BlackBerry wine

[RickD]

Blackberry is my first, also. I followed the DangerDan Dragon Blood recipe (process) found here, made a 1.2 gallon batch. Bottled in three weeks two days (back sweetened). I drank one of the 5 bottles on the day I bottled, the other 4 are on the shelf. I take every word regarding the benefits of aging found on these forums as righteous gospel, but I will never experience it first hand if I don't try it.

 

[KCCam]

I take every word regarding the benefits of aging found on these forums as righteous gospel, but I will never experience it first hand if I don't try it.

I think you'll need a lot more than a gallon then, hahaha. Oh, and DB does benefit from aging, but part if its beauty is that you can enjoy it early, as you've seen, within a month of pitching the yeast, so you can let the wine that will really benefit age properly.

 

[silverbullet07]

Blackberry wine is bottled. Got 14 bottles of regular and 1 bottle lightly oak’ed. I like the oak one and my next batch will be all oak. I used Hungarian med toasted.

 

[CatsCradle13]

@silverbullet07, I am a grower also so I try to use 100% juice and skip water. I could not do this in a food plant since it is too expensive, ,,,, water always costs out as 0 cents per pound product.
My read on a 4 to 5 pound web recipes is that they are fairly good commercial products. 3 pound recipes are the no name type commercial products.

The transition to high fruit means high solids (fruit acid) which can usually be balanced with finishing sugar, and in your berry ALWAYS can be balanced. the problems occure with extremely high acid as cranberry, rhubarb, lemon juice, currant . . . where it tastes fantastic in small dose, but you can't finish a glass in one sitting. Then the option of removing acid with calcium carbonate (powdered limestone) or potassium carbonate is your fix. ,,,,, or add a moderate acid fruit juice as pear instead of water ,,,, or add lots of water to make a sugar wine.
The science fix is to build a wine based on titratable acidity (TA)

How many pounds of blackberries gets you one gallon of juice? Im looking into no water wines. Any idea about the ratio of other berries pounds to gallons?

 

[Fencepost]

How many pounds of blackberries gets you one gallon of juice? Im looking into no water wines. Any idea about the ratio of other berries pounds to gallons?

I get about 1.3 cups of juice per pound of blackberries. So 1 gallon = 16 cups, or 12.3 lbs of berries. Different berries yield different amounts of juice, I read it was 1 to 1.3 cups per pound... I have big berries, very juicy.

 

[CatsCradle13]

I get about 1.3 cups of juice per pound of blackberries. So 1 gallon = 16 cups, or 12.3 lbs of berries. Different berries yield different amounts of juice, I read it was 1 to 1.3 cups per pound... I have big berries, very juicy.

wow thats a lot of berries!

 

[CatsCradle13]

I get about 1.3 cups of juice per pound of blackberries. So 1 gallon = 16 cups, or 12.3 lbs of berries. Different berries yield different amounts of juice, I read it was 1 to 1.3 cups per pound... I have big berries, very juicy.

wow thats a lot of berries! someone told me that they got one gallon of juice from 9-10 pounds of blueberries. I always found that hard to believe your number makes more sense, as blackberries have even more water content than blueberries

 

[winemaker81]

wow thats a lot of berries! someone told me that they got one gallon of juice from 9-10 pounds of blueberries. I always found that hard to believe your number makes more sense, as blackberries have even more water content than blueberries

Also keep in mind that you will lose volume to sediment -- it's part of the situation. I'd allow 25% extra to ensure you have sufficient wine to fill the gallon jug. Have small bottles on hand to hold the excess. Given Fencepost's numbers, I'd start with 16 lbs of blackberries.