Planning a blackberry session wine

[yrhendystu]

I think that's what you could call it, or maybe a hard blackberry soda.

I've been picking blackberries whilst walking the dog, blending them when I get home and then freezing them. I have around 7 litres. There's plenty more nearby so I could likely fill a bucket in a few hours but I'm not a wine fan plus all the recipes I've read mention how long the clearing takes. I also have an apple tree and have a small batch of cider on the go which doesn't look like it's going great so the other 2L of juice from my apples I have in the freezer will go in with the blackberries.

So here's my plan and yes, it'll probably sound crazy and maybe offend some people, but then I read some of you make wine from tea bags so I figure you'll have an open mind (I was actually looking at the tea section in Lidl today with that in mind). When my latest Cooper's lager kit is done I'll save the slurry to use as a starter. I'll pour the defrosted juices into the bucket and add some pectolase and a campden tablet. I've read the pectolase helps release the juice and the campden will kill off any wild yeasts.

I'll leave it for a day and then I can add the yeast starter. But I also use a 5 gallon bucket so will need to top it up. This is where the plan gets crazier. I'll top it up with Lidl's full fat premium lemonade as I've had some good results using this as a base for some low strength ginger beers. Just using the sugar in the pop will give you around 2.3% which will likely be less than the sugar in the juices. I know my apples came in at around 1028 OG when I tested another batch. No idea what the blackberries are but I'll guess they'll be less than the apples. I figure I'll be after something around 5% so will add sugar. Anything over 4.5% should be fine as priming will boost it. I'm hoping to make something my other half will like.

Once the bubbling slows I can rack the wine to remove a lot of the **** that has settled at the bottom and leave it ferment a bit longer, maybe add some extra sugar if needed. I'm open to advice on any additions you think would help. I've read mentions of adding strong black tea for tannins etc. Also should I heat the juice up before adding the pectolase and campden? What about cheese cloth or muslin for filtering, is that a thing people do? And will I need to add additional campdens before bottling?

 

[yrhendystu]

Well it's all in the bucket. Yesterday I bottled my beer and kept some slurry in a bottle in the fridge. Washed out the bucket and added all the juice along with 2 tablespoons of pectolase and 2 crushed campden tablets. Today I added the yeast and topped up the bucket with the lemonade. I gave it a good stir and got a OG of about 1022. Added just under a kilo of table sugar, gave it another good stir and got an OG of about 1038. I've got the heat pad on and looking to keep it around 22C.

I've used the same lemonade in other "recipes" and it regularly finishes at around 1000.

 

[Moonraker]

I'm planning something similar also using frozen apple and blackberry juice so very interested in hearing how this pans out...

 

[yrhendystu]

I took a test on Monday and it was down around 1006 so I figured I would go ahead and bottle, since I use plastic I don't worry too much about it being 'finished'. I first syphoned to my empty pressure barrel so I could clean the bucket before racking back to the bucket. I used the barrel's tap with a sieve to get it back in. Got rid of tons of sediment from both trips through. Then I had this worrying thought about oxidising so I bottled with two tablespoons of sugar to give it a nice fizz, added around 1.5L to each bottle and squeezed out the air. They've mostly all expanded to normal size already and are starting to clear a little too.

The OG/FG works out as around 4.1% but I figure with the sugar that's left it should be a good 5% once the bottles are nice and fat. Mrs Stu is already looking forward to taking some to her next socially distanced girls garden party. The test sample tasted quite nice, should be great once fizzy.

 

[Moonraker]

Then I had this worrying thought about oxidising so I bottled with two tablespoons of sugar to give it a nice fizz, added around 1.5L to each bottle and squeezed out the air. They've mostly all expanded to normal size already and are starting to clear a little too.

Two tablespoons? Not teaspoons? That seems like rather alot? I once made cider bottled in 2l plastic bottles with too much sugar/bottled too soon where you had to open them standing in a bucket as about half the bottle fizzed out for several minutes when you just cracked the top open, seemed like it was never going to stop!

 

[yrhendystu]

Two tablespoons? Not teaspoons? That seems like rather alot? I once made cider bottled in 2l plastic bottles with too much sugar/bottled too soon where you had to open them standing in a bucket as about half the bottle fizzed out for several minutes when you just cracked the top open, seemed like it was never going to stop!

Yeah, I've added this much before so it should be ok.

 

[yrhendystu]

Mrs Stu was keen to test "Stupid Juice" so we opened a bottle and she immediately detected an eggy smell. I couldn't smell it. It tasted a little funky but nothing out of the ordinary for something that's only been conditioning for a couple of weeks. I poured the bottle away but will test some more in a few weeks. I guess if it's an infection it will get worse but if it's just the yeast giving off sulphur dioxide it should get better.

 

[Mr_S_Jerusalem]

Can I ask what yeast you used?

 

[yrhendystu]

I just used the slurry from a Cooper's lager kit.

 

[Mr_S_Jerusalem]

I just used the slurry from a Cooper's lager kit.

Oh I see! Sorry I misread your previous post.

A couple of the wines I made recently had a slight sulphurous odour about them. I thought it might be either the yeast I used (which was crossmyloof for those ones) or possibly the temperature got too high, which is also likely considering the weather we’ve been having.

 

[yrhendystu]

Temperature could have been an issue. I've got the bucket in the shed sat on a wooden base, some foam and a heat pad. I have the heat pad set to a timer plug that toggles on for the first 15 minutes each hour. It's usually around 22 but it could have gotten a bit higher. There's a little bit of white stuff on the top, I wonder if it needed a few for racks before bottling.

It's hard to get a good pic through the plastic. I'm using 2L pop bottles so the white stuff forms in a 5 pointed pattern like the bottom of the bottles. So maybe it's just the sediment that would normally settle but in this case it's floating. Every bottle is like this but it hasn't gotten any larger over the last week.