Has anyone tried making buffaloberry (also known as bullberry) wine?

[TasunkaWitko]

A true specialty of Montana, the Dakotas, and other isolated spots in the Midwest and Rocky Mountain states:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepherdia_argentea

I apologise for the largish photos - they are the ones that Wikipedia provided for me:

I collected enough last year for a few pints of syrup, as well as just enough to add to a red ale that I will be brewing sometimes this spring. I got to thinking that they would probably make a wonderful wine, even though they are a real pain (literally) to pick. They are a bit tart, but not nearly as astringent as chokecherries. Their flavour when sweetened is wonderful.

There are two hints that I can provide for picking buffaloberries, provided by my father, who learned them from his parents and grandparents in rural North Dakota:

a) Wait until after the first frost - they are much sweeter then.

b) Rather than shred your hands to ribbons on the thorns, place a bed sheet on the ground below the berries, and whack the bushes with a stick.

Anyway, has anyone tried making wine with them? I have every intention of attempting a 1-gallon batch of this wine this fall, but any suggestions as a starting place for a "recipe" would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance -

Ron

 

[MattWI]

Weird - there are a ton of articles about this, but I don't see anything for recipes.

Maybe start with a cranberry or choke berry recipe and adjust from there...?

 

[Arne]

I have never made wine from them, don't think I have ever seen one of the bushes. If I was making wine with them here is how I would start.

Pick the berries, probably 4 to 5 lbs. per gallon. Freeze them for a few days, put in a fermenting bag and let thaw in the primary fermenter.
add just shy of a gal. of water
squeeze the ferment bag to break the skins on the berries.
Hit it with k-meta, wait 12 hrs. and hit it with pectic enzime.
take a little of the water from the gallon and make some simple sugar (one part of water to 2 parts sugar.)
Keep adding sugar til you get the s.g. around 1.085. Easiest to check the specific gravity using the simple sugar.
Probably would add some tannin to it.
If you have a way, check for acid and ph. If not, I usually go with the taste method. I have made enough wines I can pretty well tell by tasting how the acid should be.
Add 1/2 the nutrient and energizer the packages call for. Add the other half when the must gets down to 1.060 or so. Be a little careful when you add it to the active ferment as it can make it foam up and over the fermenter.
I would probably add some bentinite, it helps clear the wine at the finish.
Make a starter and pitch the yeast or do as I usually do and sprinkle it on top of the must.
Keep the temps. around 70 or so, when you get it started it can be a little cooler and still finish out.
Give it a stir every day.
When it gets down to 1.010 or so transfer to the secondary. I start in a bucket and go to a carboy to finish. Sometimes let it finish in the primary and transfer when the ferment is done. (when the s.g. gets below 1.000 for 3 days in a row.)
I let it sit under airlock til I get a good layer of lees on the bottom of the carboy.
Now rack off the lees and let it sit. I rack onto k-meta when racking off the lees.
Let it sit (this will take weeks instead of days as a rule) if you get another layer of lees you can rack it off.
Let it sit and it will degas and clear. If it doesn't clear you might have to use a clearing agent.
Do a little tasting. You can draw a glass, if it needs it, add a little acid or if too much acid you can reduce it with a little potassuim bicarbonate. Do the additions to a glass before adding to the whole batch. This way you only wreck a glass if you get it wrong instead of the whole batch.
While it sits, every 3 months or so you can add a little k-meta.
When clear you can stabalize it and add sugar to taste. (Start with the glass method and when you find it where you like it, easiest way is to take a specific gravity reading and bring the batch up to that gravity.)
Time to bottle if you have any left. LOL

Anybody else can jump in if I missed anything.
Good luck with it, Arne.

Almost forgot, keep good notes. It will help you the next year if you want to try and duplicate the wine. Or you want to change it a bit to suit you. A.

 

[Scooter68]

Found this listing of berries on the web: http://www.gardeningchannel.com/list-of-types-of-berries/

It might help folks with some ideas of what can and cannot be used. Buffaloberries look interesting - congrats if they are readily available in your area. May have to take a trip to the area someday to find some. (As long as I don't have to compete with any Buffalo for the fruit - not enough wine in the world to get me to do that)

Any idea what they compare to in taste?

Portion of another article on them: " There are only three species of buffaloberry in the world, all of which are native to North America: Silver Buffaloberry (Shepherdia argentea (Pursh) Nutt.), Russet Buffaloberry (S. canadensis (L.) Nutt.), and Roundleaf Buffaloberry (S. rotundifolia Perry). The berries and other parts of the plant were used as food, medicine, and dye (Moerman 1998: 528-530). Other names for Buffaloberry include: soapberry, bullberry, rabbitberry, chaparral berry, silverleaf, soopolallie, and graise de boeuf (Angier [2008] 1974: 30; Kindscher 1987: 210; Scully 1970: 18)."

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Hi, Scooter, and thanks for the information ~

No worries about buffalo chasing you; these are so common up here that you can find them almost anywhere, and they are free for the picking, until the birds get them. Then they can literally disappear on a single day.

As far as the taste, I've been trying to think of that, and the closest thing I can think of (it's been several months since I've had any) is that they remind me of a slightly-tart raspberry...but that's not really right, either. They're definitely something unique, and worth getting to know better. Sooner or later I'll open up one of the jars of syrup that I made, and I'll give it some more thought. My grandmother used to make bullberry jelly all the time, but it was one of those things I didn't think about or appreciate until she was gone....

 

[Scooter68]

Isn't that the way it is? My mother had a number of recipes that I wish we had now written down. Thanks for the feedback.

I know that most Buffalo - Human issues are created by the stupid tourista who gets too close or in one way or another angers them. I do remember one situation where the person who paid the price had their car wrecked because a previous driver got too close and got the buffalo irritated and the next car became his target - Pow right in that plastic front, which pierced the radiator which.... Sorta like the berry picker who knows there are bears feeding in the field and goes into that same field - that usually make for more excitement than you need.

Let us know how that bullberry/buffalo berry wine turns out.

 

[dorfie]

I have never made this wine, but agree with Arne's method above, maybe test the pure juice for acid and then dilute to the desired TA level, but that's just my preferred method.
Buffaloberry is one that i don't know much about! I don't think we really have them where I grew up, and I have not heard of anyone growing them at work or anything. I know that they are dioecious, meaning that they have plants that are male (no fruit) and female (fruit) and that apparently they are good for you.
Try it out, and keep us updated when you do! sounds like something that could be great!

 

[Barry Collins]

Hi everyone, I know this thread is a few years old but it’s about the only thing online I see about making buffaloberry wine. I am brand new to winemaking and live in MT and I just started my first batch of buffaloberry wine. An old timer in my town who has been making wine for 30+years reccomended about 2-2.5lbs per gallon so I am using 13lbs for 5 gallons. I am two days into fermentation and so far everything seems to be going fine despite me messing things up. My buffaloberries naturalally had a PH of 3.35 which I now know I should have just left alone. I made a total rookie move and put too much acid blend in and ended up with a PH of 3.1. Don’t ask how I did it because it’s too embarrassing to reveal. I’m a bit anxious about this but I’ll try and fix it with cold stabilization if it’s a problem before bottling. I adjusted the SG to 1095 and then treated with campden and let rest 24hrs. Next day I added yeast nutrient, pectin enzyme and pitched the yeast. I am using RC212 which is really an experiment. My hope was that this yeast would help pull some of the color from the berries. This is my first batch of wine so forgive my inexperience. Does anyone have any guesses as to how this yeast will perform with this PH or what qualities it might bring to the wine. Can I overcome this PH issue? Hopefully I didn’t screw it up beyond reproach. Picking 13 lbs of buffaloberries is quite a bit of work! The pic above is actually before pitching the yeast. Buffaloberries are very foamy on their own! I’m told this is not an issue by the old timer.

 

[Barry Collins]

Buffaloberry wine is doing well. I racked to a secondary 5 gallon carboy. The red from the berries didn’t take to the wine but a nice golden color is forming. The wine is a little tart but it’s much better than I expected it would be. It’s very bright and flavorful and not at all bitter. I’m confident it will mellow nicely with a little time. I will likely cold stablize to deal with the acidity if it’s still a problem in a few months and then I’ll bottle. I’m very happy so far with the results. Final SG is .990

 

[Barry Collins]

The buffaloberry has cleared nicely and it is so delicious I wished I had made 40 gallons. I can’t describe the falvor accurately but if I had to try I’d would say sour cherry combined with the flavor of honey but without the sweetness of a honey. The wine is near bone dry at .995 and I don’t think it needs backsweetening as I don’t really want to mess with the flavor because it’s really beautiful as is. I just need to take a little of the tartness out. I’ll cold stabilize it and hopefully in a few weeks it will be good to bottle.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Hi, Barry -

This is looking great! I appreciate your taking the time to post on this, and will see if I can get a batch of my own started later this year.

The words you used to describe this wine sound just about right - my own observations are quite the same: hard to describe, but very, very close to the way you mention it.

Please keep us updated, and post a photo of a glass of this when it is finished!

Ron