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Adam Preble[_1_] Adam Preble[_1_] is offline
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Default Blackberry port and how to extract juices

I am planning to make a blackberry port soon. I'm trying to keep the
berry taste in the final result, which I think means using more fruit
than for a regular wine. It's going to be a dessert wine for friends.
I'm hoping to have it ready fairly young, and wanted to know what I
should do to extract the juices.

The plan here is to use 10 pounds of berries per gallon. I want to halt
fermentation while it's still fairly thick and sweet--perhaps
1.045--with the addition of sherry until ABV is 22%. With the
additional berries, I'm trying to anticipate the amount of sherry I
might need. Specifically, I am trying to gauge my OG.

How many gravity points can I expect per pound of berries per gallon?

Also, I'm trying to determine how to extract the juice without too many
tannins. I don't see this lasting many years and thus don't want to
wait that long to even get there. My first effort with real fruit was a
cranberry wine that I squished by hand after a primary fermentation. I
see recipes that involve crushing before pitching yeast.

I don't have a press, so my plan right now is stuff the berries in nylon
bags, and seep with boiling water. When cooled, pitch yeast for primary
fermentation. Note that I'll put in some additives like some citric
acid, but that's not my primary concern. Near the closing gravit I
want, I plan to lightly squish the berries. There's this thing at the
homebrew store for pushing floating berries down that I think would
work. I'd add some pectic enzyme afterwards. The squishing would be light.

I'm hoping for some tips before I go all out on this because I'm looking
at 50 pounds of blackberries, which isn't necessarily cheap. That and
my cranberry wine is extremely bitter and will take a long time to age.
I don't want to see that with this port.