Thanks for the advice, Jack, and Ray.

It is a bit "creamy" in color, but a bit lighter than I expected
still. I have been stirring daily still. Still has vigorous
fermentation, and bags/pulp removed yesterday. Must is still full of
yeast judging by the fermentation. I checked and rechecked SG, it is
1.01, so I suspect rapid die off soon. I can't wait to get this into
secondary, tonight or tomorrow will likely be the deal.

The reason I even guessed at the color is when I did my blueberry
batch, it was VERY dark during must/ferment, and now in secondary. I
am looking forward to this one too.

I read earlier, I think it was Jack that posted the trick about the
muslin primary covers instead of airlock/bung/lid. I liked the idea
and bought a slew of muslin and elastic. I am going to expand upon
this idea now, and make a few "cloaks" out of the muslin for my
carboys, well for the ones with darks in them. Basically, I'm going
to dye them black and make a small hole for the top at the neck and
make a basic cloak to the floor. My dark area still gets some morning
sunlight in the room, though not direct, and I want to preserve the
colors as much as possible.

Very interesting about the commercial blackberry batch too.

Thanks,
Greg



On Thu, 02 Sep 2004 21:09:47 GMT, "Ray Calvert"
> wrote:

>Thanks, Jack, for the description of how the blackberry wine is made
>commercially. Concerning your friends comment about everything being
>extracted within 3 cays, Cox, in From vines to Wines talks about commercial
>wineries leaving big reds in contact with skins for 3 weeks or more to get
>maximum extraction. They keep it under an innert gas. Just a comment.
>
>One other thing on color. My experience would say that blackberry wine is
>easily bleached by light so I would suggest protecting it from light while
>making and while aging.
>
>Ray
>
>"Jack Keller" > wrote in message
. com...
>> Greg, the color will change once the fermentation stops and the yeast
>> start a massive die-off. Right now you are seeing the color of the
>> wine with billions of microscopic bubbles of CO2 suspended in it, so
>> it will be lighter in color (creamier is what one friend calls it)
>> because the bubbles refract light incident upon them. Forget the
>> physics lesson and trust me on this. When the wine "falls clear," the
>> darker color will start at the top and work its way down. It will
>> change from an opaque "bright red" to a transparent "dark
>> reddish-purple."
>>
>> I really don't know if this is true or not, but a friend told me that
>> whatever is to be extracted from skins, pulp and seeds -- whether
>> we're talking about blackberries, grapes or apples -- will have been
>> extracted in the first three days of vigorous fermentation. If true,
>> then it is already too late to prevent additional tannins or other
>> phenolics from being integrated into the wine from the seeds. If not
>> true, you still have time to presss....
>>
>> I watched a commercial winery prepare blackberries for wine. They had
>> been frozen in 5- and 6-gallon buckets about three weeks and were
>> moved into the 65-degree winery. After three days, they were poured
>> into a mixing vat and given a dose of liquid pectic enzyme. Every
>> hour they were mixed with an inserted impeller for about 2-3 minutes.
>> After six hours, there was lots of free-run juice and they were pumped
>> into a bladder press and the juice extracted and pumped into a tank.
>> About six pressings were required to process the entire batch. The
>> juice was analyzed and chaptalized, ameliorated with just enough water
>> to drop the acid to 6.0, and a gallon was drawn off and into it the
>> yeast nutrients were dissolved and then added to the batch. A starter
>> solution for the yeast had been activated that morning and was added
>> to the batch. Only the juice was fermented. They avoided seed
>> contact altogether.
>>
>> I have never made it that way even though I have now made several
>> batches of 100% blackberry juice wine, only diluted to correct
>> acidity. I make it similar to what you are doing, but wait for the
>> cap to collapse before pressing.
>>
>> Plant blackberry plants only where you have no intention of ever using
>> the land for other purposes. Every wild blackberry ot dewberry I have
>> planted took over its environs and were a real nighmare to eradicate
>> later. I now grow only thornless Navajo blackberries. They are big,
>> delicious, upright, and -- did I mention? -- thornless. And I don't
>> care if they take over the area I've planted them in.
>>
>> Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page
>> http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/
>