Recipe (2 Gallons)
3.45 Kg Blackberries
0.25 Kg Elderberries
2 Kg Sugar
2 Teaspoons acid blend*
2 Teaspoons Pectolase
2 Campden Tablets
Yeast Nutrient
Yeast; GV2 (red label)
* ratio of tartaric:citric:malic acids ... 2:2:1
OG 1088, FG 1000, 12% ABV
Method
Day 1: Mash the fruit and put into fermenting bin, add 1/2 gallon of hot boiled water and 2 crushed campden tablets. Stir, cover and leave overnight.
Day 2: Dissolve the pectolase in a little water and add to the fermenting vessel. Stir, cover and leave overnight.
Day 3: Add all the other ingredients. Stir it all about very sloshily and splashy style to get plenty of air into the mix. Check gravity. Came out as 1088 which is fine for what I enjoy. Add the yeast. Cover.
For the next 5 days stir at least once daily, sloshily, then re-cover. After 5 days remove the fruit and move the must to secondary containers fitted with airlocks. A couple of weeks later it was racked and topped up. 2 months later it was racked again, degassed and stabilised. 2-3 months later it was degassed again, stabilised again, and the first gallon was bottled.
Thoughts
GV2 was not as easy to work with as I had hoped, it was quite messy and threw a bigger sediment than I'm used to. Which meant more topping up than usual. In honesty it probably wasn't the best yeast to use for this wine (despite being recommended by a forum). A better choice would have been something that reduces malic acid (blackberries have plenty of this and it can be harsh). Especially as I used some Malic acid in my acid addition. That was the result of trusting the method of choosing an acid based on a truly crappy and misleading table that many homebrewers swear by. Now I know better I have abandoned that table, alerted a forum or two of it's serious fault. What thanks .... well none, I was branded a trouble maker on one forum! I'd love to tell you the forum, but any publicity is good publicity and their response means I don't want to publicise them.
Anyway the wine is quite acidic, but it's a red so it can handle that. Its a little harsh but will probably soften with more time (now almost a year old). It's very fruity tho, and will be good stuff in time. The first mouthful is a bit hard to bear TBH. I have described the taste as a little bilious, but that description has always been challenged by others who have tried it. That's a good thing, but I still don't know how to describe it. Nevertheless after the first mouthful that unpleasant edge goes, and if you like your wines acidic then this is a hit. Based on the FG it should be medium/dry, but the acidity (and I think tannin in the fruit) makes it quite astringent so without paying full attention it's easy to judge it as dry.
Very much as an aside, despite 2 well separated degassing sessions, it wasn't fully degassed. The result is that the wine has a very slight frizz on the tongue. I quite enjoy this, even tho wine experts (and ponces too as they are not always the same thing) wouldn't. Mrs Critter Wines really enjoys a poorly degassed wine, and it's probably only the frizz in this wine that means she'll join me in a glass. So when you brew, if you like it then thats good enough. But if you want to win medals then you may have to make wines that you don't like as much, but will make judges happy (who get it free anyway cos you - the brewer - pay for the priviledge of giving your wine away to them). Me I would rather give it away to mates who will tell me what they think and not set it against some mainstream criteria for what a wine "should" taste, smell and feel like.
hehe ... that was quite a "ranty" post eh!
Update May 2011
If you make this wine (wild fruit - so acidic -, this yeast and acid blend) then be prepared to give it 18 months for a superb result. Clicky here for more details on this update.
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