What shall i do with blackberries?

[b.all]

My parents have got a load of blackberries in their garden and as i'm going to visit them this weekend i thought i'd collect a load of them and use them for some sort of brew but i'm not sure what, any suggestions?

one idea i had was to make some sort of country wine by either adding some plain sugar or grape juice concentrate from LHBS but i don't know what other chemicals or such i need to do a country wine from scratch so any help would be greatly appreciated?

thanks.

[Mitchamitri]

I do this:

give them a good wash and remove any green bits (stems etc)
mash em up
boil them with a load of water and sugar
allow to cool
add red grape juice
ferment in a sterilised demijohn with wine yeast
rack off after 6 weeks into a new demijohn
rack off another another 6 weeks into
bottle or leave to mature in denmijon, then boittle
drink next year
fall over
go to hospital
do it all again

If you want a bit of sweetness chuck a carton of 5 alive berry burst in - it has unfermentable sweetener in it.

If you get elderberries you MUST boil them first.


dont add tannin but maybe add yeast nutrient

[b.all]

cheers, might give that a go though i dont like the idea of having to wait till next year to drink it. roughly how much sugar and grape juice would i need?

[DREADSKIN]

one kilo of sugar per gallon is good. it should end up at about 12-13%.
the above recipie is perfect for it. it works with many other berries and collectables. im doing it with rose hibs in about two weeks

[alabaster cheeks]

i saw on come dine with me a woman had made blackberry champagne

[robharper]

Ah, waiting a year (or more) is so worth it for wines. Of course, it makes the first year of production absolute hell, but after that you don't notice that you are waiting so long before drinking as you have a steady flow. My advice would be to make some country wines and in between, make beer or TC to keep you going.

[trucker5774]

NO NO NO NO You're all wrong!!!!!!!!!!!

Leave them on the hedges........................CATERPILLARS WEE ON THEM

[Rookie]

I have a mead going right now that I plan to add marionberries (hybrid of two blackberries) to.

[edit1now]

About 5kg of boiled blackberries in 23l of pale beer at flameout?

[fatbloke]

If it were me, then if I wasn't too worried about the wait, then I'd have to make a black berry melomel.

If you just want to get your laughing gear round then a bit, boil each kg with a litre of water and half a litre of sugar.

Let it cool and then mix it with vodka and some ice cubes...

then fall over, got to hospital etc etc.....

then repeat in about a weeks time......

[GARYSMIFF]

Oh the Blackberries,


I made a wine 2 years ago it was like PORT ruby red fan fking tastick and 25ltrs of the stuff.


or a PIE?

[mshergold]

It's not caterpillars you need to worry about if you pick them after Michaelmas Trucker5774 - this is from Wikipedia:

'Superstition in the UK holds that blackberries should not be picked after Michaelmas (29 September) as the devil has claimed them, having left a mark on the leaves by urinating on them. There is some value behind this legend as after this date wetter and cooler weather often allows the fruit to become infected by various molds such as Botryotinia which give the fruit an unpleasant look and may be toxic.'

[trucker5774]

SEE!......................Caterpillars are evil...........possessed by the devil

[b.all]

blackberry melomel sounds good, do you have a suggested recipe? a bit of the harvest is getting used for a blackberry frozen yoghurt tonight and then most of the rest will be used for brewing at the weekend.

[coatesg]

If you get elderberries you MUST boil them first.

Not if you're making wine - just don't use the unripe ones - the ripe ones are fine for making wine (but if you want to heat extract or boil them for 20min then it'll work fine too). Of course, this is sambucus nigra found in the UK - there is a species (Red Elder) in the US that is poisonous when ripe (don't use this one!).