A year in!

[Sunshine Wine]

My blackberry wine has been aging for about a year now! I have to rack while I am off for the holidays. I have been collecting wine bottles and will need to pick up some corks eventually. I'm in no hurry, but am very excited to reach the bottling process and giving as gifts, hopefully next Christmas. I have seen no activity in the airlocks in a long time now, but just want to let it keep aging. I will be back sweetening later on, too. Am a little nervous about that, but will do my research! Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year!

 

[Bossbaby]

How large is your batch of BlackBerry, you could rack into a smaller vessel and pull some aside and experiment with stabilizing and adding small amounts of sweetener at a time till it's what you want, since you have the time, it should be pretty decent with a year under it..

 

[Sunshine Wine]

I have a total of 9 gallons at the moment. A 6 gallon carboy and 3 one gallon jugs. What do you mean by stabilizing? This is my first time, so I am going to be reading and researching what comes next..lol.

 

[Bossbaby]

potassium sorbate 1/2 tsp per gal when adding sweeteners to prevent any residule yeast from fermenting the sugar and popping corks.

 

[Sunshine Wine]

Yes, I definitely don't want that to happen! Thanks!

 

[user 36973]

I'm in no hurry, but am very excited to reach the bottling process and giving as gifts, hopefully next Christmas

Cheers and Merry Christmas. My $0.02 is that your blackberry should be bottled sooner rather than later. Extra time risks oxidation which leads to fruit aroma degradation and potential spoilage. Hopefully you've kept up on the sulfites to protect the wine over the last year. You'll definitely need sorbate and the right amount of sulfites at bottling to protect the wine.

I've made blackberry for many years and try to bottle in as short of time as possible. I filter it though. Carboy "aging" in the context of home winemaking is a euphemism for letting time and gravity filter your wine. This comes with the risks mentioned above and ties up your container for next batch of wine waiting for those of us who are impatient.

The wonderful thing of fermenting the blackberries in their flesh is the extraction of tannin that stabilizes the color. Once you bottle, you'll be glad that the color isn't falling out as sediment. It will make a fantastic gift.

 

[Sunshine Wine]

Yes, I have added the sulfites each time I have racked. Thank you for the advice. So, I should rack, add sulfites and do my back sweetening now? If so, how long do I wait to bottle?

 

[Arne]

Add your sulfites, sorbate, and you can sweeten. You can bottle right away, but I usually wait a week or so just to make sure I don't get a referment. Arne.

 

[Sunshine Wine]

Great, thank you! Merry Christmas!

 

[Scooter68]

As long as you've kept up with your k-meta additions at rackings and minimized headspace I would not worry about oxidation. Imagine each bottles headspace so for those 1 gallon carboys, the total volume of the headspace in the 5 bottles you would bottle that wine into is likely to be more or at least as much as the headspace in that 1 gallon carboy - so as long as the airlocks are kept topped off properly your oxidation risk is very low - nothing to worry about. Remember in wineries they age their wine in wooden barrels which are going to permit more oxygen into their wine than your glass carboys.
I've never lost any color from my wines due to aging in carboys. By the time I rack at the 6, 9 and 12 month points the residue on the bottom of my carboys wouldn't fill a 1/8 teaspoon measure. That would be very visible with my wines like blueberry, blackberry, tart cherry, and black currant wines.

As to the stabilization - just as Arne mentions, I like to wait about a week after stabilizing. The only drawback is that if I have a 1 gallon carboy properly topped off and I immediately back-sweeten with 3.5 oz of simple syrup - I now have 131.5 oz of wine if I started with exactly 128 oz (1 gallon) and I have to do something with that extra. Like test the taste of it. So after back-sweetening I like to bottle immediately. BUT waiting a week is a good idea especially with the lighter colored wines where ANY new residue or crystals that drop out are very visible. You of course won't have that issue with Blackberry, nobody would see that until you get to the bottom of that bottle.

 

[Sunshine Wine]

"Imagine each bottles headspace so for those 1 gallon carboys, the total volume of the headspace in the 5 bottles..."

As you said above, how much head space do I leave in the bottles? And how do I know what size corks to get?

 

[Bossbaby]

look into a spring tipped bottle filler they are cheap, it connects to your siphoning hose and you fill the bottle to the top and when you remove the filler wand it will leave just the right amount of head space. Cork size will depend on what corker you have. hand corker probably#8 corks or #9 with floor corker.

 

[Sunshine Wine]

look into a spring tipped bottle filler they are cheap, it connects to your siphoning hose and you fill the bottle to the top and when you remove the filler wand it will leave just the right amount of head space. Cork size will depend on what corker you have. hand corker probably#8 corks or #9 with floor corker.

Ok, great, thank you! I have a floor corker. Any certain brand of corks better than others?

 

[Scooter68]

I don't worry so much about brand as I do material. So many corks now are agglomerated cork (Made from pieces of cork) and should do fine. Several old heads on here can probably give you better tips than I can. I just have gone with #8 Corks because I don't plan on keeping my wine for more than 3-4 years and so far none has lasted that long before being consumed. I buy from my local supply store but any of the online wine supply places should work.
If you plan on making nice labels to go with the wine then you might take it one step futher and buy some shrink caps as they give your wine bottles a nice finished look and also keep the tops clean as well. (I shrink them on with either steam from a kettle or a heat gun for removing paint just don't get it too close or turn it up to high. Most hand held hair dryers aren't hot enough so for starters I'd say use steam from a kettle/teapot

 

[Sunshine Wine]

I don't worry so much about brand as I do material. So many corks now agglomerated (Made from pieces of cork) and should do fine. Several old heads on here can probably give you better tips than I can. I just have gone with #8 Corks because I don't plan on keeping my wine for more than 3-4 years and so far none has lasted that long before being consumed. I buy from my local supply store but any of the online wine supply places should work.
If you plan on making nice labels to go with the wine then you might take it one step futher and buy some shrink caps as they give your wine bottles a nice finished look and also keep the tops clean as well. (I shrink them on with either steam from a kettle or a heat gun for removing paint just don't get it too close or turn it up to high. Most hand held hair dryers aren't hot enough so for starters I'd say use steam from a kettle/teapot

Thank you! I have no idea how many bottles nine gallons of wine will take..lol. I've been gathering up used bottles from a friend. I doubt the wine will last long if it's any good at all.. I plan to gift it to anyone willing to try it..lol.

 

[sour_grapes]

Thank you! I have no idea how many bottles nine gallons of wine will take..lol. I've been gathering up used bottles from a friend. I doubt the wine will last long if it's any good at all.. I plan to gift it to anyone willing to try it..lol.

You have probably heard the term "a fifth of whisky." A "fifth" is 1/5 of a gallon, which is almost exactly same size as a bottle of wine, namely, 750 mL. So, long story short, 5 bottles of wine for each gallon, or 45 bottles for 9 gallons.

 

[bstnh1]

If you have a floor corker, I would recommend you stick with the standard No.9 cork. For years I used the bi-disc corks from Widgetco (WidgetCo - Global Source for Corks, Wood Plugs, Rubber Stoppers, etc.) and never had any issues. I've recently switched to Nomacorc, but only because I want to store some bottles upright.

 

[Sunshine Wine]

You have probably heard the term "a fifth of whisky." A "fifth" is 1/5 of a gallon, which is almost exactly same size as a bottle of wine, namely, 750 mL. So, long story short, 5 bottles of wine for each gallon, or 45 bottles for 9 gallons.

Wow! Thank you!! I think I need more bottles!

 

[VinesnBines]

You can rack to smaller containers to hold in bulk for bottling. For example, if you have a 5 gallon carboy, you can bottle a couple gallons and then rack to a 3 gallon carboy or 3 one gallon jugs. If you do bottle less than the whole batch, bottle the first you rack from the top and middle of the larger vessel. There is ALWAYS sediment in the bottom that you will want to let settle or fall out before attempting to bottle.

 

[Sunshine Wine]

You can rack to smaller containers to hold in bulk for bottling. For example, if you have a 5 gallon carboy, you can bottle a couple gallons and then rack to a 3 gallon carboy or 3 one gallon jugs. If you do bottle less than the whole batch, bottle the first you rack from the top and middle of the larger vessel. There is ALWAYS sediment in the bottom that you will want to let settle or fall out before attempting to bottle.

I was just thinking about that. Wondering if I could rack to my 5 gallon buckets, add my sulfites, etc. and backsweeten, then wait a week or so and then bottle...