Home made wine recipes - Blackberry Wine

Blackberry Wine Recipe ( 1 gallon):

4 pounds of Blackberries ( you can use either fresh or frozen)

7 pints of Water

2 1/4 pounds of Sugar

1/2 tsp Acid Blend

1/2 tsp of Pectic Enzyme

1 tsp Nutrient

1 Crushed Campden Tablet

1 pkg Wine yeast

Starting Specific Gravity (S.G.) - 1.090 - 1.095

Wash and drain your berries. If you have picked your berries or are using fresh blackberries make sure that you have picked out the stems, leaves and anything else that isn't your berries. Make sure that you are using fully ripe berries that do not have any mold on them.

Place your blackberries into a nylon straining bag and mash your berries. Or use your fruit press if you have one. Strain your juice into your Primary Fermenter. Make sure that all of the pulp stays inside of your nylon straining bag. Tie the top and place it inside the fermenter.

Add all of the other ingredients except for the Wine Yeast. Stir it all together and put the lid on your Primary Fermenter.

After 24 hours add your yeast and stir. Put the cover back on the Primary Fermenter.

Stir your wine daily and squeeze the bag of blackberries to push the juice out.

Check the hydrometer reading daily until your S.G. reaches 1.030. This will take about 5 days or so.

Take your bag of blackberry pulp out of your fermenter and squeeze it until all of the juice is out... or at least as much as you can get.

Siphon your wine off of the sediment (the goop that has settled to the bottom of your fermenter) into your Secondary Fermenter which is going to be your glass carboy. this is called "racking your wine".

Attach your airlock.

Your fermenting is done when your S.G. reaches 1.000. This will take about 3 weeks. Rack your wine again (siphon your wine off of the sediment from your glass carboy into another glass carboy).

Reattach your airlock.

In about 2 months rack your wine again. You will do this 3 or 4 times... until your wine is clear. The professional wine makers will usually rack their wine 3 or 4 times... so I don't question their ways... I just follow...

Sweeten Your Wine - If You Want To...If you want to sweeten your blackberry wine click here to read about it.

I like to have just a slightly sweet blackberry wine. so I will dissolve about 1/4 pound of sugar into a bit of the wine and add it to the carboy along with about 1/2 tsp of Stabilizer.

Give it a taste test. If that isn't sweet enough then keep adding a bit more dissolved sugar until you have something that suits your taste.

Other berries that work well:You can try other berries in this recipe if you want to. Maybe some boysenberries or loganberries would be good. You can also substitute 3 pounds of raspberries for the blackberries for a nice raspberry wine.

Let me know what you think!