Its that time of year again - and its been a bumper crop for blackberries around our way. But the damned birds have decimated my elderberry crop unfortunately.
However with limited time available to me for picking, I have been filling a doggy pooh bag each time I take the mutts out and bunging them in the freezer when I get home for the past 2 weeks. Ideally i want to try finding 2 hours this weekend and go on a specific scavenging session, as i reckon i can get another 3-5kg in that time to do a purely blackberry wine and some blackberry cider....
Anyway, result is 2.5Kg of blackberries and 700gm elderberries in the freezer.
Mrs Nicks90 has stolen 500gm of the berries and put that in a 2l bottle with a liter of Vodka for our annual Blackberry Vodka special and the rest is for wine!
2kg Blackberries
700gm Elderberries
2kg Sugar
Method:
Bring 5l water to the boil and add the sugar. Turn off the heat and add all the defrosted berries to 'flash sterilise' them and leave to cool overnight. Added cooled boiled water to bring it to 10l by volume and dumped it in my bucket with half a packet of mangrove jacks R56 yeast. Once that primary fermentation is complete, I should have enough for 2 demijohns for secondary fermentation. At that point i will do a PH test and possibly add a little acidex if its a bit 'piquant' and then it can be racked again for final aging until next Easter. No pectolase added, as i forgot last year but the wine came out beautifully clear anyway. So going with the same process again.
OG is always a little tricky, as its hard to tell how much sugar will leach out of the fruit. But initial gravity reading was showing as 1.085. If it gets down to 1.000 then it should be a pleasant 11.5%
However with limited time available to me for picking, I have been filling a doggy pooh bag each time I take the mutts out and bunging them in the freezer when I get home for the past 2 weeks. Ideally i want to try finding 2 hours this weekend and go on a specific scavenging session, as i reckon i can get another 3-5kg in that time to do a purely blackberry wine and some blackberry cider....
Anyway, result is 2.5Kg of blackberries and 700gm elderberries in the freezer.
Mrs Nicks90 has stolen 500gm of the berries and put that in a 2l bottle with a liter of Vodka for our annual Blackberry Vodka special and the rest is for wine!
2kg Blackberries
700gm Elderberries
2kg Sugar
Method:
Bring 5l water to the boil and add the sugar. Turn off the heat and add all the defrosted berries to 'flash sterilise' them and leave to cool overnight. Added cooled boiled water to bring it to 10l by volume and dumped it in my bucket with half a packet of mangrove jacks R56 yeast. Once that primary fermentation is complete, I should have enough for 2 demijohns for secondary fermentation. At that point i will do a PH test and possibly add a little acidex if its a bit 'piquant' and then it can be racked again for final aging until next Easter. No pectolase added, as i forgot last year but the wine came out beautifully clear anyway. So going with the same process again.
OG is always a little tricky, as its hard to tell how much sugar will leach out of the fruit. But initial gravity reading was showing as 1.085. If it gets down to 1.000 then it should be a pleasant 11.5%
