Blackberry Shine

[tucker0104]

Not sure if it would be shine, brandy, or whiskey. I searched and couldn't find anything. I have a lot of blackberries and am wanting to make some alcohol with it. Anyone know of a good recipe to use the blackberries?

[moered]

I guess you'd just make a normal blackberry wine and distill. I'd call it a blackberry brandy. This is the recipe i use for blackberry wine, This recipe is for 1 gallon, so scale up as needed.

Put 2kg of blackberries in a clean fermenting bucket, pour over 4 litres of boiling water, mash the fruit then cover and leave to cool. Add a teaspoon of pectic enzyme to help it clear, and keep it covered. After one day dissolve in 1.4kg of sugar and add some wine yeast plus a teaspoon of yeast nutrient. Cover and leave for four or five days, stirring every day. Everything is strained, under as sterile conditions as you can manage, through a muslin cloth and put in a demi-john for about six weeks. Rack off into a fresh demi-john and bottle a few weeks after that or when you remember.

Skip the pectic enzyme unless your worried about scorching.

[Swedish Pride]

just mix em up and pitch yeast?

[NZChris]

You need a lot of blackberries to make schnapps. There is no recipe, just crush, ferment, distill.

A Strawberry Panty Dropper style liqueur uses a lot less.

[tucker0104]

I am going to be going with like 12 gallons.

[cranky]

Myself, I like to juice the blackberries and I find the juice could benefit from a bit of nutrients but other than that it's pretty much like any other brandy, blackberry juice or crushed blackberries and yeast. My blackberries produce about 5.5 to 6% alcohol but it takes a lot of them to make enough juice to distill.

[Danespirit]

I made a batch with blackberries this summer.
Macerated them in 40% ABV neutral from a birdwatchers ferment. Distilled twice through my potstill and with very conservative cuts.
Let them be there for 3-4 weeks and strained it.
Another week for letting the solids settle on the bottom and strained it through a cotton cloth.
It has a smooth lightly sweet taste and a very dark colour.
Could be dilluted and used for desserts..

[skow69]

I have tried to make blackberry brandy every year since I started bending copper. Three things I have learned.

1. It takes a shitload of blackberries. Two shitloads to make good cuts.

2. Don't add sugar.

3. Listen to cranky.

Good luck.

[OBX Phantom]

Anything made with fruit, would be Brandy. Anything made with grain would be whiskey. Anything made illicitly (untaxed) would be shine.

[shadylane]

Just a thought.
Blackberry's don't have much sugar, so it would take a bunch to ferment enough alcohol for a run.
The flavor is delicate and the still will strip the flavor out.
I'd recommend macerating the blackberries in some neutral spirits to extract the flavor.

[aircarbonarc]

What about using a white grape juice concentrate to give more volume, don't dilute too much and do one run, make a low proof Brandy and enjoy!!

[cranky]

Just a thought.
Blackberry's don't have much sugar, so it would take a bunch to ferment enough alcohol for a run.

I see this said frequently and maybe it is true in some areas but where I live my blackberries have just as much sugar as just about any other fruit. It does take a lot of them to make alcohol out of but it took me 100 pounds of grapes to make 12 gallons of wine and 140 pounds of pears to make a single bottle of pear brandy, and it takes around 16 pounds of apples for a single gallon of cider, that's 192 pounds of apples for a 12 gallon brandy run. It takes a lot of anything to ferment enough to make a run in almost every situation.

[cranky]

Three things I have learned...

3. Listen to cranky.

I would add that to notable and quotable but it might be considered too altered like that Now if I could only get Mrs Cranky to do that