What better to do with a lot of blackberries than turn them into wine?  I have 23lbs set aside for booze, minus some I already turned into preserves.  My recipe is based loosely off the one from the Wild Wines and Meads handbook, with a few adjustments.  I prefer not to use orange juice or raisins in my meads (and now wines) as a rule.  They do affect the flavor, and there are more neutral acids for use in wine making that you can use instead of fruit or raisin.

4lbs of blackberries per gallon (washing and freezing the fruit before brewing is recommended)
1 campden tablet per gallon (optional)
1 tsp of pectic enzyme per gallon
1 package of yeast (wine, or other- I’m using Lalvin KV-1116)
Yeast nutrient, 1 tsp per gallon
2 1/4 lbs of sugar (per gallon)

For yeast nutrients, I’m following the same procedure I use for my meads.  Read about it here.

I have enough blackberries for three gallons of this, plus my mead experiment that I’ll be starting next week.  And preserves, of course.  I admit I was a bit lazy in berry picking with the blackberries, since allergies and a sinus infection kicked my ass.  Still, I clocked in at 27lbs for the season.

Next year, I’ve got plans for a port style blackberry wine using this recipe.  Unless I get impatient, in which case I’ll take the easy way out and use blackberry concentrate, or just go to Costco and load up a cart.

You can pick up the Wild Wines and Mead book by Pattie Vargas and Rich Gulling on Amazon and Indiebound.