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Blackberry wine recipe for a 1-gallon batch of sweet, fruity country wine made from fresh or frozen blackberries. This recipe is adapted from The Home Winemaker’s Companion and produces a beautiful deep-purple dessert wine that pairs well with chocolate cake, cheesecake, or fruit pie a la mode. Use honey instead of sugar to make blackberry mead with the same method.
The finished wine takes on a gorgeous deep ruby color from the blackberries’ natural pigments, and develops a rich, jammy flavor through the long aging process. This is a sweeter style of country wine than most fruit wines, so it works beautifully as a dessert wine on its own or alongside something rich and chocolatey. The recipe scales cleanly from 1 gallon up to 5 gallons (or down to a half-gallon or quart batch if you only have a handful of berries on hand).
Wild blackberries grow in tangled hedges along old fields and roadsides across most of the country, and they yield more fruit per hour of picking than just about any other foraged berry (once you accept the inevitable scratches). If you’d rather skip the thorns, frozen cultivated blackberries from the grocery store work just as well, since freezing actually helps break down the cell walls and improves color extraction.
With a big crop on hand, you can also turn the harvest into blackberry jam, blackberry jelly, canned whole blackberries, or blackberry pie filling.
Notes from my Kitchen
Wild blackberries are everywhere here in Vermont, and we grow blackberries in our garden too, so summer always brings buckets of fresh fruit into the kitchen. Most of the crop gets eaten standing right there in the patch, but once the kids’ stomachs are full, what comes home goes into preserving. There’s only so much jam a household can use, so blackberry wine became my go-to project for the bigger harvests.
The first time I made this recipe, I learned the hard way that blackberry wine ferments more violently than just about any other fruit wine I’ve worked with. I sealed it in my usual narrow-neck one-gallon jug with a water lock, came back a few hours later, and found the fermenter erupting through the airlock every hour or two like a tiny volcano. I ended up filtering out the fruit early and moving the must into half-gallon mason jars sealed with silicone Mason Tops water locks, which handled the pressure beautifully. Now I always start blackberry wine in a wide-mouth bucket fermenter or a half-gallon jar with a silicone airlock, and only move it to a narrow-neck carboy after the worst of the fermentation has settled down.
I always thought it was best to make a lot so some of it can sit away. They taste so much better after a year. Thanks for the great recipe!
Ingredients for Blackberry Wine
All country winemaking recipes aim to create a balanced fruit wine with enough residual sweetness to be tasty, enough acidity to add bright flavor, and enough tannin for good body and mouthfeel. The fruit brings some of these things, and the other winemaking ingredients balance what the fruit lacks.
- 4 lbs blackberries (fresh or frozen) ~ Provides the primary flavor, color, and most of the tannin. Wild blackberries make exceptional wine because they’re more intensely flavored than cultivated varieties, but cultivated berries from the garden or grocery store work fine too. Frozen blackberries are arguably better than fresh, since the freeze-thaw cycle breaks down the cell walls and improves juice and color extraction during primary fermentation. Don’t heat the fruit to extract juice, since cooked blackberries lose much of the bright fruit character that makes the wine special.
- 2¼ lbs sugar (about 4½ cups) ~ Provides the fuel that yeast convert into alcohol. The sugar is what gets fermented, so the finished wine won’t taste sweet unless you backsweeten at the end or use a yeast that quits before fermenting everything. You cannot use indigestible sugar substitutes like monk fruit, stevia, or Splenda, because the yeast need to actually digest the sugar, not just taste sweetness. For blackberry mead, substitute 3 lbs of honey instead.
- Water, to fill ~ Creates the wine base and dilutes the fruit. Use filtered or spring water if your tap water has a strong chlorine taste, since chlorine can inhibit yeast.
- 1 packet wine yeast ~ A sweet-finishing yeast keeps this wine in dessert-wine territory. See the yeast section below for specific strain recommendations.
- ½ tsp yeast nutrient ~ Wine grapes have all the nutrients yeast need, but country wine fruits are often deficient. Yeast can’t live on sugar alone, and a yeast nutrient gives them the nitrogen and trace minerals they need to ferment cleanly. A quarter pound of raisins works as a substitute (the original recipe in The Home Winemaker’s Companion calls for raisins), but powdered nutrient is more reliable and won’t add raisin flavor to the finished wine.
- 1 tsp acid blend ~ Creates the proper pH environment for yeast to work, and balances the residual sweetness for better flavor. Powdered acid blend gives consistent results, or you can substitute lemon juice (1 tablespoon juice equals 1 teaspoon acid blend). Acid blend is a mix of about 50% malic, 40% citric, and 10% tartaric acid, so if you can source those individually you can also blend them in that ratio.
- ½ tsp pectic enzyme ~ Optional but recommended. Breaks down the natural pectin in fruit that would otherwise cloud the wine. Blackberries are moderately high in pectin, so the enzyme makes a real difference in the clarity of the finished wine. Skip it if you don’t have it on hand and don’t mind a slightly cloudy wine.
- ¼ tsp tannin powder ~ Adds structure, mouthfeel, and aging potential. Most of the tannin in blackberries lives in the seeds, and a small dose of wine tannin powder helps round out the body of the finished wine. You can substitute a strong cup of plain black tea (about 1 tea bag steeped for 5 minutes in ¼ cup hot water) if you don’t have tannin powder.
Yeast for Blackberry Wine
The yeast strain you choose has a profound impact on the finished flavor and character. Yeast contribute flavor esters as they ferment, and alcohol tolerance determines both final alcohol percentage and residual sweetness. Because this is a sweet dessert-style wine, look for a yeast with moderate alcohol tolerance that finishes with some residual sugar:
- Lalvin 71B ~ Excellent for fruit wines, particularly berry wines. It softens malic acid, brings out fruit-forward esters, and finishes with a touch of residual sweetness that suits this dessert-wine profile. This is the strain I reach for most often for blackberry wine.
- Red Star Cote des Blancs ~ A slow-fermenting yeast with a 12-14% alcohol tolerance that finishes sweet. Originally bred for sweet white wines and ciders, it’s a great choice when you want to lock in residual sugar.
- Red Star Premier Blanc ~ A neutral yeast with 15% alcohol tolerance. It will ferment your blackberry wine drier than the two strains above, but it’s economical and reliable. If you choose this one, plan to backsweeten at the end of secondary.
One packet treats up to 5 gallons, so for a one-gallon batch you only need about 1 teaspoon of dry yeast. You can pitch a whole packet on a 1-gallon batch (it speeds things up but produces an even more violent primary), or use about 1/4 of the packet and store the rest for your next batch. Never use bread yeast for winemaking. It will make your wine taste like bread, and it only tolerates about 5% alcohol before stalling out.
Equipment for Blackberry Wine
In addition to ingredients, you’ll need some basic winemaking equipment:
- Wide-mouth bucket fermenter or a wide-mouth gallon jar with a silicone water lock for primary fermentation (this is a hard requirement for this recipe, since blackberry wine ferments too violently for a narrow-neck airlock at the start)
- One-gallon glass carboy with airlock for secondary fermentation
- Auto-siphon or racking cane for transferring wine without disturbing sediment
- Wine bottles, corks, and a bottle corker (or flip-top Grolsch bottles if you want to skip the corker)
- No-rinse brewing sanitizer for cleaning all your equipment before you start
The wide-mouth fermenter for primary is non-negotiable here. Blackberry wine ferments harder than almost any other fruit wine I’ve made, and a narrow-neck carboy with a standard airlock will absolutely overflow into the airlock within hours of pitching the yeast. Save yourself a sticky purple cleanup and start in something open or with a high-volume relief setup.
How to Make Blackberry Wine
The process follows the same basic method as any small-batch fruit wine, with a longer secondary and bottle aging cycle than most fruit wines because of how the original Home Winemaker’s Companion recipe is structured. If this is your first batch, work through my beginner’s guide to making homemade wine first. For the mead variation, see my guide on how to make mead.
Preparing the Blackberries
Sort through the blackberries to remove stems, leaves, and any obviously moldy or under-ripe fruit. Rinse them in cold water if they need it, but a quick check is usually enough for clean cultivated berries. Frozen blackberries can go straight from the freezer into the fermenter, since freeze-thaw helps break down the fruit’s cell walls.
Crush the berries by hand or with a potato masher in your primary fermenter. Don’t blend or food-process the fruit, since that pulverizes the seeds and releases bitter, astringent compounds into the wine. The goal is to break the skins and release the juice while keeping the seeds intact.
Mixing the Must
Add the sugar to the crushed blackberries in the primary fermenter and mash everything together so the sugar coats the fruit. Bring 1 quart of water to a boil on the stovetop, then pour it over the blackberries and sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves completely.
Let the mixture cool to about 70°F (room temperature). Add the acid blend, pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient, and tannin powder. Top up with cool water to fill the fermenter to a one-gallon working volume, leaving headspace for the violent primary fermentation that’s about to start.
Pitching the Yeast
Once the must is at room temperature (below 90°F), rehydrate the wine yeast in a small amount of room-temperature water for about 10 minutes before adding it to the fermenter. Stir gently to incorporate.
For primary, either leave the fermenter open and cover it with a clean towel, or seal it with a wide-mouth silicone water lock that can vent pressure quickly. Do not seal blackberry wine with a standard narrow-neck airlock for primary fermentation. It will overflow.
Primary Fermentation
Within a few hours of pitching the yeast, the must should start bubbling vigorously. Stir the must once a day for 5 to 7 days to keep the fruit submerged and prevent any cap from drying out on top. The most aggressive fermentation tapers off after the first few days, but the wine will keep working all week.
Racking to Secondary
After about a week, when the most violent fermentation has slowed, siphon the wine off the fruit and into a clean one-gallon glass carboy. Leave the spent fruit and any sediment behind. Stirring up the sediment causes off-flavors in the finished wine, so move slowly and keep the siphon hose above the layer of fines at the bottom.
Top up with cool water if needed to bring the level to the neck of the carboy and seal with a standard airlock. By this point primary is calm enough that a regular airlock won’t overflow. Move the wine to a cool, dark spot and let it ferment in secondary for about 3 months, then rack again into another clean carboy and let it sit for an additional 8 to 12 months before bottling.
The extended secondary cycle is unusual for fruit wines, and it’s what gives this recipe its dessert-wine character. The long aging on the lees pulls out a richer, more complex flavor than a 6-week secondary would. For blackberry mead, plan on similar timing or longer, since honey ferments more slowly than table sugar.
Bottling and Aging
Taste the wine before bottling. If you used a sweet-finishing yeast, the wine should already have some residual sweetness. If it tastes too dry, this is the point where you’d backsweeten by stabilizing first with a Campden tablet and ½ teaspoon potassium sorbate, waiting 24 to 48 hours, then stirring in a simple syrup of equal parts sugar and water to taste. Let the stabilized wine rest for another week before bottling to make sure fermentation doesn’t restart.
Siphon the finished wine into clean bottles and cork or cap. Store upright for 24 hours so the corks can fully seat, then lay the bottles on their sides for aging. Plan on at least 6 months of bottle aging before opening, and ideally longer. The full timeline from crushing fruit to first taste is about 18 months, which is why I usually wish I’d made a 5-gallon batch instead of a 1-gallon one.
Tips for Blackberry Wine
- Plan for the violent ferment. Blackberry wine ferments harder than just about any other fruit wine. Always start in a wide-mouth bucket or jar covered with a towel, or use a silicone Mason Tops water lock that vents pressure freely. A standard narrow-neck airlock will overflow within hours.
- Frozen fruit is a feature, not a compromise. The freeze-thaw cycle pops blackberry cell walls and improves color and flavor extraction. If you’re working with fresh berries, freezing and thawing them before crushing actually gives a better-extracted wine than starting with fresh fruit.
- Don’t crush the seeds. Hand-crushing or a gentle pass with a potato masher is enough to break the skins. Skip the food processor or blender, since cracked seeds release bitter, astringent compounds that carry into the finished wine.
- Substitute black tea for tannin powder. If you don’t have tannin powder, brew a strong cup of plain black tea (1 tea bag steeped 5 minutes in ¼ cup hot water) and add it with the other ingredients. This is also a good move if you find the tannin powder makes the wine taste astringent during aging.
- Scale up to a 5-gallon batch. All ingredients except the yeast scale linearly. One yeast packet handles up to 5 gallons, and bigger batches mean you’ll have plenty to give away after the long aging cycle.
- Try the mead version. Substituting 3 pounds of honey for the sugar produces blackberry mead, which has a softer, more floral character than the wine. Like other honey-based ferments, expect a longer secondary and longer overall aging time.
- Pair with similar berry wines. If you enjoy blackberry wine, you’ll probably like other deep-fruit country wines too. Raspberry wine, elderberry wine, blueberry wine, and aronia wine all share that intense fruit character.
Frequently Asked Questions
Plan on about 18 months from start to first taste. The recipe calls for one week in primary, three months in secondary, another 8 to 12 months on the lees after the second racking, and a minimum of 6 months bottle aging after that. The long aging cycle is what gives this wine its rich dessert-wine character. You can technically taste it earlier, but the flavor improves dramatically with patience.
Yes, and many home winemakers actually prefer frozen fruit. The freeze-thaw cycle breaks down the cell walls in blackberries, which improves color and flavor extraction during primary fermentation. There’s no need to fully thaw the fruit before crushing.
Lemon juice is the simplest substitute. Use 1 tablespoon of lemon juice for every 1 teaspoon of acid blend the recipe calls for, so 1 tablespoon total for this recipe. Acid blend is a mix of about 50 percent malic, 40 percent citric, and 10 percent tartaric acid, so if you can source those individually you can blend them in that ratio for an even closer match.
Blackberries are unusually rich in fermentable sugars and yeast nutrients, which produces a more aggressive primary than most fruit wines. This is normal and not a problem, but it does mean blackberry wine will overflow a standard narrow-neck airlock. Always start primary in a wide-mouth fermenter or use a silicone Mason Tops water lock that can vent pressure freely.
Yes. All ingredients except the yeast scale linearly, so multiply everything by 5 for a 5-gallon batch. A single yeast packet treats up to 5 gallons, so you only need one packet regardless of batch size between 1 and 5 gallons. For batches larger than 5 gallons, use additional yeast packets at the same 1-per-5-gallon ratio.
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Blackberry Wine
Ingredients
- 4 lbs blackberries, fresh or frozen
- 2 1/4 lbs sugar, about 4 1/2 cups
- 1/4 tsp tannin powder
- 1 tsp acid blend
- 1/2 tsp Pectic Enzyme
- 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient
- 1 packet wine yeast, preferably sweet wine yeast
- water to fill
- Optional: 1 Campden tablet + ½ tsp potassium sorbate (for backsweetening only)
Instructions
- Sanitize all equipment.
- Smash blackberries and sugar together in a primary fermentation container.
- Bring 1 quart of water to a boil and pour over the blackberries and sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar.
- Allow the mixture to cool to around 70 degrees and add the remaining ingredients, adding enough water to fill your 1-gallon fermenter.
- Seal the fermenter with a blow off tube (this ferments a bit violently for a water lock) or leave open for the first part of the primary ferment, just covered with a towel. Stir the mixture daily for 5-7 days until the most vigorous fermentation is complete.
- After about a week, wrack the blackberry wine into a glass carboy (narrow neck) and seal with a water lock. Allow the mixture to ferment for about 3 months before racking again.
- At this point, allow the mixture to ferment for 8-12 months before bottling.
- Allow the blackberry wine to bottle age at least 6 months before tasting.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Ways to Preserve Blackberries
Once you’ve started a batch, you’ll have a long wait before the first taste. To fill the time, work through more homemade wine recipes or mead recipes on the site. If you’ve still got blackberries on hand and want a faster preservation project, head over to my full guide on preserving blackberries or browse the blackberry canning recipes on Creative Canning.
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Could you please offer some measurements for using citric acid, lemon juice, or cream of tartar in place of the acid blend? Also, how much black tea to use in place of tannin powder?
I am on an Amazon ordering hiatus, so I’d like to use what I have at home. I have organic raisins, so no need for yeast nutrient. I have no pectic enzyme but I believe blackberries give up their juice easy enough to where it may not be totally needed.
If I can replace the two afore mentioned ingredients with adequate measure, then I can dive headfirst into your wonderful looking recipe! Our blackberry bushes are absolutely explosive this year, and I’m picking by the gallon daily.
Thanks so much for all your fantastic content, Ashley! I always know I can rely on the safety and efficacy of your posts.
~Megan
You don’t really want to use citric acid alone. The acid blend is a blend of several different acids and you won’t get the same results with the citric acid alone. You can however substitute lemon juice. You will want to use a tablespoon of lemon juice for every teaspoon of acid blend. For the tannin you can just brew a strong cup of black tea. Here is a great post that talks all about winemaking ingredients and substitutions that might be helpful as well. https://practicalselfreliance.com/winemaking-ingredients/
This is my first go with making wine….so I did my primary ferment in a wide mouth gallon jar with a coffee filter covering it. After ~10 days I strained out the berries and transferred to a narrow neck gallon jug. Since I strained out all the fruit, now the jug is about 2/3 full. I am using a water lock, but am noticing some gray spots forming on the surface. Is this too much air exposure and possibly mold forming? Anything I can do? (BTW I tasted it when racking it–it tastes like wine and is really good!:) ) Thank you!
I’m just now seeing this. How did your wine turn out? It does sound like you possibly had some mold growing.
I just bottled it after my last carbon ferment and it tasted good, so I think all is ok! I would like to start another batch and am wondering if I can heat up and de-seed the blackberries before the first ferment so I can start out with the full 4 pounds and not lose so much volume from straining out the berries? Or does heating them up affect the fermentation process?
Heating them won’t impact the fermentation process, but it does impact flavor. Cooked fruit doesn’t taste nearly as complex and wonderful as raw fruit. A better option would be to freeze the fruit, which will break them down, then thaw and press the mixture through a jelly bag, cheesecloth or fine mesh strainer to remove the pulp.
I am in the process of making this wine right now. I just wanted to ask why so long on each rack with this particular wine. I have made your dandelion wine recipe and it didn’t take that long. Sorry I am a newbie if this is a dumb question.
This recipe was actually adapted from The Home Winemakers Companion and follows the guidelines there. You may be able to get away with a shorter fermentation but I would encourage you to try this method and taste the results. The other factor here is the violent fermentation described in the post which obviously diminishes as time goes on.
Mine has been going for a week. When is a good time to remove the blackberries. It has been working in a stock pot with the spout at the bottom. It is ready for stage 2. I put 2 and a half gallons of water when i started is it to late to make a 5 gallon batch. Or is there something i can do? I am a new be and think i messed it up already. My first time. Thank you doe your time.
I would just start another batch if you want to do more. When you rack the wine into the secondary is the time to remove the blackberries.
Hello,
Looking to make wild blackberry wine with your recipe. What’s the difference between yeast nutrient and wine yeast? Do I still need to get both?
We have a great post here about winemaking ingredients that should answer all of your questions. Check it out and let us know if you have an other questions.
https://practicalselfreliance.com/winemaking-ingredients/
Hello there!
I’m a couple months into the process, About 2 months into the 8-12 month wait. My brew has stopped bubbling, any thoughts as to why or how to fix it? Otherwise if there’s no way to get it brewing again should I just bottle it at this point rather than wait 5 more months?
Best wishes to you!
So this is after the secondary ferment correct? At this point you really shouldn’t see a ton of activity.
Yes, after the secondary fermentation. I just wasn’t sure because I’m seeing absolutely no activity. But if that’s normal then I’ll continue to hold off! Thank you for the response!!
You’re very welcome.
Hi Ashley,
I am about to make blackberry wine for the first time using your recipe.
But just realised that US gallons are different from UK gallons, and to make things worse I am european living in UK.
Obviously I can make the conversions….but I am worried I will mix things up between all these different measurements.
Any chance you could do a metric list for ingredients using Liters /kg ?
I am also confused about how much water I need to add…
Regarding tannin powder, I have read blackberries have high tannin content, what happened if I dont add the tannin? Why do you use tannin?
Sorry, I am a newby…:)
Thanks
Raymond
I’m sorry but we only write our recipes in US measurements at this time. Here are some of the reasons for adding tannin to the wine: increased structure, increased mouthfeel, better taste, and longer shelf life. You can add something like black tea if you don’t want to use the tannin powder.
Hi Ashley, can I just check – when you rack for the second time to leave it for 8- 12 months should it have a water lock or just a regular stopper? Thank you!
It will still be fermenting during this time so you want to use a water lock and not a regular stopper.
Hi Ashley,
I love your recipes and posts – they are so inspiring! 🙂 You are the reason I got courage to try my hand in making wine at home 🙂
At the moment I have some blackberries, wild blueberries and strawberries in my freezer and I decided to make three wines with these berries. Each recipe for these berries calls for 1 tsp acid blend. Thing is, I live in Sweden and can’t find it here. Could I replace it with tartaric acid or citric acid? I think I can get my hands on some malic acid as well. Which acid would work best in those recipes and what quantities should I use?
Best wishes/ Diana
The acid blend actually is made up of 50 percent malic acid 40 percent citric acid and 10 percent tartaric acid. So if you think you can get your hands on all three, maybe you could just blend them together in this ration and then use the recommended amount from the recipe.
Hi Ashley, my blackberry wine has been going well and went into first rack Carboy about a month ago, can still see the occasional bubbles coming through the water lock so everything is looking well! One question, i have about 4 litres worth in a 5 litre Carboy and Ive noticed residue deposits as the Carby narrows into the neck. Is this normal? Or could this be mold? Just debating racking early!
Thanks so much for the recipe
I am going to guess that this residue is probably from the wine bubbling up into the neck and then receding. I would just keep an eye on it. You should be able to tell if it is actually mold.
Is it possible to leave out the pectic enzyme and use lemon juice instead of the acid blend?
Yup, both those changes are perfectly fine. The pectic enzyme is there to help the wine clear, it’s a cosmetic thing. To use lemon juice instead of acid blend, you’d put in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice for every teaspoon of acid blend in the recipe.
Hello I’m new to wine making a the instruction say to add 1 pack of yeast and 1 packet does up to 5 gallons. Is that to much for the one gallon that I’m making?
Also I’m using a 2 1/2 gallon ferment bucket and it said to add enough water to fill 1 gallon. Since I put 1quart in already I should just have to add 3 more quarts. Correct? Thanks!
You can use 1/4 of a packet for a 1 gallon batch. You want a total of a gallon of liquid for your batch.
I took one pound of frozen blackberries and 1.5 pounds of brown sugar and boiled with 1.5 gals of bottles water for a few minutes. Then added Belgium ale yeast at 70 degrees and poured into primary fermenter. Im looking to make something fizzy and 7%. Hydrometer was at 1.045 at 70 deg. before the berries were added. Fermentation is going crazy, you can hear it from 3 feet away. I will put in secondary w/ air lock after a few weeks. After that I will prime and bottle like beer. What am I making here?
Sounds like you might be making blackberry beer.
Would starting ferment in 1.5 gallon or 2 gallon carboy avoid bubble over or would added head space negatively affect the ferment?
Many people actually use open fermentation for blackberry wine so I don’t see that the added space would negatively affect the ferment.