Glut of Blackberries

[Brewbitz]

Hi all.

There are so many blackberries out at the moment and they are just too good this year - really sweet, large and plump with lots of flavour an juice.

When picking remember:

To leave some on the bushes for the birds to help them plump up for winter.

Pick them early in the season or they can be prone to maggots

There are nasty sharp thornes


Now you've got your carrier bags full, what are you going to do with them?

Bramble Jelly - mmmmmmmm fantastic on warm toast. tip, add a handful of mint leaf tips while making the jam, it add an extra depth to the jam.

Freeze them and wait for the apples later in the season and make apple and blackberry crumble - mmmmmmmm

Chop up a banana, add a handfull of blackberries, a few tablespoons of yougurt, and a little apple juice, pop it all in a liquidiser and whizz into a fantastic smoothie.

Or my favourite........ Blackberry Wine!

To make 6 bottles of blackberry wine, you'll need:

3lb of blackberries,

3lb of sugar,

1 gallon of boiling water,

Pectolase

Yeast

Yeast Nutrient

For the method, then check out the full recipe here - http://www.brewbitz.com/t-recipe-blackberry-wine.aspx or watch Davin brewing it on Youtube - http://youtu.be/ArZZLEg6b_g

You might want to add the juice of a lemon or 2 just to give it a little more bite.

[MarkA]

Just waiting for the Blackberries to come out here, too. I made a Blackberry and Apple wine last year which is lovely (it's still maturing but I've had a couple of sneaky tastes)

[Brewbitz]

sneaky tastes are in a lot of cases the brewers perk!

Mine tends to be 1/2 glass, just to be sure!!

[lord.president]

Got 2 gallons on already. I got a bit carried away one Sunday and went out for 4lb. Came back with 8lb. Then my dad turned up woth 6lb. so got some nice jelly out of those. As the bushes are still abundant,thinking of going for some more this week.