4 pounds Blackberries, fresh or frozen (per gallon of wine)
12 cups water (3 quarts)
2 1/4 pounds White Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Acid Blend *
1/2 teaspoon Pectic Enzyme *
1 teaspoon Nutrient *
1 tablet Campden, crushed *
1 package Wine Yeast *

(* these ingredients are available at The Local Vintner, and other winemaking shops.) Starting Specific Gravity: 1.090-1.095

METHOD: Pick berries when they are fully ripened but not moldy. Remove any stems, leaves, and foreign matter like bugs. (you can freeze them at this point, and make the wine later, when you have enough berries...)
1. Wash and drain the berries using nylon straining bag (or press), mash and strain out juice into primary fermentor. Keeping all pulp in straining bag, tie top and place in primary fermenter .
2. Stir in all other ingredients EXCEPT Yeast. Cover the primary.
3. After 24 hours, add yeast. Cover the primary.
4. Stir daily, checking the hydrometer reading to keep track of the Specific Gravity, and press pulp lightly to aid juice extraction.
5. When ferment reaches S.G. 1.030 (about five days) strain jucie from bag. Syphon the wine off it's sediment into a glass secondary and attach an airlock.
6. When ferment is complete (S.G. has dropped to 1.000 - about three weeks) syphon off sediment into a clean secondary and Re-attach the airlock.
7. Rack again in 2 months and again if necessary before bottling. The wine may take a while to clear...

Makes a nice dry wine: but for earlier consumption of for slightly sweetened wine, at bottling: add 1/2 teaspoon Stabilizer, then, stir in 1/4 pound dissoved sugar per gallon. Webmaster's Note: Himilayan Blackberries are profusely available in the last two weeks of August on the Sunshine Coast, and usua

lly well into September. They tend to get moldy if the weather is too wet, so don't wait: Collect while the weather is sunny. You can freeze the berries in plastic bags until you have enough for your batch of wine. This recipe makes about 2 gallons of wine. If you want a larger quantity double or triple the recipe (and it is a good idea to age this wine for a year or more...). I have experimented with more fruit and less water and sugar, when the berries are very sweet, and this works well too. This is a true specialty of our part of the world. Cheers!