Heads up, wine lovers! Summer is right around the corner and if you’re planning on having a dinner party with friends, have a date coming up, or simply want to make yourself a beautifully fresh wine, this homemade blackberry wine recipe is the perfect choice for you.
We all know that wine goes well with almost everything, whether it’s red, white or rosé. But you may not know that there are other ways to make and enjoy a fresh, homemade glass of wine. Many fruit wine recipes require lots of small tweaks and refining, just to achieve a decent result, but with the one we’re going to be taking a look at today, you’re as close to being foolproof as possible. Even if you are a rookie winemaker, this blackberry wine recipe is the perfect choice for you to get started. Not only do you get a fantastic, delicious, and stunningly colorful wine full of that unique blackberry flavor but it’s also easy to make – so get ready, as you’ll definitely want to try this at home!
The quality of this type of wine comes not only from its rich color – a dark tone extracted from the skin of the blackberries as they sit in the fermenter macerating, yeasting and slowly increasing the alcohol content, but also from the fact that the process helps to draw the flavor and sugar from the blackberries, giving the wine a highly peculiar and powerful flavor.
However, there are some concerns you need to take into account, specifically when it comes to a few additives. The usual suspects of any fruit wine are ‘Acid blend’ and ‘Tannin’, along with pectic enzyme and yeast nutrients – you’ll probably want to get them before you get started as they make the whole process easier and deeply increase your chances of creating a great wine.
Lastly, and before we get into the actual recipe, remember that the quality of the fruit will heavily define the quality of the wine. The blackberries used can be either frozen or fresh – that’s up to you – as long as you make sure the fruit is of good quality and ripe, as their maturity will ensure they’re dripping with that sugary tart goodness they’re known for.
I have used frozen blackberries for this recipe several times, mainly due to the fact that you can get them year-round as well as being much cheaper than fresh berries, but if you have the opportunity to get hold of wild, or at the very least fresh blackberries, of course, use those instead. If they’re fresh, natural, with no chemicals added and picked at their ripest, you’ll be able to make superior wine that is sure to impress.
Recipe
Once you have the fruit and the ingredients, as well as the necessary additives, you’re ready for the next step – making the wine itself! But before that, let’s start with a list of everything you need to make blackberry wine like a pro. All the instructions below are straightforward and effective but a few detailed steps were omitted for simplicity and brevity – if you want to learn about these as well, be sure to check out this detailed guide on homemade fruit wine (the concepts apply to most fruit wines such as this).
Ingredients
- 6.6 pounds of blackberries (around 3 Kilograms)
- 1/2 to 4 cups of sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon of yeast nutrient
- 1 teaspoon of acid blend
- 1/2 teaspoon of pectic enzyme
- 1/4 teaspoon of grape tannin
- 1/4 of a package of wine yeast (preferably Cotes des Blancs)
- Fresh water
- 2 teaspoons of oak chips (it’s optional but I guarantee they will add a wonderful flavor)
- 1 Campden tablet (also optional but deeply helpful)
Method
Start by adding the berries and the sugar into a primary fermentation container. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil and pour it over the fruit and the sugar. Then, I like giving them about 6-12 hours to soak in the sugar, which helps to extract their beautiful blackberry juice. After that, stir to dissolve and let it cool to about 70 degrees F.
Once cooled, add the remaining ingredients (except the oak chips), while also adding enough water to fill the one-gallon fermentation vessel. Stir it on a daily basis for 5 to 7 days. Once the fermentation calms down a bit, pour it into a sanitized glass brewing carboy and add the oak chips (this is the special touch to really knock your wine game out of the park). This is the time where you leave it fermenting for another 4 to 6 weeks (quite a long time but essential in order to raise the alcohol content, dry the wine and get a beautiful end result).
At this point, either rack the wine to an aging barrel (carefully, leaving all sediments in the original container and moving only the clear liquid to an aging barrel) and let it age for about 6 to 8 months (this is what will really take your wine to the next level) or, if you’re hasty, you can simply add 1 crushed Campden tablet and rack into a clean fermenter for a few weeks, until the wine clears.
Lastly, bottle the wine and enjoy! You’ll be able to start drinking this gorgeous wine and the remaining bottles will continuously improve with time in the following 6 months, making every sip better than the previous one.
Final Considerations
And that’s how you make a truly high-quality blackberry one. Perfect for serving at a party or to go alongside a stunning sunset, this wine will positively impress not only your tastebuds but your friends and family as well. It’s as tasty as it is easy to make, you’ve just got to be a little patient. Thanks for reading and have fun!
BIO:
Hello folks, it’s great to have you here – William Reed’s the name and DIY winemaking is the game!
Since my early days of childhood, I’ve been surrounded by wine culture. From helping my father throughout the whole process as he made his own wine (which was and is beyond excellent to this day, although I might be a little biased) to making my very own as I grew older, I’ve always been attached to the nectar.
Winemaking is a very dear art to me and the more people that know how to do it properly, the better, so let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work!
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