Please be aware that this post explores herbal homebrewing and references alcohol.
Merry meet!
Earlier this year at Beltane, I collected dandelions to make a homebrew batch of herbal dandelion. It turned out okay (you can read about the dandelion wine experiment here, if you’re interested!). Building off what I learned, I’m attempting another batch - but with a different base ingredient.
It was just Lughnasadh/Lammas here in the Northern Hemisphere and the harvest season is truly beginning. The yard is bringing out its best - cherry tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash, pears, and, of course, the blackberries 
We’ve had a decent harvest for the last few summers, but something about this year is making the blackberries happy. It’s quite the crop out there! I’ve been picking for over a week now, and there are still plenty every day.
I assume most people are probably familiar with blackberries as a tasty fruit, but did you also know they have magickal properties? They are a symbol of the Lammas season, the first harvest, and correspond with aspects such as abundance, prosperity, and protection.
When using blackberries, there are many ways to preserve and draw on their properties - from eating the fruits, to adding them to teas and infusions to making tinctures.
Blackberry wine is one way to enjoy the tasty and spiritual benefits of blackberries. The alcohol serves as a method of preservation, allowing us to enjoy the harvest long into the future.
I pretty much followed the same steps as with the dandelion wine. I used 5 cups loosely packed blackberries with sugar and a little honey. Boiling water was added, and after letting it cool to 90 degrees F, I put in the wine yeast. Thanks to some tips, I also threw in some raisins to serve as a flavor booster and yeast nutrient.
I read online that blackberries tend to ferment very aggressively at first and may explode through a water lock, so I’m covering the batch with a clean cloth for the first week. In about 7 days, I’ll strain away the pulpy stuff and rebottle the clean brew in the jug with the waterlock. It’ll sit for several months until I strain it again, rebottle it, and let it sit for a few more months.
It’s a very slow process, but hopefully it’ll turn out alright! If anyone has made blackberry wine before (or any fruit wine) and has tips, please feel free to share below 
I hope you had/are having a lovely season! Blessed be 
keep us posted on the progress!
We picked our own afterwards!
It’s interesting you mention that, since that not-so-great wine from the neighbor was made with purchased grapes (as opposed to ones from the garden). Seems like a lot is lost during processing. Homegrown or locally picked seem to be the way to go for homebrewing!
