What next with blackberry wine?

[Blues&2s]

Hi my name is John and I’m from the UK. I have done a little wine making with kits in the past, but have tried making my own blackberry wine this year. I carried out initial fermentation with the berries, yeast and sugar and then moved into demijohns for the secondary fermentation. These have been fermenting away quite happily for the last 2 1/2 months, but are now showing signs of stopping as not much activity in the air locks. Can anyone please advise if this is the time to add the finnings, or shouldn’t be doing something else? Any help would be much appreciated. I hope posted this in the right location? John

 

[Scooter68]

Well, first off it's unlikely that there has been actual fermentation for more than at most a month, not impossible but unlikely. It is possible that what you have been seeing is CO2 gasses being released. In any case the one thing you need to check on is the SG of the wine. Hopefully you took an initial SG reading and you can compare that with the reading now to get your estimated ABV. Even if you did not take an initial reading, it's a good idea to do so now to confirm that all available fermentable sugar has been consumed. (An SG of 1.000 or lower would suggest that all likely fermentation has truly ended. ) Once you have that, you should be racking that wine into a clean carboy to get rid of the lees. At the same time you need to add the appropriate amount of K-meta to help keep your wine stable and free from spoilage. This is especially true if the Alcohol content is low.
Then you are ready for the waiting game. Blackberry wine can be consumed as early as 4-6 months but it will likely be much less enjoyable than a wine that has aged at least 9-12 months. If you have followed the guidance on this site given to others you know that most wines other than whites, should be aged at least 9-12 months to achieve the best flavor with the least sharpness of a new wine.
As to finings, I've not had to use those on blackberry wine. Given at least 6-9 months my blackberry wines have cleared on their own. Other than racking every 3 months and adding another dose of K-meta your wine just need time to mature. If you like a dry wine, blackberry wine normally has good flavor with little to no back-sweetening. If you like a sweeter wine then once your wine has aged at least 9 months you can consider back-sweetening and then bottling after a period of stabilization after back sweetening. Remember of course if you add any sugar or honey to back-sweeten you also need to add an appropriate dose of Potassium Sorbate to prevent a restart of fermentation.
Hope that helps.
Oh and as to where to post, this works, but a better place for help or to get info on wine made with fruit other than grapes would be on the forum section "Country Fruit Winemaking" If you look on that section you will probably find out a lot about not just blackberry wine but a wide variety of other non-grape wines.

 

[hounddawg]

@Scooter68 nailed it,
i like my country wines to taste the same as it comes from the tree/bush/briar patch, to get from country wines usually takes some back sweetening , how much is to your taste,
Dawg