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Blackberry & Blueberry Wine Recipe

This dry red wine has a nice fruit flavor from mixed frozen blackberries and blueberries. I find it to be an easy drinking wine that pairs well with dinner or dessert.

Black & Blue Wine

Recipe by The Casual Winemaker

Ingredients & Equipment

  • 2 lbs frozen blueberries

  • 1 lb frozen blackberries

  • 10 cups + 1/2 cup of sugar

  • Powdered wine tannin (optional)

  • Bentonite

  • Fermax yeast nutrient

  • Red Star Premier Classique yeast

  • 3 gallon Fermonster with mesh fruit bag

Directions

  • Prepare the Fruit
  • At least three hours prior to making your wine, prepare the fruit
  • Remove frozen fruit from bag and put it in a large stockpot
  • Sprinkle a 1/2 cup of sugar on top of the fruit
  • Let macerate for at least three hours (ideally longer), stirring occasionally
  • Juice will accumulate in the bottom of the pot and the volume of the fruit itself will shrink
  • Making the Wine
  • Put the mesh bag in a large bowl (or another pot)
  • Using a slotted spoon, transfer the fruit from the original pot into the mesh bag
  • Squeeze as much juice from the fruit as you can
  • Put the fruit in the mesh bag aside (do not throw out)
  • Pour the original juice from the pot and the newly squeezed juice into the Fermonster
  • Add 2.5 gallons of water
  • Add 10 cups of sugar and stir until dissolved
  • Take a hydrometer reading – the starting gravity should be 1.080
  • Add 1/2 tsp bentonite
  • Add 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient
  • Add 1/4 tsp wine powdered wine tannin (optional)
  • Sprinkle Premier Classique yeast and still until well mixed
  • Add your mesh bag with the fruit to the Fermonster
  • Add the Fermonster top and airlock
  • Fermentation
  • At least once a day, squeeze the fruit in the mesh bag to release juice into the wine
  • Make sure to push the fruit under the liquid when returning to the Fermonster so that it never dries out (don’t worry that it will float back up)
  • Ferment until the hydrometer reads 1.000 or less
  • Rack the wine into two glass gallon jugs with airlocks (you’ll likely have another half gallon remaining, which you can put in a smaller container)
  • Leave the wine until it clears or use Sparkolloid as directed for faster clearing
  • Add Potassium Sorbate and Campden tablet if desired for stablizing
  • Bottle
Posted in Red Wine Recipes