I'm making a 6 gallon batch of blackberry wine. I used two cans of Vinters Harvest blackberries and followed the directions on the can except I added sugar until my starting gravity read 1.110. I've also been following the directions and its been in the secondary for 4 weeks and just racked it into another carboy. I tasted it and its got a very acidic alcoholic taste and can't really taste the blackberries. I know it's early but after clearing in the carboy for 3-4 months should it taste better or does back sweeting it bring the blackberry flavor out? This is my first fruit wine I've already done a couple box kits.
Vinters Harvest Blackberry Wine
- Thread starter dconway10
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I have made 4 of the VH and I would not waste my time. They were tasteless even though I only did 3 gallon batches. I had to add corresponding extract (black berry extract to the VH blackberry wine) and sugar to back sweeten.
saramc
Well-Known Member
Country wines (fruit) really come around when you backsweeten. Blackberry is quite acidic by nature, loads of malic acid. I would recommend a minimum of nine months of bulk aging and at least another three in bottle before considering consumption, especially since you have an ACV greater than 12%.
But, you may want to get an acid test kit and check the TA as it may be necessary to make adjustments especially if you want to leave it dry. Backsweetening will help mask the acidity. If you had started with a lower gravity, like 1.090, I would say you could always add 1-2#/gallon of frozen berries to the secondary and pull even more berry flavor BUT your wine is already a high ACV and fruit wines are hard to pull off above 12% unless you go dessert style at 15% or higher, or even port style. Oaking is also an option.
Right now your wine is just young and in no way an example of what you can expect given some age.
But, you may want to get an acid test kit and check the TA as it may be necessary to make adjustments especially if you want to leave it dry. Backsweetening will help mask the acidity. If you had started with a lower gravity, like 1.090, I would say you could always add 1-2#/gallon of frozen berries to the secondary and pull even more berry flavor BUT your wine is already a high ACV and fruit wines are hard to pull off above 12% unless you go dessert style at 15% or higher, or even port style. Oaking is also an option.
Right now your wine is just young and in no way an example of what you can expect given some age.
saramc we aged in carboy for 6 to 8 months and there was not really any flavor.
I have just recently heard about adding more fruit to the secondary.
The black current was awesome once I added black current extract and some inverted sugar. In fact we are down to our last few bottles.
The strawberry I sent you we only added some inverted sugar but still not to our liking at almost 9 months.
I have just recently heard about adding more fruit to the secondary.
The black current was awesome once I added black current extract and some inverted sugar. In fact we are down to our last few bottles.
The strawberry I sent you we only added some inverted sugar but still not to our liking at almost 9 months.
saramc
Well-Known Member
Exactly
But other variables play in also...TA, ACV, yeast choice, fruit quality, fruit content, tannins, etc. I think a huge misnomer in fruit wine is that many people think it is supposed to taste exactly like the fruit, but it does not work that way. Can you get close, yes to an extent, sometimes, maybe.
saramc
Well-Known Member
And a success like that is fabulous! I read about your peach wine and it makes me drool. But really it is rare that country fruit wines taste just like the unfermented fruit. Plus many times the aroma of that fruit can create the idea of the taste as you sample, kind of like a subliminal message to an.extent. I cheer when a country wine is bottled and you can easily identify what fruit it is in a blind taste trial, without the addition of extracts or f-pacs. We are fortunate that we can play at will at home because the commercial side has a lot more restriction than we do.
Again, a huge success when you do end up with a huge fruit forward wine, which are more likely to happen when you use 100% fruit BUT then again there are some fruits, like blackberry, which can be a bear to work with as 100%.
