Blackberry Wine
So, neither of us have ever had it before, but as soon as I started studying brewing and plunged in to getting equipment, Shannon said she wanted to make Blackberry Wine.
So as the first batch of beer was nearing completion, we started doing some research and found that making blackberry wine is even easier than making beer! I keep saying to friends who've asked about it: "If you can boil a pot of water, you can brew".
So that's about where we are. We found a very simple recipe online for some blackberry wine and went to town. Most of the equipment that we would need, we already had from my beer brewing. We only needed to get a new bucket and a glass carboy (plastic one's would stain and thus flavor subsequent batches of wine).
First off is the Blackberries. Now, we were about 2 weeks out of season to get them fresh at the Farmer's Market or to pick them, so we had to resort to the California one's from Sam's. Not what we would have preferred, but 'twill serve!
So, after giving the berries a good rinse, they just go straight into the bucket...
And then it's the fun part, SMASHING!!
(Meanwhile, I've got a pot of water going that I've added sugar to, making a simple syrup)
After smashing them all up, we really wanted to taste it, and Shannon had the great idea to put it in some Sprite... some blackberry Sprite...
Ok, so it wasn't the greatest idea in the world, and it surprisingly tasted almost exactly like Sprite... eh, win some and loose some...
Oh oh oh! This time we had an additional helper, Maddie (Carpenter) was over giving us a hand!
So, after smashing everything up, we added some water and our (now cooled) simple syrup and gave it a good stir!
After this we let it sit for about 2 hours, it was time to add our yeast.
I still don't know much about yeasts, but it seems there are different types for any application, and very specific. There are yeasts specifically for Hefawizens and one for Ales and one for Red Wine and one for White Wine and this one, used specifically for Fruit Wine (other than grape, of course):
So, we added in our yeast and gave it another stir:
And then sealed it up and put the airlock on, just like we do with the beer:
So that starts the initial fermentation. It's that simple! Take some sugar, add some yeast, seal it up and wait! This is the initial fermentation process, of which there will be 3 before it's all said and done.
(P.S. I'm really lazy and haven't posted in a while, and we've actually already started our 2nd fermentation, I'll be posting that one soon!)
(P.P.S. We've also started our 2nd batch of beer, a Pale Ale, which I'll also post about soon!)
