Blackberry wine

This one is slightly different recipe than currant wine. I have (or actually Dona has collected) 1.7kg blackberry fruits from next door wild allotment plot, although they can be collected in parks, train lines, common lands etc.. they are everywhere. It is important to collect dry fruits on warm sunny day to ensure maximum sugar content.

Since blackberry is wilder fruit than currant fruit I treat it in different manner, there may be more "guests" (maggots etc...) growing in blackberry fruits and fermentation needs to be slower. Firstly fruits were crushed using trusted potato masher in the bucket. Then, learned with experience I have added 3lts of boiling water (I am preparing one gallon of wine). After cooling down next morning must was treated with a spoonful of pectolase to help breaking down celuloidal structure of fruit.

Tomorrow morning, after 24 hrs I will add a spoon full of yeast and yeast nutrient. Before adding sugar I will strain must through nylon sieve to get rid of rogue elements. Mixture has very impressive bright colour and should develop nice bright sparkling dark red colour once bottled, I will report on it's progress. Currently I am on lookout for sweet plums to start this year plum wine, perhaps trip to Garsons farm is in order.

Winemaking stage 2

Smell of fermentation in the flat was getting more intense every day so today time has come to put both wines in demijohns. Firstly all equipment was thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.

I tried not to disturb fermenting must and carefully gather and squeeze most of fruits from top of fermenting buckets.

Remaining must was poured into demijohns through muslin bag and funnel. It is important not to rush this process and not to squeeze muslin bag, my plum wine from last year which was rushed through muslin bag, never really cleared and there is quite a bit of sediment in bottles.

Finally after couple of hours of dripping I have 2 demijohns of awesome looking Black and red currant wine. I will be racking it in about a month time.

Some observation:

Original recipe was incorrect, actual proportions for one gallon of wine should be 3.5l of water not 4.5l! I have way too much must left over and quite a bit of sugar wasted, may add about 100-200g of sugar after first racking in about a month time.

I am not sure whether this is effect of pectolase or type of fruit used this time but must was really clear with fruits very clearly separated. About 30 minutes after putting must in demijohn thin line of sediment formed on the bottom and it looked like it was almost ready for racking straight away, I have high hopes regarding clarity of this batch.

Feeding the bug

This morning 24 hrs after adding Pectolase, Yeast and Nutrient was added to each of the buckets.

I was rather surprised to see relatively clear juice in the buckets with skins clearly separated. Compared to my previous attempts at wine making with plums and rosehips it is a major difference. Is it due to type of fruit used or effect of pectolase, I will probably find out when I add pectolase to plum wine later this year.

Morning after

Not that kind of morning!

Fruit crush cooled down and I added a teaspoon of pectolase dissolved in a cup of lukewarm water to each of the fermentation buckets. I have to say both buckets smell rather awesome.

Winemaking evening

Redcurrant Wine
1.5kg washed redcurrants
1.75kg sugar
4.5ltr water

Blackcurrant Wine
1.5kg washed blackcurrants
1.55kg sugar
4ltr water

I started cleaning redcurrants at about 10pm, last batch of blackcurrants was crushed at about midnight. Some of the blackcurrants were getting mouldy, they were separated out for composting.

Fruits were washed, cleaned and crushed. I have boiled water as in recipe and dissolved sugar, sweet mixture was added to crushed fruits and left overnight to cool down.