Wild Berry Wine

[le0n]

Hello, everyone.

I thought I'd document some experimental wild berry wine making that I'm going to be doing this month.

Let's start with the berries that I have available to me. I'm 90% sure that these are the ones that are going to be used because I really wanted to make a wine with only berries that I've picked in the wild. Being that our Blackberries and Muskadines didn't do so hot this year, I only have a few other choices left that I know of.

American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana):


These are easy to harvest when you find them like this:


I have three of these bags so far (estimated 4 bags are needed):




The other berry that is accessible this time of the year is the peppervine berry. These berries are not to be eaten raw because of their defense mechanism (Calcium Oxalate needles) that can cause mouth and throat irritation. We also found that if you accidentally crush the berries with your hands while harvesting, you can develop an itch that is similar to the itching you get from handling fiberglass insulation. Respectfully, you have to process this stuff out of the juice.

Peppervine (Ampelopsis arborea):



These are a little harder to come by though. They like to grow high and out of reach it seems. There's 2.75 lbs in this bag thanks to Thunder




One more berry that I'd like to get is from the Elderberry tree. I've only found one tree so far, and it doesn't have much fruit on it. I'll have to look again because I am aiming to get a gallon bag of them too.

Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis):

^^ This little tree was at my office. Also note that the illusion of my pinky finger being extra-girthy was completely unintentional.

Disregard the Virginia Creeper leaves in the foreground & background. The creeper vine has completely swamped this tree line and almost caused me to miss this little guy:


If I'm lucky enough to get any Muskadine, I'll use whatever I can find.

[le0n]

This evening I started processing the Peppervine:


Removing stems and washing. This took about 30 minutes and was about as fun as de-veining shrimp, with the added itch factor:


Added some water for the boil:


Smashing and low-boiling (another 30 minutes here):

^^ I removed whatever seeds were floating. Also, 1 crushed Campden tablet was stirred in before the boiling took place.

Poured through a screen into a mason jar:


Added some bentonite slurry and a little bit of water and stirred it for about five minutes:


Closed it up an placed it in a quiet corner of the kitchen to let the Calcium Oxalate and any other willing sediment fall.


I'll check it tomorrow evening to see if it will be ready to pour off.

[Del the cat]

Nice , can't beat a bit of home made wine. I've got Gooseberry and Cider on the go this year.
Going to do my second batch of cider any day now.
Del

[le0n]

^^ Neat. I've yet to come across gooseberry. It looks like an interesting fruit.

[mullet]

I've never seen Beauty Berry used, I'm curious what it taste like. My Muscadines aren't producing this year either. I'm getting ready to start a 5 gallon batch of Blue Berry/Muscadine here as soon as I get the time. Sipping some Lemon Meade right now and sitting on some Hard, Spiced Apple Cider for the Holidays.

[le0n]

^^ some mighty tasty holidays coming up for you

the beautyberries are 'ok' when eaten raw. nothing to write home about, however, they are readily abundant out here and can make a quick snack while walking the trails.

unfortunately, i had to scratch the idea of getting any Muskadine or Elderberry in the mix. just can't find enough.

*******************************************************************
EDIT: Here are the ingredients as of 13 September 2016.
(If I add anything else to it, I'll document it here.)

Fruit & Sugar:

• 3 lbs - Peppervine Berries (Processed as previously described)
• 12 lbs - American Beautyberries
• 3.5 Gallons - Reverse Osmosis Water
• 8 oz - Chopped Raisins
• 2 - Bananas
• 9 lbs - Granulated Sugar

Additives:

• 7.5 tsp - Acid Blend
• 2.5 tsp - Super Ferment
• 6 - Campden Tablets (1 in the Peppervine juice, 5 in the final Must)
• 1 - Package of Yeast - Lavlin RC-212 Bourgovin

Clarifiers:

• 10 tbs - Bentonite Slurry

*******************************************************************


fast forward to yesterday. i picked the last bit of beautyberries to make my 12lb mark and began cleaning them.

threw them all in the pot and started heating them:




kept them here at this temp for about an hour to try to coax some of the color out of the skins.
while picking these, your hands do not get purple. they get slightly tinted yellow/orange.
i added the peppervine juice along with 8oz of chopped raisins and two bananas to the mixture at this point.


after about 30 minutes at this temp, things started to smell a lot sweeter; unlike the semi-cooking plants odor it had going on.
it revealed it's color right around that time too. i'm really hoping the color will carry through to the final racking.
from what i've read on the very few bits and pieces of recipes that i can find online, the color can change to a orange color.
i don't want that to happen, but, we'll see:

^^ note how a lot of the skin color is missing from the berries

that spoonful of juice was really, really good.

i setup the RO water, sugar and the bentonite slurry in the fermenter, then added the must to the bag:


and here is where it will sit for a few days (weeks, if i can get away with it ):


i'll take a few measurements and pitch the yeast around midnight tonight.

[Chief RID]

I will work on breaking your code on day if I try doing this. (: Very entertaining read leon. Sure the end product will be outstanding.

[TrevorM]

Looks great le0n! Shame you couldn't find enough Elderberry's I've heard they make fantastic wine. I don't think you missed out to much with the muskadines, at least the wine I had wasn't my favorite. Although I think that was just muskadine, it would probably do a lot better mixed. Out of interest was the Campden tablet to help with the needles, or as an extra precaution against wild yeasts?

That reminds me I've got 5 gallons of mead in my garage I need to check on it's been several years, hopefully it doesn't taste like diesel anymore   

[le0n]

i'll keep an eye out for the elderberry trees throughout the next year now that i know what they look like.

yes. the campden is for the unwanted bacteria; wild yeasts get taken care of too.

Edit: Regarding the needles, gravity works here because the needles are insoluble in water. I used the bentonite slurry to get this done more effectively. They get pulled to the bottom and you can rack off the upper volume.

I'm going to do a complete writeup on what i've done and edit the posts above so I know exactly what I did. This way I can look back and have a reference, even if it fails on any aspect of it.

To date, I still haven't seen a finished glass of this wine.

[le0n]

from last night. before pitching (1.088 SG):


temp of 79°F (in a ~75°F kitchen):
temperature corrected to 1.09 SG


set, go:

[Chief RID]

"Ya gotta have yeast"  Remnar

[le0n]

Same temp and SG again this evening.

The fermentation is in full swing now

[TrevorM]

OK I've got more questions... 

Why are you leaving the berries in there? It looks like you've got most of the color/sugar out, are you planning on using them for something else?

What yeast(s) are you using?

Is 79F the temp you were going for? I've not done much cider/wine I'm mostly a beer guy and that would be on the high side, but I know commercial wineries shoot for a lot warmer (90F plus) to get the yeast working as fast as possible.

[le0n]

The berries (skins + raisins) will only be in there for five to seven days before removing.

I don't have a designation for them other than the trash can. Not sure how beneficial a second run would be from these.

Yeast: Lavlin RC-212 Bourgovin (i added my ingredients to the 6th post above).

The temp is a bit warm but that's just something it's going to have to live with for now. We run the AC to keep the house at 75°F all day and I can't afford to keep it any cooler with this Houston heat.

Hopefully it doesn't hurt the flavor too much.

[TrevorM]

OK so what's the reason to leave the berries in for the extended time rather than just ditching them now?

Ah sorry totally missed the yeast above, sounds like a good safe bet. Have you thought about splitting the batch up next time? Say into 1 gallon jugs and trying different yeasts/additives. I bet you could come up with some wild stuff. Personally i'd try some Brett.

If you want it cooler you could use the wet t-shirt trick, just place your bucket in a tray of water and put an old t-shirt over it. The water will seep up and evaporate over time. It'll bring the temps down about 5-10 degrees, you just need to top off the water every now and then.