Blackberry wine recipe?

[cmason1957]

If it were me, I would be punching that cap down twice or three times a day. The yeast have never stalled out.

 

[garymc]

You don't want the cap drying out. And anything sticking up out of the liquid won't have yeast breaking it down. The yeast needs oxygen during the first few days in order to build up a large population, so you punch it down two or three times a day. If mine is in a mesh bag, I turn the bag over.

 

[Johnd]

Punch the cap down a few times a day, you don't want it to dry out, and you want it exposed to fermenting liquid for extraction.

O2 doesn't confuse yeast, it oxidizes wine, but your wine is producing CO2, offering a measure of protection during vigorous fermentation.

When your SG gets down around 1.020, remove the fruit and squeeze the remaining juice out of it and discard the spent fruit, using whichever method you have selected. All of your juice should end up in a glass container with an airlock to finish fermenting, and protected from O2.

 

[WildernessMedic]

So today I splash racked it twice while removing the bottom inch of lees. Checked SG of 0.98. Haven't seen the airlock move in 2 days. Only a few hours after removing lees there's already another inch at the bottom.

I have 3 1 gallon carboys coming in 2 days. I plan on removing the lees one more time before then, and then transferring 2 gallons into the 1 gal jugs, adding sorbate, kmeta,and sparkaloid and leaving for a month to stabilize. Am I forgetting anything?

Oh yeah, used my SG sample as a test. Poured back and forth to degas, sweetened with sugar, and drank it. Man that turned out so much better than expected. No acidic taste that I can detect. 12% abv if I'm not mistaken, already so mild yet flavorful and tasty. I need to find more blackberries.

 

[WildernessMedic]

Bump........

 

[Stressbaby]

So today I splash racked it twice while removing the bottom inch of lees. Checked SG of 0.98. Haven't seen the airlock move in 2 days. Only a few hours after removing lees there's already another inch at the bottom.

I have 3 1 gallon carboys coming in 2 days. I plan on removing the lees one more time before then, and then transferring 2 gallons into the 1 gal jugs, adding sorbate, kmeta,and sparkaloid and leaving for a month to stabilize. Am I forgetting anything?

Are you in a hurry? That wine could be dropping lees for weeks. I wouldn't be even thinking about sorbate at this point.

I just started mine, I'm about 10 days behind you. 42# of blackberries, straight juice, no water, starting pH 2.98, calcium carbonate to 3.28, OG 1.085, OptiRed, 71B. I won't be adding sorbate for about a year.

 

[WildernessMedic]

Are you in a hurry? That wine could be dropping lees for weeks. I wouldn't be even thinking about sorbate at this point.

I just started mine, I'm about 10 days behind you. 42# of blackberries, straight juice, no water, starting pH 2.98, calcium carbonate to 3.28, OG 1.085, OptiRed, 71B. I won't be adding sorbate for about a year.

Just to free up my carboy. I can leave them in the 2 one gal jugs with airlock a for a while and enjoy the 1/2 gallon left over for now. So if I don't add sorbate now....

Transfer to 1 gals, add sparkaloid, add kmeta at 1/2 tsp per gal, and rack every so often as lees continues to drop?

I may save a bottle or two until next season but this was basically just a trial run. Probably going to drink most of it within the next 6 months.

 

[dwhill40]

I am curious since I have my own batch of Blackberry in a carboy now. I didn't see any mention of MLF in the thread. Will malolactic fermentation work in Blackberry wine as it does with grapes?

 

[dwhill40]

Yes it does work well.

 

[Tnuscan]

Just to free up my carboy. I can leave them in the 2 one gal jugs with airlock a for a while and enjoy the 1/2 gallon left over for now. So if I don't add sorbate now....

Transfer to 1 gals, add sparkaloid, add kmeta at 1/2 tsp per gal, and rack every so often as lees continues to drop?

I may save a bottle or two until next season but this was basically just a trial run. Probably going to drink most of it within the next 6 months.

No. Don't add K-Meta @ 1/2 tsp per gallon.

1/4 tsp does a 5 gallon batch.