Recipe (2 gallons)
3.6 Kg Blackberries
2 Kg Sugar
1 Teaspoon Citric Acid
1 Teaspoon Tartaric Acid
2 Teaspoons Pectolase
2 Campden Tablets (crushed)
Yeast Nutrient (Brupak)
Water to 2 Gallons
Yeast: GV1
OG came out as 1077
Method
Wash then crush berries. Put into primary fermenting vessel. Add a couple or three gallons of boiling water and 2 crushed Campden tablets. Stir to mix thoroughly. Cover and leave for around 24 hours.
Next day dissolve 2 teaspoons of pectolase in a little water and add to the must. Stir to mix it, cover and leave 24 hours or so. Next day add all the other ingredients, give it a really good sloshy, splashy stir. Then add the yeast, cover. Every day stir sloshily once or twice for the next few days. After 6 days of fermenting and stirring I removed the fruit pulp (with a sieve) and transferred the must to secondary fermenters and fitted airlocks.
Thoughts
Yeast: I have used GV1 yeast cos I'm trying to find others to add to my list of preferred yeasts. So this is an experiment. So far its gone ok, the ferment got going quick enough, wasn't very vigourous, and didn't foam loads. So I like it so far. If it makes a sediment that is easy to deal with (compact and not too much of it) then I'll be very pleased. If the wine pleases us then I'll have a new preferred yeast to add to my favourites. I have been using Sauternes yeast for most of my wines.
Steeping: I only added the pectolase at day 2 cos I forgot to add it at day 1. It's not a big deal, 2 days are needed to steep anyway.
Primary Fermenting: I kept my wine going on the pulp for about 6 days. before that it was steeping for a couple of days. You may not want to keep the pulp in that long. Perhaps 4 days of fermenting on the pulp would be enough. The result is likely to be a more astringent wine with longer pulp contact, due to tannin in the skins. Not entirely sure tho. I would also hope to be extracting a little more flavour from the berries. We'll have to wait and see.
Gravity: 1077 means I'll likely end up with a wine around 11-12% ABV. Should make this an easy drinking big rosé.
Progress report here
will be giving this one a go m8 gots loads of black,s .
ReplyDeleteThis should work out fine, and if you stuck with the plan to add some grape juice then i'll be interested to hear how it turns out. My guess is that it should work just fine. Personally i like this wine how it is, tho there are homebrewers who say straight blackberry lacks a little body. I make enough wine so i can always find something for the occasion. And if i can't then i'm not fussy ;-)
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