Solitary Winemaker

A few weeks back I had picked 4 or 5 gallons of wild blackberries on one of the nearby disc golf courses and started a batch of blackberry wine. I intentionally added less sugar than would normally be called for so I could keep the alcohol percentage below that which becomes toxic to the yeast. That way, I could have complete control over the end stages of fermentation and finely tune the alcohol content and the sweetness of the wine. I stopped fermentation at about 11.5% alcohol and still had a dry wine because I skimped on the sugar. That way I could kill off the remaining yeast, and add back some sugar until I achieved the perfect amount of sweetness...semi-sweet, but not overly sweet. I know fruit wines should be sweet, but I'm a dry wine fan, so I wanted to produce a minimaly sweet wine that still brought out the blackberry character.

Here's the problem with trying to achieve wine perfection when you are working alone trying to add just the right amount of sugar, but not too much: You have to go by taste. Add a dash of sugar. Let disolve. Chill. Taste. Repeat. The problem comes in the repeat part. Trying to sweeten a 4 gallon batch of wine by adding small doses of sugar takes many cycles of adding sugar, chilling, and tasting. By the 10th go around, it's hard to tell you're even drinking wine, nevermind trying to determine whether it's achieved sweetness perfection. Half way throught the process I couldn't go on. It's warm today. I'm short on sleep. I probablly haven't totally rehydrated and recovered from backbacking. I decided to take a 45 minuted nap. Then I made a few phone calls. Finally, I got back around to business. Add sugar. Let disolve. Chill. Repeat.

I think I finally got the wine to where I want it, but I'm not certain. I need another opinion. Or maybe I'll just wait until tommorrow and give it another taste. As for now...I think I need another nap.