A Tiger Barn Cattery Wine Recipe
This blackcurrant and blackberry wine recipe isn't seasonally possible without using a freezer and using sloes it'll be October/November before you make this baby.
2 Lbs of Blackcurrants frozen in July or August
2 Lbs of Blackberries fresh from the hedgerow in September
1 Lb of another fruit. (I chose Plums & Raisins (You could easily use a Litre of Aldi red grape juice instead) and later I added Sloe wine which you could do by waiting a little longer to pick the Sloes by freezing the Blackberries until then.)
1 gallon water
1 crushed campden tablet
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp citric acid or juice of 1 lemon
2.5 Lbs of sugar in 3 x 14 Oz batches
1 tsp of yeast nutrients
Ritchies Port Wine Yeast
The thing to be careful of here is not adding too much sugar, you're doing it in 3 stages so you need to make notes so that you don't put so much sugar in that it will kill the yeast before finishing. A drop of 110 points will give you 15% alcohol
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This was the first Port style Wine I'd attempted. Port wines are generally a luxury. You should always try to accumulate about 2 Lbs more fruit than for a normal wine so you rarely get the chance to try it. I started it in July and finished it in October 2010 and opened the first bottle just before Christmas 2011. It's so good that I've decided to make 5 gallons of the more abundant fruits to drink in 2012/13.
I was given a Young's Blackberry Concentrate and happened to ask in the local Hop Shop in Newton Abbot what it would be best for. I was seriously out of season for Blackberries and I didn't want to just make wine for the sake of using it up. The assistant suggested a port wine. The suggestion like all good advice comes with the caveat that you actually remember to do what you write down in your notes just before you do it. In this case it may just have been a phone call but I forgot to use the Blackberry concentrate in the initial mix and ended up splitting the 'mistake' in October with either Sloes or Elderberries.
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From my notes:
Thursday July 22nd 2010
3 PM
Crushed 2 1/2 Lbs of Blackcurrants
Added 1 campden tablet
Added 3 pints of boiling water
Added 1 3/4 Lb of sugar dissolved in 1 pint of boiling water
8 Oz ripe red Plums
a little Plantain for body
2 Oz Raisins
2 Oz Sultanas
1 tsp Citric Acid
10-11 PM When cooled added 1 teaspoon Pectolase
Friday 23rd July 2010
9 AM
Add 1 can of Youngs Blackberry concentrate FORGOT TO ADD IT!
Add 3 pints of boiled water.
Monday 26th July 2010
1 PM Added 175 grams of powdered light dry malt that I bought in a back street hop shop in Manchester while I was visiting a friend and stirred.
Added 1 tsp of yeast nutrient and activated the Ritchies Port wine Yeast.
31st July Strain into demijohn
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1 Gallon of Blackcurrant Port wine.
SG: 1.024
Tuesday 17th August
SG: 1.008
18th August 2010
1st Rack
Topped up with Cherry & Berries reserve.
SG: 1.007
25th August
SG: 1.006
Friday 10th September
SG: 1.006
Friday October 1st 2010
SG: 1.006
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(Editorial: So I've made a Blackcurrant Port Style Wine with Plum with half the fruit necessary, when I was supposed to be making a Blackcurrant & Blackberry Port Style wine AND it's too sweet by 6-10 points on the Hydrometer.)
I think I should add the concentrate, then check the SG
SG: 1.050
Nothing happening here. I've obviously screwed this one :) I'll have to think of useful flavor splits.
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Tuesday 5th October 2010
Took 2 Lbs of Sloes from the freezer.
100 ml of strong black tea
4 pints of boiling water
1 campden tablet
Crushed all the fruit up.
Left until bedtime
Added 1/2 tsp Pectolase
Wednesday 6th October 2010
1/4 tsp of Citric Acid
Added activated Sherry Yeast
1 tsp TronOzymol nutrient
Mix in 3 pints of over-sweet 2010 07 22 Blackcurrant & Blackberry Port.
Took an SG reading and added 1 Lb 4 Oz of sugar up to SG: 1.070
This SG was chosen because the Blackcurrant & Blackberry is quite fermented. (Editorial: Why didn't I choose 1.060? The maths is obvious and would have been perfect)
Sunday 10th October 2010
Strained into plastic demijohn
SG: 1.010
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Friday 15th October 2010
SG: 1.003
Tuesday 19th October 2010
1st Rack topped up with 1 Pint of Gooseberry, Plum & Blackberry
SG: 1.002
Sunday October 24th
SG: 1.000
Thursday October 28th 2010
SG: 1.000
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Clearing & Maturing: 1st Feb 2011
Bottled: 20th February 2011 - 6 x bottles
Drinkable: October 2011 ... better in October 2012 and beyond.
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