Pressing Blackberry wine

[Earldw]

Hey folks,
My first batch of blackberry wine is progressing nicely in the 1° fermenter. Original Brix was 24.4, current Brix is 9.2 with a sg of 1.006.
What is your method for straining and pressing the solids? Should I engage my wine press or just squeeze it through a stainer bag by twisting?
Thanks.

 

[Scooter68]

Ripe blackberries will break down to very little pulp - mostly seeds. If you have a stainless steel strainer you could pour your wine through that and then let it clear. If the berries are already in a mesh bag, just pull that out and squeeze/wring it firmly. You are going to have a lot is sediment so the metal strainer works pretty well depending on the size of the batch. 1- 5 gallon no problem.

 

[Earldw]

Ripe blackberries will break down to very little pulp - mostly seeds. If you have a stainless steel strainer you could pour your wine through that and then let it clear. If the berries are already in a mesh bag, just pull that out and squeeze/wring it firmly. You are going to have a lot is sediment so the metal strainer works pretty well depending on the size of the batch. 1- 5 gallon no problem.

Thanks Scooter68.

 

[mikewatkins727]

IMO a small fruit press would be ideal, otherwise wring it out by hand.

 

[Earldw]

IMO a small fruit press would be ideal, otherwise wring it out by hand.

Maybe I’ll run a little experiment; run it through a strainer bag with a twist first, then press the strainer bag to see how much more I get. That will let me decide in the future if lazy or cheap is my dominant character.

 

[Raptor99]

I have a small fruit press, and I tried that on two recent batches. Once fermentation was neary finished, I got out all the juice that I could squeezing it by hand. Then I put it in the fruit press, and was able to recovere quite a bit of additional juice.

 

[Earldw]

I did my transfer and press today. I set up a 7-1/2 gallon bucket with an 80 micron filter bag installed and a stainless colander on top.
‘The first thing I did was scrape off the cap and put it in the colander. I had maybe 3 cups of cap that was the consistency of thin putty. It dripped a bit but if any pressure was applied it just squeezed through the holes. I dumped the putty into a waiting press. I then dumped the rest of the must through the colander which caught another 2 cups of solids that I dumped into the press. I had about a gallon of free run. I then twisted, raised and otherwise wrestled the bag-o-must and got another gallon. I then pressed all the resulting solids and got about another gallon. I released the press, mixed up the solids a bit then pressed again giving me maybe a cup.
I ended up with 3-1/4 gallons
Lessons learned:
1) If I were using a larger mesh bag like 200 micron or so, I think I would have got more wine out of the must just squeezing the bag, but a lot more sediment as well. If using such a fine mesh bag, pressing is important.
2) Don’t bother with a second press, at least on a 3-gallon batch. It’s not worth the risk of contamination for so little return.
Any thoughts?

 

[Earldw]

This is what it looks like about 2 hours after pressing. The color gradient is setting up pretty quickly and there is a lot less sediment than with the muscadine batch I pressed a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Ohio Bob]

I press my blackberry wine through nylon cloth bags, looks like about 1/32 to 1/64 size. I squeeze by hand. I dump the pressings into a scrap bucket, then into the garden. Judging by the consistency of the pulp I think I may only get another 1-2 cups of juice from a 3g batch if I used pressing equipment I don’t worry about that much loss. Better to get the wine sealed up and protected than scrimping another cup of juice.

After doing this for a few years I always have bottles of blackberry wine to use for topping off.

 

[Ohio Bob]

This is what it looks like about 2 hours after pressing. The color gradient is setting up pretty quickly and there is a lot less sediment than with the muscadine batch I pressed a couple of weeks ago.

Is that a masher in the white bowl? How did it work? I use a potato masher and mash maybe half a quart at a time, dumping them in the fermenter before doing the next half-quart. A little tedious and a lot boring.

 

[Earldw]

I press my blackberry wine through nylon cloth bags, looks like about 1/32 to 1/64 size. I squeeze by hand. I dump the pressings into a scrap bucket, then into the garden. Judging by the consistency of the pulp I think I may only get another 1-2 cups of juice from a 3g batch if I used pressing equipment I don’t worry about that much loss. Better to get the wine sealed up and protected than scrimping another cup of juice.

After doing this for a few years I always have bottles of blackberry wine to use for topping off.

Yeah, I think that 80 micron bag is just too fine unless you plan to press, then it works pretty good to reduce sediment. It would actually hold air when I was trying to squeeze it if had been in contact with the must. I got some courser bags on order and more wine to make so there is more opportunity to learn

Is that a masher in the white bowl? How did it work? I use a potato masher and mash maybe half a quart at a time, dumping them in the fermenter before doing the next half-quart. A little tedious and a lot boring.

You have a keen eye Ohio Bob, yes it is. I found one on Amazon that had an 18” handle and 4-1/2” plate. It’s sitting there because I use it to push down the cap, and for that it is awesome.
For mashing, it worked ok. Because it’s so big you can smash down a lot of berries at one time. And I was using frozen then mostly thawed berries so I was doing 5#’s a shot but it was rather tedious. If your using a regular sized potato smasher it would definitely take a lot longer. I honestly couldn’t think of a better way to smash blackberries or I certainly would have avoided the tedium.

 

[Fencepost]

Ferment in fine mesh bag and squeeze... takes a little effort to squeeze it all (grab handfuls within the bag, squeeze, go to next handful). Saves a step and something else touching the wine (like a press). I tried a small homemade press but just squeezing worked as well or better for 5 and 6 gallon batches... as mentioned above, there's not much pulp remaining.