Blackberry Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Fill a large stone jar with ripe blackberries and cover with water.
Let the mixture stand for 24 hours to ferment.
Mash the berries and strain through a cloth.
Make the must
To every 3 quarts of juice, add 2 quarts of cold water and 5 pounds of brown sugar.
Pour into a demijohn, reserving some juice to top off as fermentation occurs.
After 6-8 days, add ½ box of gelatine for every 10 gallons.
Age and bottle
Cover the bung-hole with muslin after two weeks.
Cork tightly and leave undisturbed for six months.
After six months, bottle and seal.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Blackberries (in the method)
- Provide the juice, flavour and natural sugars that ferment into wine.
- Brown sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation, producing alcohol and adding sweetness and body.
- Gelatine
- Helps clarify the wine by binding suspended particles so they settle out.
The step that matters
Topping off the demijohn. Fermentation pushes foam and liquid out of the vessel, and leaving headspace exposes the wine to air. Keeping the demijohn full with reserved juice limits oxidation and spoilage.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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