July 31, 2021
Last year we had a surprise bush of blackberries so I picked and froze them and made them into mead and it was very tasty. Two downfalls were it was a little light on the berry taste due to limited berries ans of cuorse, there just wasn't enough. There never is enough. So this year we went to Cronise market and bouoght 5 pounds of berries and went to twon with it.
- 5 pounds blackberries
- 12 pounds honey
- 5 gallons water
- pectin
- yeast nutrient
- KV1116 yeast
I put the berries in a 6 gallon bucket and added enough water to get me to two gallons. I mashed and mixed by hand to destroy the berries as much as possible then added pectin enzyme. I let this sit overnight so that the pectin cuold do its thing. In the morning I was a little surprised to see some initial fermenting happening. Not sure I liked that since you never know where the natural yeast came from but I'm hoping the kv1116 will overpower it.
I added water and honeyy to get me to 5 gallons. I should note that there was almost no natural sugar in the berries. Adding bits of water and honey and checking the hydrometer I was surprised to see that it took 12 pounds (1 gallon) of honey to get ti around 13% potential alcohol. I put in the yeast and nutrient and put it under the table. I may add some sugar in the secondary ferment to spike it a little, I like it strong.
September 22, 2021
OK, So I didn't keep great notes. Probably about a month ago or three weeks I decided that the main fermentation was finished so I racked it to a 5 gallon glass jar. It was very pretty and tasty. Lots more berry flavor than the last batch. It didn't quite make it to the top of the jug so I got some more berries and juiced them. I added sugar to get to the same approximate value that the main batch started with and topped off the whole thing. It bubbled a little and is now sitting quietly under the table waiting to be settled enough to bottle.
