How do I add berries to my wine?
- Freezing the berries first concentrates the sugar, breaks down the cell walls and aids the pectic enzyme considerably.
- Thaw completely,
- then cull through the berries, discarding any unsound ones and removing any stems and greenery.
- Chop them roughly and put in a sterilized, nylon straining bag tied closed.
- Crush them with your hands inside the primary.
- Ferment 7-10 days, gently squeeze, and discard.
- Continue fermentation as instructed with your kit.
- OPTIONAL: If you have a grape or fruit press and additional berries, do the following.
- As the wine is finishing, stabilize it, wait 7-10 days for dead yeast to fall out, then rack. Using the fruit press, press the juice from another 2 lbs of berries, add the juice to the wine and bottle immediately. This will dilute the wine a bit, but will add a bouquet to the wine like you can’t imagine. But, you MUST stabilize the wine first or you’ll pop your corks (or worse, your bottles will explode).
