This year's blackberry wine has a small proportion of elderberries in it, so it won't be exactly the same as others i've made in the past. The good news is that they always keep on turning out good. As a rule of thumb the more elderberries you add the longer you'll need to wait for the wine to condition. Pure elderberry may take 3 years to be drinkable and keep improving for years beyond that. It is delicious but if you can;t wait that long then use less elderberries and more blackberries. Pure blackberries may be ready in less than 6 months.
Here's some previous recipes
2011 Blackberry & Elderberry. 1:7 (elderberry:blackberry ratio)
2010 Just Blackberry (GV1 yeast)
2010 Just Blackberry (Sauternes yeast)
2009 Blackberry & Elderberry (1:14)
2009 Blackberry & Elderberry (1:1)
2nd run on pulp of above
This year's wine is about 1:4 ratio
Ingredients (4 gallons)
- 5.7 kg Blackberries
- 1.45 kg Elderberries
- 4 kg sugar (white, can, fair-trade)
- 4 Teaspoons Pectolase
- 4 Teaspoons nutrient (tronozymol)
- 2.5 Teaspoons Tartaric acid
- 2 Teaspoons Citric acid
- 3 Campden tablets, crushed
- Yeast GV1
OG 1079
Method
I collected my blackberries over a number of days, washed and froze them. When I had enough to make a good sized batch of wine then I collected the elderberries and then I got cracking. I was aiming for something like 1/3rd to 1/5th elderberries by weight and I got around 1/4 so that worked out neat. And so some piccies have fresh fruit in them, and some mashed, and some frozen. Here comes the gratuitous piccie section!
I chucked the frozen fruit into the fermenting bin, mashed the fresh fruit and added that to the bin. Put the sugar in a large saucepan, added plenty of water, brought it to the boil and then added it to the fermenting bin containing the berries. The hot water was enough to defrost the berries in minutes. So while that was happening I cracked on with the rest.
So that meant putting the crushed campden tablets into the bin, and the pectolase too, and then washing up the mess in the kitchen (take care with mashing those berries, it's a messy splashy business). After a while the frozen berries defrosted, so I got the masher out again and got stuck in. It takes time but the more mashing you do the better it'll be. At the very least you'll get a more accurate gravity reading. You can expect 10 minutes of non-stop focused action, longer if you're dawdling. I made the volume up to about 4.5 gallons with water. stirred. Then put the lid on and left it overnight.
First of all I took some liquid out of the fermenting bin and measured the gravity. I was happy with it, 1079, so didn't add anymore sugar or water. Next day I added the acids, nutrient and yeast and gave the lot a very sloshy stir and used a whisk too. This gets lots of air into the must which is good because yeast needs oxygen to breed (bud) and that speeds up the formation of a healthy sized colony, which rips into the fermentation pronto. And I put the lid on again. I used GV1 (Gervin number 1) yeast because last years wine turned out fine with it. It's a quick starter and settles well. Kind of general purpose but also low foaming so no messy froth spilling out of bins etc and getting you into trouble!
Each day, for the next few days, I gave the wine a sloshy stir. Same reason as before, to get lots of air into the mix. And then covered the bin again. I should have then moved the must to secondary fermentation under airlock, but life got in the way and this didn't happen until about 10 days after starting the brew. So I also removed the fruit at the same time. Messy job, pouring through a colander and then a sieve. About 8 days later the ferment had stopped and I racked the wine into single gallon demijohns. It was just short of 4 gallons so I had to top up a little with water, about 1 pint altogether.
Now I'm in the process of waiting for it to clear or at least throw a sediment. Nothing to do but wait. When it does I'll rack it again, degas it, stabilise etc. I'll bottle it when I want to drink it, but not before as conditioning happens better in bulk. I could have (perhaps should have) degassed and stabilised already. it'll help the wine to clear, but i'm not in a hurry.
Discussion
Pectolase will help to extract juice from the fruit, it breaks down pectin.
Campden tablets will stun any wild yeasts. I believe it also leads to the production of small amount of glycerol, which is thought to be desirable. And I also believe that the SO2 released from the campden tablets assists in extracting phenols from the skins. This does two things, adds astringency to the wine, and flavour too because the phenols go on to form esters in very small amounts. These are intensely fruity flavoured molecules. The synthetic versions are what gives pear drops their taste, also pineapple chunks etc. They are also sometimes solvents in glues! Most yeast makes esters as by products, which is one reason why it's good to choose your yeast rather than go wild. You don't know what you'll get from wild yeast and making nice fermentation side products is not a priority for a wild yeast. If you use wild yeast and like your wine then good for you, if it ain't broke and all that .... What I'm advising is a way to reduce uncertainty in the product, and especially reducing the chance of getting unlucky with wild yeast that makes gross wine. Candida is a yeast and I don't fancy using that for example!
The nutrient I'm using is a brand I've switched to. It smells strongly of B vitamins (marmite smell), which is unlike my previous brand. Apparently yeast loves B vitamins, it'll keep me happy if I keep it happy, so it gets the deluxe nutrient these days.
Acids. Acids are important for yeast, they like a certain pH level. You needn't get all technical about this, just find a tried and tested recipe (like this one) and copy it (with your personal tweaks of course). Citric acid is what gives lemon juice its flavour. That flavour works well with blackberries, but I don't want to overdo it. Tartaric acid is clean, it's in grapes, the main flavour in grapes comes from the skins (test it out next time you eat one). It won't interfere with the flavour.
Edit 22nd June 2013
Just sampled a 1/2 bottle of this wine, first time. It's delicious. It's not lacking in body but neither can it be described as light. ABV working out around 11.5% seems to suit this. It's grown up tho, astringent, dry, and acidity doesn't go unnoticed. I think it is just fine as a young wine, but actually for all the work that went into it i'm very tempted to put the other 3 gallons under the stairs and forget about them. I think this will be stunning and classy after another year. Comparable in quality to anything you'd buy for £10 a bottle or so. But mrs Critter Wines will of course be a vital part of such decisions, and if she loves it the way it is now then i'll cave in, and stash a single gallon.
I am going to make a mental note to try and get as close to this recipe as possible in future. This doesn't mean you should, it's probably that this just suits my personal tastes. But if you doubt you patience and want a relatively quick result from a pulp fermented blackberry & elderberry wine then this works. I'm sure it's the elderberry that makes it a "grown up" wine. and the more you add the longer it takes to come right. so i think i may have hit a sweet spot here.
Blackberry Wine Facts
I've copied this from somewhere, probably a post on the dreaded facebook as I don't go near newspapers. There's links on the bottom incase you want to check facts or delve deeper.
"Compounds in blackberry wine were found to inhibit an enzyme involved in absorbing carbohydrates.
A drink made from berry wine could help diabetics cope with their condition, say researchers.
People with type 2 diabetes struggle to control their blood sugar levels as their bodies do not produce enough insulin. As a result they must be careful how many carbohydrate-rich foods they eat as the body turns them into glucose, making blood sugar levels rise. Blackberries contain a compound that can help stop blood sugar levels soaring
Now a study from the University of Illinois, has found that compounds found in both blueberry and blackberry wines inhibit two enzymes that are involved in the body's absorption of carbohydrates. The team said lab tests revealed a blueberry-blackberry blend of wine inhibited the carb-degrading enzymes, known as alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase, almost as much as an anti-diabetes drug. They now hope to create a non-alcoholic fermented fruit drink that keeps blood sugar levels low but also contains anti-inflammatory compounds found in the original wine.
In a second study, graduate Michelle Johnson measured the antioxidant, polyphenol, and anthocyanin levels in blueberry and blackberry wines. Her proposed blend contains an abundance of these bioactive compounds, which add to its healthful properties. The researchers are particularly interested in the ability of anthocyanins to reduce inflammation, which contributes to the development of many chronic illnesses, including cancer, metabolic disease, and cardiovascular disease.
To that end, they are experimenting with the berries’ effects on inflammatory cells, and they have found that anthocyanins reduce markers associated with the inflammatory response. 'Preliminary studies have indicated that anthocyanins may have a positive effect on cognition and overall brain health while protecting against some of the effects of aging, such as Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss. These berries have some very intriguing components,' said Professor Elvira de Mejia. She added that the bioactive ingredients could also be added to any prepared beverage to give it colour, flavor, and nutritional punch, making them useful to the food industry.
-- Claire Bates"
more info on anthcyanins