reassure me with my blackberry wine!

[monsta3488]

So here it is I have all ways wanted to make home made wine. I started with a 1 gal batch of black berry wine. I did 3 Lbs of blackberries and 2 LBs of plums and 3 LBs of sugar. The blackberries I froze first then placed them into a bucket so they would break down a little faster. Next I added 14 cups of warm water to the berries in the bucket and followed with sugar and stirred till all the sugar was dissolved then added 2 campden tablet crushed into powder and 1 TBL spoon of petic enzyme stirring this in. I placed a clean cloth over the bucket and 24 hours later I added my wine yeast (red star montrachet) and stirred till I couldn't see the yeast particles. I should have let my yeast bloom in a cup of warm water I know. after 5 days of it sitting in a bucket and me stirring it daily (the cloth is over the top of the bucket) I strained the berries as they where no dark in color any more. When I was done straining I squeezed the straining bag just to get the rest of those juices out. I used a 1 gallon glass jug and auto syphon (all containers jugs and equipment sterilized using starsan) and syphoned the juice into a 1 gallon glass jug. once it was in the jug I placed my S bend air lock bubbler with rubber bottom in the top (water level up to max on both chambers). Now I have this beautiful deep ruby red and it has been sitting for 3 days now. It is still bubbling and sitting in an area that sits at about 75 degrees.

Now I did not use a hydrometer because I did not have one but if any one has tried this method or similar let me know how much ABV it produced for you. Also my question is When I go to put my clarifier in (sparklooid) should I put it in before my cold stabilization or before? I really cant wait to try this wine it looks beautiful but we all know you cant trust a book by it cover!

Thanks in advance guys if this turns out right going to try strawberry and peach wine next do a gal batch of those 2.

 

[dralarms]

Without a starting sg it's hard to determine what the final alcohol content is. However to answer your other questions, bubbling is normal, as the wine clearshop it will "darken" to a point. Also don't add clearing agent until it stops bubbling. Some of the yeast are still suspended by co2 and the clearing agent works better if the co2 is gone or at least at at minimum.

Welcome to WMT. Don't be afraid to ask questions, we all want to help you succeed.

 

[Johnd]

So here it is I have all ways wanted to make home made wine. I started with a 1 gal batch of black berry wine. I did 3 Lbs of blackberries and 2 LBs of plums and 3 LBs of sugar. The blackberries I froze first then placed them into a bucket so they would break down a little faster. Next I added 14 cups of warm water to the berries in the bucket and followed with sugar and stirred till all the sugar was dissolved then added 2 campden tablet crushed into powder and 1 TBL spoon of petic enzyme stirring this in. I placed a clean cloth over the bucket and 24 hours later I added my wine yeast (red star montrachet) and stirred till I couldn't see the yeast particles. I should have let my yeast bloom in a cup of warm water I know. after 5 days of it sitting in a bucket and me stirring it daily (the cloth is over the top of the bucket) I strained the berries as they where no dark in color any more. When I was done straining I squeezed the straining bag just to get the rest of those juices out. I used a 1 gallon glass jug and auto syphon (all containers jugs and equipment sterilized using starsan) and syphoned the juice into a 1 gallon glass jug. once it was in the jug I placed my S bend air lock bubbler with rubber bottom in the top (water level up to max on both chambers). Now I have this beautiful deep ruby red and it has been sitting for 3 days now. It is still bubbling and sitting in an area that sits at about 75 degrees.

Now I did not use a hydrometer because I did not have one but if any one has tried this method or similar let me know how much ABV it produced for you. Also my question is When I go to put my clarifier in (sparklooid) should I put it in before my cold stabilization or before? I really cant wait to try this wine it looks beautiful but we all know you cant trust a book by it cover!

Thanks in advance guys if this turns out right going to try strawberry and peach wine next do a gal batch of those 2.

I can't reassure you, but I can give you some facts. 3 pounds of sugar in 14 cups of water will create a solution with a SG of 1.125, which will yield an ABV of 17% if fermented down to SG .995. Red Star Montrachet has a reported ABV tolerance of 13%. The blackberries and plums juice certainly had a much lower SG than your sugar/water solution, and increased its volume, so your ABV will certainly be lower than 17 %. There's really no way to compute it without beginning and ending SG's, but my guess is somewhere in the 13%-14% range.

Go get a hydrometer, see where the SG is when it is finished fermenting. If it goes dry, because your yeast quits around 13%, you'll know you're somewhere below that. If you have residual sugar (SG>1.000), you'll know your yeast died at around 13% or so.

You may need yeast nutrients to keep your yeast going, and if fermentation stops because of lack of nutrients, and not reaching alcohol limits, the above analysis will be moot.

When fermentation is over, evidenced by SG<1.000, which doesn't change for 3 consecutive days, you can rack and sulfite your wine. At this time, clarifiers are appropriate. Once clear, if you intend to sweeten your wine, an appropriate dose of potassium sorbate will prevent the added sugar from restarting fermentation.

If you intend to keep making wine, invest a few dollars in a hydrometer, it'll keep you out of the woods, and allow the good folks here to better answer your questions.

 

[monsta3488]

One more question. Seems there are some solids in there that i did not see the other day. It may be some that where floting around in there while the wine was darker. It is clearing up now so just may be bits i didn't see till now. Is this possiable?

 

[Arne]

One more question. Seems there are some solids in there that i did not see the other day. It may be some that where floting around in there while the wine was darker. It is clearing up now so just may be bits i didn't see till now. Is this possiable?

Yep, there are probably some floaters in there. Nothing to worry about, as time goes on they should fall to the bottom and you can leave them when you rack. Wish I could get my hands on some of those blackberries. I was given a bottle of juice about a year ago and it made some excellent wine. And welcome to the forum. Arne.

 

[monsta3488]

I'd send yoy some if i could Arne

 

[pip]

I love Blackberry wine, i reckon it makes the best red wine style grapeless beverage out there. Sounds to me like the OP process is ok but you need that hydrometer.

Dont know about you Nth American folk but down here in southern Australia we go out into the mountains pick bucket loads of wild blackberries. You could pick 100kgs if you had the time, all for free! Do you not have wild blackberries up there in the north?

 

[Arne]

I love Blackberry wine, i reckon it makes the best red wine style grapeless beverage out there. Sounds to me like the OP process is ok but you need that hydrometer.

Dont know about you Nth American folk but down here in southern Australia we go out into the mountains pick bucket loads of wild blackberries. You could pick 100kgs if you had the time, all for free! Do you not have wild blackberries up there in the north?

They have them in other places, but I have not seen them around here. Have to drive for a day to get to mountains, at least some of the mountains have blackberries but I wouldn't have a clue where to go. Arne.

 

[monsta3488]

They literally grow in our back yards here.

 

[dralarms]

If you can't get blackberries for a decent price try www.homewinery.com they sell a 1/2 gallon jug of blackberry that makes 5 gallons (I only make 4.5 gallons with it) and it's only 34.95