I don’t always manage to pick enough blackberries in one go for this, soI freeze them until I have enough. Theyshould be picked when ripe and dry on a sunny day.
Ingredients
· 4lb Blackberries
· 3lb Sugar – adjust up or down ½lb depending whether you prefer a dry orsweeter wine
· 1 gallon Water
· Yeast & Nutrient
· Pectic Enzyme
Preparationmethod
1. Wash the fruit well, removing the small maggots!
2. Place the fruit into a crock and crush with a wooden spoon.
3. Pour over the boiling water, stir well and leave to cool to 21oC
4. Add pectic enzyme and leave for 24 hours
5. Add yeast and nutrient. Coverclosely and leave for 4 – 5 days, stirring daily.
6. Strain through a nylon sieve onto the sugar. Stir well to make sure it has dissolved.
7. Pour into dark fermenting jar to the shoulder. Fit an air-lock.
8. When the ferment quietens, top up using reserved liquor to the neck.
9. Leave until it clears, then rack for the first time
Sugars
A good rule of thumb is 3lb of sugar to the gallon of liquor for amedium wine. Half a pound less willusually produce a dry wine, half a pound more a sweet wine. Below 2lb of sugar to the gallon and the winemay not be strong enough to keep
If replacing sugar with honey, use pound for pound.
Sugar can be added in stages, so if you are unsure, use less and if moreis needed when the fermentation slows, then more can be added by siphoning offa small amount of the liquor and dissolving the sugar into it before returningit to the fermenting jar.
A dry wine can be sweetened but there is little one can do with an oversweet one.
