I’ve been making wine for a few of years, and this is the method I use and pitfalls I have hit. Also known as bramble wine, this article outlines my homemade blackbery wine recipe to make around 10 Litres (17.5 pints) of wine, but the units are scalable with the blackberries you have.
What is in this post
Since this process takes weeks the methods may be revisited and you can read each section here as they are needed.
- What you’ll need
- Method (Preparation & Fermentation)
- Racking and bottling
- Drinking
What you’ll need
Equipment
- Bucket: not a transparent bucket if you can, like this
- Demijohn: (Carboy in USA) or a large bottle you can repurpose
- Sterilisation tablets: The simplest and cheapest to get is often sterilisation for baby items, like milton tablets.
- Muslin: a simple cloth to separate the berries from the juice.
- Lock: A water lock or appropriately sized party balloons.
- Hydrometer: not essential, but useful if you want to know the alcohol content! 🍷
- Funnel
- Jug
- Spare pots: I use sterilised saucepans
- Old bottles: old screw top bottles are fine, but for longer storage it may be worth using corks (some gin/whisky bottles have reusable cork tops).
- Syphon tubing: anything more than 1 metre.
Ingredients
- Blackberries: 3 KG (6.6 Lbs)
- Water: 6 Litres (10 Pints UK)
- Sugar: 2 KG (4.4 Lbs)
- Yeast: 2 Tsp
- Pectic enzyme: 20 drops
Collection
Unless you own the land, this is foraging.If you’re unsure on where you are allowed to pick, I’d suggest some further research. For the most part, if you are picking for non-commercial use and aren’t trespassing it is mostly acceptable.
Times: I’ve found the best times to collect are (as this article is published) mid-August, and after a few days of sunshine. After September the blackberries are likely to contain more bugs.
Types: Take the easiest, they should be squidgy and easy to release from the bramble.
Method
Preparation
Preparation Time: 1 hour
Wait time: 5–7 days 🕔
Step 1: Allow to soak to get the bugs, twigs, and cobwebs out. Anything from 20 mins, but no more than a day. Clean and sterilise the bucket.
Step 2: Put the blackberries, with boiled water, sugar, and pectic enzyme into the bucket.
Some brewers advise using a campden tablet here. This helps remove bacteria like acetobacter, which turns ethanol into acid, and stops the growth of wild yeast (yeast is everywhere!). The pectic enzyme removes pectin in the berries, which is basically stops it staying “cloudy”. I use Pectinaze.
Step 3: Once cooled to room temperature, crush the blackberries in the bucket and take a hydrometer reading. Now add the yeast!
Cover with cloth, and leave for 5–7 days 🕔
Fermentation
Preparation Time: 1 hour
Wait Time: 6–8 weeks 🕗
Very very basically, this step is changing the sugars into alcohol in a controlled environment without oxygen.
Step 1: Clean and sterilise the demijohn! — I have a 10 Litre demijohn so use 2 milton tablets. Fill and leave for 15 mins. Then empty and it is ready to use!
Step 2: Use the muslin cloth with spare pot and jug to separate the berries from the juice and put into the demijohn.
Step 3: Lock off and leave for 6–8 weeks, keeping out of direct sunlight and with a temperature range specified on the yeast. Usually 16°C (60°F) — 30°C (86°F)**
**on a real budget, I have poked holes through a balloon as a rudimentary pressure lock.
Racking and Bottling 🍾🍾🍾
Preparation Time: 1 hour
Wait time: 2 months and over 🕑
I have combined racking and bottling in this step because I have tried both. The difference here being dependent on equipment available for a clearer wine.
This step is primarily for the removal of sediment to prevent the wine degrading with the remaining fruit starting to rot.
Option 1 — Racking
Step 1: Clean and sterilise the second demijohn or bottles!
Step 2: Syphon into demijohn and seal with a fresh lock/balloon
Step 3: wait a few more months and bottle as below
Option 2 — Straight to bottle
Step 1: Clean and sterilise the bottles!
Step 2: Syphon into bottles and seal
How to syphon
Without pumps and pressure there are 2 cheap ways to start the syphon. Simply creating pressure from sucking the liquid through, or air start. Both require the vessels to be at differing heights.
I prefer the air start method as it avoids contamination.
Drinking 🍷 🥂 🎉
By far the most important part! This wine is drinkable around Christmas time, but the best flavours are after a year.
What people don’t tell you
Fruit flies! you WILL get fruit flies hovering around, so when in the Preparation phase, place this somewhere you don’t mind that.
Notes
For suppliers and equipment I have used I will be updating here soon..
But a reminder to follow the foraging code.