Blackberry "cider"

[david_42]

25 lb blackberries
5 lb granulated sugar
2 tsp pectic enzyme
K1-V116 wine yeast
2 Tbs yeast nutrient
Campden tablets

Freeze blackberries and thaw. Line your bucket with a VLWB (Very Large Wine Bag) and put the the berries in and add water to 5 gallons. Crush and add 5 Campden tablets. Stir well.

24 hrs later boil the sugar in 1 gallon of water and cool. Add to bucket with yeast. Stir well and cover. My bucket has an airlock, so I use it. Set in sink as a precaution.

Pull the bag out after a week and allow fermentation to complete. Rack once the trub settles (about 2 weeks).

This will be ready to drink two weeks later.

 

[rcsoccer]

Sounds good. The only thing I would change would be to take the bag of fruit out after you squeeze all the juice out. That would be a giant mess with yeast krauzen all over it and you might aerate the fermenting juice too much if you take it out during fermentation.

Cheers!

 

[david_42]

I haven't had any trouble with fermenting the fruit in a bag. I've made both cider and wine this way. It works very well.

 

[Yooper]

How many pounds did you and Kellie end up with, for heaven's sake?!?!

I didn't even attempt blackberry wine this year, as we got quite a few for fresh eating but not enough to give me for wine. Bob said "the highest and best use" for the blackberries we picked (ok, mostly he and not we) is for eating for breakfast everyday. Last year he let me take 18 pounds, but this year, nada.

 

[david_42]

Somewhere between 80 and 90 lbs. The rain has held off, so we were able to pick two weekends last month, 6-10 gallons each weekend. Kellie gave three gallons to her aunt and we have about 1/3 of our freezer down there full of berries, plus two more gallons at the main house. Looks like rain Friday, so I suspect the berries will have gone to mold by Saturday. Otherwise, we will be picking more.

The best part is the 2 1/2 gallons of Oregon Evergreens. Most years, we don't get many. They have better flavor and smaller seeds, so it's jam time for them.

Kellie likes my blackberry crumble best, but that only takes a quart or so. She also eats them while picking, on french toast, with ice cream, etc. She likes raspberries better, but the second crop was small.

On the cider front, I pulled the bag out this morning and checked the gravity. Just over 2 Brix, so it has a ways to go. It's been a bit cool downstairs. Now that the danger of over-flow is gone, I'm moving it out of the sink and away from the window.