretty darn good, not as good as real fresh fruit but I didnt get enough to make a batch this year and what I did gather ended up in a big blend with Elderberries that is coming out just awesome. Ive made this batch before and will say its the next best thing to fresh fruit so if you cant get fresh get this. I have never tried Walkers Fruit basket juices before though and have heard good things but the shipping to me is way too much.


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## mmadmikes1 (Nov 1, 2009)

Who did you get it from?


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## Wade E (Nov 1, 2009)

I get them locally but many places sell them. Nobody beats my local little store though!


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## bruno (Nov 2, 2009)

I also started the Vintners Harvest blackberry about 3 weeks ago. Someone else also said it was one of their best juices.


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## Wade E (Nov 2, 2009)

Of all of them the Black Currant is the best so far to date but I still havent tried them all. I want to try the Boysenberry soon. I have a Blueberry to do also.


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## bruno (Nov 3, 2009)

I have the blackberry in the secondary now, and just purchased 2 cans of the cranberry to make 6 gallons. I have heard the cranberry is supposed to be good also.


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## jeepingchick (Apr 10, 2010)

wade, i just started this one today. how did yours end up and do you still have your notes?? wanna see if i got a good SG..i know bad girl but i havnt kept trak of SG up till now!!! (i know, nose in corner LOL) 

i got a SG of 1.08 will that do? this is before yeast, i JUST made it. ill take another readng tomorrow bf i add the yeast i guess....


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## Runningwolf (Apr 10, 2010)

jeepingchick said:


> wade, i just started this one today. how did yours end up and do you still have your notes?? wanna see if i got a good SG..i know bad girl but i havnt kept trak of SG up till now!!! (i know, nose in corner LOL)
> 
> i got a SG of 1.08 will that do? this is before yeast, i JUST made it. ill take another readng tomorrow bf i add the yeast i guess....



Man, I would like to know what you have in that corner. You have been way to willing to keep going back there today .


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## Wade E (Apr 10, 2010)

Blackberry is strong enough to except a higher sg so dont fret it on this one if its higher. Mine is still aging in the carboy and ready to sweeten, as a matter of fact I was going to sweeten it today or tomorrow but the flavor is right there as is the bouquet.


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## arcticsid (Apr 10, 2010)

Are guys talking about the 96oz cans? The cheapest I seen those was like 35 dollars a can, if you are using two, it seems like you could darn near get fresh fruit for close to the same cost. Not me, fruit is just outrageous here most of the time. Been wanting to try these bases, this post is an inspiration for me to go ahead and try them.


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## Wade E (Apr 10, 2010)

Well first of you would be paying a lot more then that for fresh blackberries anywhere near me! 2nd of all I get those Vintners Harvest cans for $25 at this little ole lady's shop near me but anywhere else they are much more. they are the wine base cans, not the fruit puree so they have lots of fresh juice in there and the fruit also but unsweetened.


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## jeepingchick (Apr 10, 2010)

heck i paid 40 bucks for the can!!! i only got one, and im doing 3 gallons, so it didnt hit to hard, ive only one wine shop "near" me and it is an hour and a half away! didnt feel like shopping around LOL!!


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## arcticsid (Apr 10, 2010)

I'dbe interested to the the recipe you all are using when using these bases. Up until now there hasn't been much mentioned in here for using them.


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## Wade E (Apr 10, 2010)

Troy, the recipe is right on thje can, actually there are 2 recipes, 1 for a heavy body which is 1 can per 3 gallon recipe and another for a lighter body which is 1 c an per 5 gallon recipe. I recommend the heavy body one for all of these cans or 2 pewr 6 gallon batch.


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## arcticsid (Apr 10, 2010)

Excellent, I definitely need to seriously consider these. As I have often said, fruit here is just crazy expensive, if you say blackberries are spendy over there, I can only imagine they would be like probably 10 times the cost here, no kidding. I'll take a look at this for sure.

I was looking in the Northern brewer catalog and they sell the Alexander Grape Concentrates, ever used those?


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## jeepingchick (Apr 10, 2010)

i did the heavy recipie  i lvoe its right on the can. I took my xacto knife and cut it out, tapped it in my "wine journal" so i know what i made, and am writting my notes there 

i had a sip of it after taking the SG, its HELLA sweet!!! WOW! but its got a good flavor and i think once it dries out a bit itll be fantastic!


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## arcticsid (Apr 10, 2010)

What abv do you shoot for on these. I am no longer interested in making rocket fuel, but I am not going to settle for 9 or 10%.


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## jeepingchick (Apr 10, 2010)

my starting SG today was 1.8.... so whatll that make?? LOL


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## arcticsid (Apr 10, 2010)

12-13 ish.


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## arcticsid (Apr 10, 2010)

Actually you mean 1.080 but even so, if you don't know what it means, it may time for you to return to the corner with the little book that came with your hydrometer! LMAO!


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## jeepingchick (Apr 10, 2010)

DANGIT! that corner is killin me today LOL stupid typos LOL!


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## arcticsid (Apr 10, 2010)

Is that what the recipe calls for NIKKI? 1.08 or so? That sounds about right.


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## Wade E (Apr 10, 2010)

That will give you right around 11%abv but the sg will probably go up just a tad after the fruit trelease theirn sugars overnight which will bring it to probably around 1.085 unless your simple syrup wasnt mixed in thoroughly.


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## arcticsid (Apr 10, 2010)

Sounds good, I am pretty excited about this whole base idea, I will need to see what Sue is carrying at the LHBS. I seen a couple cans there the other day but didn't really pay attention to what they were.

I did see she hat them priced at almost 40 skins, but she told me she would try to match any price I could get from a wine making suply on line. Nice to be friends with the owners of the brew shop!!!!


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## Wade E (Apr 10, 2010)

Yep thats why I like being a moderator on FineVineWines, I get a moderator discount and free shipping! Even then though this little ole lady near me cant be beat. She is so under priced thats its hard to believe she makes any money off this stuff. I get the RJS Winery series grape skin kits for about $85 and that my friend cant be beat anywhere in the world that I can find!


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## jeepingchick (Apr 10, 2010)

troy, the recipie doesnt have a starting SG, its got a recomended SG to transfer at but nothing to start  kinda threw me off !


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## arcticsid (Apr 10, 2010)

Okay then, you can get out of the corner than.

Really, no recommended SG? Odd, think they would have at least gave a suggested starting point.


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## Wade E (Apr 10, 2010)

Its not really a beginner wine making juice. Its not a kit. You need all your own supplies like acid and that stuff so you should knpw at that point what a decent starting sg should be for as fruit wine and how to test for acid adjustmant and the such.


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## arcticsid (Apr 10, 2010)

Yeah you're right Wade, but I would still thing they would MENTION an SG though.

So you didn't answer me on whether or not you have heard of these Alexanders Grape Concentrates, diluted, would these be somewhat comperable to the juice buckets some of you talk about? Obviously shipping a 5 gallon bucket of juice up here just aint going to happen. I assume these concentrates are pretty much what you would find in a kit.


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## Wade E (Apr 10, 2010)

Ive answered this exact question quite a few times on many forums actually. They are not good ecxept for making a blend with a fruit wine, by them selves I think they are nasty!


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## arcticsid (Apr 11, 2010)

Point recorded!! Thanks.
I wil spend my money on these bases.


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## Greg (Apr 11, 2010)

Hey guys and gals, I started a batch of blackberry from vintners harvest back in Jan.Still aging in carboy,have racked a couple of times. I snuck a few sips when racking and its great so far.I like mine kinda strong so mine is about 15% .I also have a batch of vintners harvest strawberry going both are three gal.The strawberry is about 14%.Already have a can of the black current to try next. I have tasted wine made from these bases and its really good. So my oppinion is they are worth it.


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## Wade E (Apr 11, 2010)

I agree with Greg on these, they are a damn good product but you should know how to measure sg and acidity as the instructions always seem a little off in these two areas as far as the recipe goes. I find the Black currant to be the best of them all with the Blackberry and Cranberry being a close second. In this area I live in there arent many places to get cheap fruits like Tom gets or some others where blackberries grow in your gutters or like Maine where Blueberries grow rampant. So these are the shnizzle most of the time for me with a decent bang for the buck.


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## arcticsid (Apr 11, 2010)

Great recommendations! I too am envious of some in here who have access to fruit. We have lots of berries here but for the amount needed to make a decent batch of wine, I just don't think it is worth fighting off or even worrying about the bears. Picking some for pancakes or something, but I am not going to pursue picking them for wine.

These bases seem right up my alley. Besides picking berries takes time. All of our time is worth something.


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## Wade E (Apr 11, 2010)

Sounds like laziness to me. I spend 1/2 my summer out picking various fruits that are available in the middle of pricker bushes and come out bleeding like a stuck pig and eaten by mosquito's. I even encountered a skunk in which it sprayed last year but didnt come out of its hole to get me. I think it was sorry it did that since it basically just sprayed its hole! If Im not in a pile pof prickers tehn Im hanging out of a crab apple tree torn up by all the small branches cause its scorching hot and Im sweating like crazy with shorts on. I spend a lot of time out there just to save a few bucks. I gathered enough fruit from this to make a 6 gallon batch of Elderberry, a 6 gallon batch of crab apple(I also helped my buddy gather up enough fpr his 6 gallon batch of crab apple), a 12 gallon batch of raspberry, a 3 gallon batch of blackberry and a 3 gallon batch of Dandelion! Time is money saved!!!!!!!!!


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## Runningwolf (Apr 11, 2010)

I gave up my Blackberry just a few hours ago...


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## arcticsid (Apr 11, 2010)

WADE! we don't have any fruit here! Rhubarb grows here, but its not really fruit. I'm not lazy by any means! But to pick enough raspberries for example to make a 6 galon batch of wine would take far longer than if I just earned the money and bought the bases!

I can get the skunk smell off of me but couldn't recover by being nailed by a bear. We have grizzlies here and they just don't play around!


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## arcticsid (Apr 11, 2010)

*Berries or Bears?*

Want to find yourself in this position or just buy the bases? LOL.


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## Runningwolf (Apr 11, 2010)

Runningwolf said:


> I gave up my Blackberry just a few hours ago...



... and got the DROID...yeaa!


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## jeepingchick (Apr 11, 2010)

LMAO Dan!! i did that in Jan, i LOVE my droid Eris


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## Wade E (Apr 11, 2010)

RW, your too much!  Troy, excuse me but it sounded like you just didnt want to spend the time. You have guns dont you? Im almost positive you have a 12 gauge and buckshot is cheap enough! hehehe. Rhubarb makes an excellent wine!!!!!!! I havent made it as of yet but everytime we go to this one local winery we buy a bottle of it! I have never seen anyone growing any around here in a long time but my parents used to. I wish I had more realestate in my yard that got sun cause Id grow a lot more stuff.


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## Runningwolf (Apr 11, 2010)

jeepingchick said:


> LMAO Dan!! i did that in Jan, i LOVE my droid Eris



yeah but now I have to learn how to use it. They have a two hour class Wed nite i can go to.


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## arcticsid (Apr 11, 2010)

Whe have berries, rhubarb, fireweed, and rosehips, but not a whole lot else.
Melons don't grow here. They(the UNIV. is however trying to clone a siberian crabapple with other cold weather apples, but that is years away.

2 years in a row I have lost my favorite berry patch to the FN bears, they win.

Shoot em? Great, and then what? If you don't salvage the meat you can go to jail. And they won't let you keep the meeat, not that you would want to eat a grizz, and then they take it off your tag. Kinda like hnting with know benefit. If you shoot them in defence of life or property, than it belongs to the State, they don't even let you kep the hide.

I always wondered about this, if Moose and bears are the property of the state than who do I sue when they wipe out the garden or kill my animals?


Just not worth it anymore, I will just by the bases.

If you want to go after a bear with buckshot you will loose. You need a slug and you have to wait till they are like 100 ft or less before you shoot them, don't aim for the head, it'll bounce off. If theyre charging you had better not be wavering.

I just inquired about getting leanne into a " bear defence" course offered here by one of the senior NRA instructors.

These bears are nothing to mess with.

Sell me the bases!!!!! LMAO!


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## Runningwolf (Apr 11, 2010)

Wade E said:


> Rhubarb makes an excellent wine!!!!!!! I havent made it as of yet but everytime we go to this one local winery we buy a bottle of it! I have never seen anyone growing any around here in a long time but my parents used to. I wish I had more realestate in my yard that got sun cause Id grow a lot more stuff.



I did 6 gallons last year and it is outstanding. I just picked up five more gallon to start another batch because everyone liked it so much. I will get six more gallons this spring when Walkers start pressing it again. They get the rhubarb out of Arkansas.


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## jeepingchick (Apr 11, 2010)

Runningwolf said:


> yeah but now I have to learn how to use it. They have a two hour class Wed nite i can go to.





a 2 hour class ?!?! that is NUTS!! just google the phones name and peruse the forums!! if you can do wine, you can do this phone


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## arcticsid (Apr 11, 2010)

I'd like to try the rubarb, one of the first inquiries I ever made in here was about rhubarb, just haven't got that far yet.

If I remember, it can be a tough wine to get perfect, don't remeber the reasons, but its on the proverbial "list".


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## Wade E (Apr 11, 2010)

Actually slug is what I meant. LOL!


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## arcticsid (Apr 11, 2010)

I know you did, but still just not worth harvesting for wine, and then the mosquitoes here are outrageous, our unofficial state bird) , you have to have so much bug dope on it'll make you sick.

Again, sell me the bases. LOL


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## arcticsid (Apr 11, 2010)

Not sure but it doesn't seem to me rhubarb needs alot of sun. I may be wrong.


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## Runningwolf (Apr 11, 2010)

Wade E said:


> Actually slug is what I meant. LOL!



Troy, I guess you wouldn't want to smear grub-x on yourself then either


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## arcticsid (Apr 11, 2010)

Don't need too, I dont associate with those kind of people! LOL


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## Donatelo (Feb 12, 2019)

Started this recipe on Jan 6th ,19. I didn't add all of the sugar I held off at 5 pounds, I believe. Still got a SG of 1.086 to start. I used the Premier yeast 
I racked it into a clean 3 gal. carboy and added 3 campden tablets. Fermentation has shut down and now I'm just waiting a couple of months to bottle. I checked the cost and it sells for $34.99 .


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