Hello from East Tennessee

[MitchK]

Hi everyone,

Wanted to say I enjoy this forum and reading all the topics and I appreciate everyone sharing all of their knowledge and experiences good and bad. I'm making my first batch of wild blackberry wine and it seems to be going alright.

 

[Tom]

WELCOME !

Keep us posted..
How big a batch and what's the recipe?

 

[St Allie]

hello Mitch and welcome to the forum.

good luck with your brew and feel free to ask any questions, that's what we're here for.

Allie

 

[surlees]

Wecome Mitch from Blowing Rock, NC!

Fred

 

[MitchK]

I had read a couple of wine making books written in the 70's. I've got a 5 gallon bucket nearly filled. The recipe:

12 lbs. blackberries
1 10 ounce box of raisins - chopped
8.50 lbs sugar
3.5 Gallons water
3.5 tsps. yeast nutrient
4 tsp acid blend
2/5 tsp potassium metasulfite
1 3/4 tsp peptic enzyme
Packet of Lalvin K-1 V1116

I goofed up somewhat at 1:00 in the morning I thought I was putting in the acid blend and then I realized that I must have put in the peptic enzyme instead so I went ahead and only put in 2 tsp of acid blend as I thought I was putting in acid blend but I'm like 95% sure it was peptic enzyme, I guess there is too much peptic enzyme in it, but it seems to be doing okay. The only way I had to test the acid was the strips which I understand could give a false reading.

The author of one of the books advocates that fruit wines are improved by reducing the fruit content in relation to the sugar and water. He recommends that except for grapes and apples that you use only 2 to 4 pounds of fruit per gallon. This book is 'The Art of Making Wine' by Stanley Anderson.

 

[Wade E]

Pectic enzyme will precipitate out so dont worry about that at all. Looks like a decent recipe but tye sugar level looks a little high there. Always shoot for a starting sg of around 1.085 unless you are looking to makew a port and that requires more fruit.

 

[MitchK]

Hi Wade, Thanks for your reply

The starting sg was 1.092. What I was trying to do was make a wine that's more of a medium wine than dry so I thought that in order to do that that I needed to add more sugar. To a large degree I don't know what I'm doing.

Thanks. Mitch

 

[St Allie]

Mitch.. to create a medium wine rather than dry..

Ferment the wine out to dry then sulphite and sorbate to stabilise it.. and backsweeten afterwards.

Beginning with a higher sugar content doesn't guarantee the yeast will stop converting the sugars and leave you with a medium wine.

What is most likely to happen is it will ferment out all the sugars to dry.. so you will end up with more alcohol and no residual sugars.

To backsweeten a wine make a simple syrup of 2 part sugar to one part water and add a couple of days after you have stabilised your wine.

Allie

 

[MitchK]

Thanks Allie,

All I can say is 'Oh that's how you do it!' I understand now and I'm still learning.

Mitch

 

[Wade E]

It is possible to do it the way you said but yeast is funny and will usually stop too early and leave your wine too sweet or go way past and leave your wine with too much alc unless you spend some seroius money to sterile filter your wine at a given point. So the best way to do it is figure out how much alc you want and then use a yeast that will handle it properly and sweeten back.

 

[lovethepirk]

Mitch,

I am in Knoxville as well....I am living with my girlfriend in Karnes.

 

[MitchK]

Hello in Karns.

I'll try to go and view your posts, looks like some good wine in the carboy in your picture.

 

[Snowbird]

Hello Mitch I'm making wild blackberry too.....the recipe I used called for 20lbs blackberries and 15 lib of sugar...there's no telling what I'll end up with, but so far it doesn't taste bad...!

 

[MitchK]

Hey Snowbird,

Do you know what the alcohol content is? Your ratio of sugar to fruit is higher than the batch that I made.

Mitch

 

[Snowbird]

I wished I did.... I did'nt take a reading before fermentation. Actually I haven't taken any readings. I finally bought a hydrometer and learned how to use it correctly. I'm going to try it tommorrow when I get home. How long has your's been going?

 

[smurfe]

Welcome aboard. Sounds like you are off to a great start. Look forward to hearing about the progress of your first wine.

 

[MitchK]

Hey Snowbird

I started mine on Saturday, September 6 and right now its in the final stages of primary fermentation.

 

[Snowbird]

Hey Mitch how long is it from start to finish when you get ready to bottle yours.

 

[MitchK]

Hey Snowbird

In a nutshell my plan is to within a few days put this stuff into secondary fermentation containers and leave them there for about 3 weeks. Then I'll rack again and leave it for about 4 weeks, that should be around the first week of November, then I'll rack again for around 4 weeks and probably bottle around Thanksgiving. The sg today is .998 so it seems to be slowing down somewhat and the alcohol content is around 12.7 %

Mitch

 

[Wade E]

I let darker wines sit for about 4-5 months after fermentation is done minimum as its harder to tell if there is small amounts of fine dusting going on and this is the stuff that will fall in your bottle. Remember thats a minimum and will most likely give you a very fine dusting in the bottle at that point if not filtered.