Advice needed please Sparkling blackberry wine

[Matty1974]

Hi all,

Does anyone have a recipe and method for the above, as we have tons of blackberry's and wanted to make use of them.

Also can you brew wine in a fermentation bucket or does it need to be done in demijohns as we only have 1 demijon and want to make a 5 gallons of the stuff..

Any help is greatly appreciated

Thanks

Matt

 

[An Ankoù]

Use any simple recipe for your blackberry wine. I use Berry's "First Steps in WInmaking" which, I think, calls for 4lb blackberries and 3lb sugar to the gallon. There might be other bits. Start your wine in a fermenting bucket, but you really do need demijohns for the longer part of the fermentation. You can sometimes find them in charity shops. If not get some 5 litre PETs of water, use the water to give the goldfish a treat and use the pets as demijohns, which otherwise a quite expensive. In the meantime, collect some swing top bottles or champagne or even beer bottles- anything that has been used to contain carbonated drinks, and when the wine has finished fermenting, prime each (75 cl) bottle with a rounded teaspoon of sugar and fill with wine. Leave for a good three months to carbonate.

 

[Matty1974]

Thanks An Ankou,

In regards to the yeast i have ordered some champagne yeast. But the sachets dont say for how much liquid its used in...

 

[An Ankoù]

I've got a couple of Young's All Purpose White Wine 5 g sachets and it claims to be sufficient for up to 5 gallons (23 litres). I think I'd be inclined to use 2 sachets in 5 gallons.

 

[Matty1974]

Hi An Ankou,

Do you do any sort of boiling when making the wine and at what point do you add like pectin and yeast nutrient etc?

TIA

Matt

 

[An Ankoù]

Hi An Ankou,

Do you do any sort of boiling when making the wine and at what point do you add like pectin and yeast nutrient etc?

TIA

Matt

I don't boil. I'll send you a copy of the recipe later on. here it is.

 

[jof]

Wait until you attempt to remove the yeast from the carbonated bottles.
Thats a right palaver, but if you don't do it, as soon as you open the bottle to serve, the degassing will drag all the yeast from the bottom of your bottle
(The last attempts I had at sparkling wines were 25 years ago)

 

[Matty1974]

Thanks An.

 

[Matty1974]

Jof surely when i siphon off from the demijons to the bottle and prime them with sugar and cork there shouldn't be any yeast sediment in them?

 

[Matty1974]

I don't boil. I'll send you a copy of the recipe later on. here it is.

Hi An, can't really read that sorry :-/

 

[LED_ZEP]

Hi Matty

You're asking all the right questions but sometimes as we refine the process it can get over complicated.

Ferment in a bucket, DJ, PET water bottle or carboy it makes little difference.
Yeast nutrient can only help the yeast and fermentation process, so why not?
I would always add pectolase to a fruit wine to avoid pectin haze. This is mainly for ascetics but is supposed to help release sugar and flavour from the fruit but is it defiantly needed?
If you clear the wine and siphon carefully to the bottles you've done the best you can to reduce sediment in the bottle. If you're carbonating you're creating a fermentation in the bottle so there will be a little sediment from this.

 

[An Ankoù]

Hi An, can't really read that sorry :-/

Send me an email address via personal messages and I'll send you the pdf. Didn't realise it would get so compressed uploading it to the thread.