On Wed, 18 Aug 2010 05:08:37 -0700, tepe wrote:


>
> 1st 4# per gal is low ( 25# for 6 gallons)
>
> 2nd Do not just toss sugar in unless you use a hydrometer
>
> 3rd Do a TA test do not add acid blend withought it
>
> 4th consider a f-pac and backsweeten
>
> Tom

Regarding your comments: 4# of berries per gallon is the recipe I got
from the little book I'm using (Winemaker's Recipe Handbook, Raymond
Massaccesi, 1976), and it worked really well last year. I just bottled 31
bottles of last year's blackberry and it has a nice, dark color and rich
flavor, though understandably a little raw just yet. I don't see any
shortage of body in last year's wine.

I'm using the hydrometer all the time. I only tossed in a small amount of
sugar at the end because I didn't want to add more water (turns out I'll
need to do that a little later anyway). And i needed a little more SG to
reach the 1.090.

The acid blend was, again, called by the recipe I'm using. I honestly
don't know if it needs it or not. I have a pH tester and this year's
batch tested at 3.6, last year's batch was 3.2. These would be
interesting numbers if I had any indication of what a "correct" pH was
for blackberry wine. I have looked but I haven't found anything other
than a general admonition that it should be acidic.

Sugar is $2 for 4 lbs. That's probably cheaper than sweetening
conditioners.

Today I racked the must into a carboy and squeezed the pulp out. It's
only been three days but the SG was down to 1.022 already. It's been very
hot the past few days and my basement temp is slightly above 70 F, but
the primary was running about 78 F and the yeast was very active. The
book calls for racking when the must gets below 1.030. Last year it took
five days, this year three.

Now I get to wait a couple of weeks and watch the blackberry fizz in the
bottle. In the meantime, I'm thawing out the 23 lbs of cherries that I
had frozen and I'm going to start a batch of sweet cherry wine this
afternoon. I should be able to get about 4 gallons of wine from these.
Last year I only had 13 lbs and it made just a little over 2 gallons.

Thanks for the response and let me know what you're making this year.

Jerry