Blackberry Wine Recipe How to Make Blackberry Wine

Blackberry Wine RecipeThis blackberry wine recipe produces a dry wine, similar to a “Beaujolais” wine. It’s easy to make from free hedgerow ingredients or a glut of cultivated blackberries. A true country wine that goes particularly well with a mild soft cheese.

Cultivated blackberries tend to be more productive with larger fruits than their wild cousins and fine flavour. There is information on how to grow blackberries on the Allotment Garden website.

Blackberry Wine Recipe

Ingredients for Blackberry Wine Recipe:

  • 2½ lb blackberries
  • ½ lb sultanas
  • Campden tablets
  • 2 lb sugar
  • Wine yeast
  • Yeast Nutrient
  • Water

Method for Blackberry Wine Recipe:

  1. Strip the blackberries from the stalks and wash well. If you place the berries in a bowl of cold water, any insects or maggots hiding will float out.
  2. Put into a fermenting bin and crush. An old-fashioned potato masher is great for this.
  3. Chop the sultanas and add to the bin.
  4. Pour on 4 pints of water. Add 1 Campden tablet, crushed and dissolved in a little warm water.
  5. Boil all of the sugar in 3 pints of water for 2 or 3 minutes and, when cool, mix into the pulp.
  6. Add the yeast and yeast nutrient and cover and allow to ferment for a week, stirring daily.
  7. Strain and press and return to a clean fermenting bin.
  8. Cover again and leave for 3 or 4 days. Fermentation should have slowed a little by now.
  9. Pour carefully into a gallon jar, leaving as much sediment behind as possible.
  10. Fill up the jar with cooled, boiled water to where the neck begins.
  11. Fit a fermentation lock and leave until fermentation has finished.
  12. Rack, as necessary, adding a Campden tablet after the first racking.
  13. Syphon into bottles.

Makes 1 gallon of Beaujolais style wine. Usually it’s quite drinkable as a young wine after a few months and exceptional after a year stored in your cellar.

Posted in Country Wines
10 comments on “Blackberry Wine Recipe How to Make Blackberry Wine
  1. Kay says:

    Hi I have put the wine in to the Demi John , but there is no bubbles unlike the elderberry there was loads
    Kay

    • John Harrison says:

      Sometimes the yeast takes a few days to really get going and sometimes it just doesn’t. I’d suspect the yeast is to blame. Try mixing some more yeast in a cupful of warm (about room temperature) water with a teaspoon of sugar. Once that starts to ferment add to the demijohn and it should start going like billyoh.

  2. John Thomas- shephard says:

    Hi have made the wine twice now 1st time stopped fermenting after 3 days tried to get it going again with your sugar and yeast method nothing happened started again made sure everything was sterilised completely this time it hasn’t even started at all I even bought new yeast just incase
    Any ideas thanks John

    • John Harrison says:

      Sorry, I’m stumped. Doesn’t make a lot of sense. There must be a reason, but I don’t know what it is.

    • Dena Wagner says:

      Did you wait 12 hours to add the pectic enzyme after combining the berries, water,sugar & campden tablets and an additional 12 hours to add the water & sugar fed yeast? Campden can kill the yeast if it’s added before a full 24 hours from your starting time (this includes the 12 hour you wait to add the pectic enzyme)? Also you want to make sure to stir the mixture vigoursly twice a day with a sanitized utensil. I prefer a slotted paddle available at any wine/beer making store, which I simply pour boiled water over it and let it cool a bit before using. Your temperature could be too low as well. That would be my first guess at why fermentation isn’t happening. Check online for the optimum temp, and cover it with a towel or blanket to keep it at a steady cozy warm temp. Check the temp. If it’s below approximately 75 farenheit, the yeast go to sleep. It’s an easy fix if that’s the case. Also, add yeast nutrient when you pitch your yeast or if it slows down before you think primary fermentation is done. Feel free to comment back if you have more questions. I noticed you didn’t mention using nutrient or yeast energizer so that with a good steady warm temp should do it. Best of luck and don’t give up!

  3. John Thomas- shephard says:

    Hi John I have found the reason it was the fermenting bin my brother had a new one so just out of curiosity I transferred it over 2 minutes later it was fermenting away through airlock so my bin must not be sealing properly
    Thanks John

  4. David says:

    Washing the berries, especially in chlorinated water, will kill the yeast that forms naturally on the fruit. Probably why so many recipes use additives like yeast nutrients. In addition, bakers yeast is fine for making wine. Think about it, wine has been made for thousands of years without all the additives. Patients is the main ingredient when making wine ; ]

  5. tom says:

    ref stage 4 add 1 campton tablet
    ref stage 6 add yeast and nutrient

    i think you you should say leave for 24 to 48 hrs before adding yeast as a campton tablet will kill the yeast . do you not agree.

  6. richard says:

    I dont think the recipe states the time gap between adding the campton tablet and the yeast.if there is not a gap of at least 12 hrs then the campton tablet could kill off the yeast before it has time to start fermenting.

  7. Nikki says:

    Hi. Looking at making wine for the first time. My mum and dad never used an airlock for the first ferment. I remember a bucket covered with a teatowel….can I do this? Nikki

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