Having said that, I will post a few photos of my past efforts with as much information as possible. Sorry in advance to you "hard core" winemakers, I do not have the technical information any longer. Deal with it.
Blackberry Melomel
This Blackberry Melomel was made four years ago (the photo is three years old). I used approximately 15 lbs of blackberries and about the same in honey. The blackberries were store-bought at a discount and the honey was from my own bees. I crushed the berries by hand, leaving the fruit pulp in a muslin bag and used the juice to dissolve the honey. Very little additional water was needed to make up the volume for fermenting pail. I targeted around 12% abv.
After the primary fermentation was completed, I transferred the wine into a 5 gallon carboy, making up the the difference in volume with additional blackberry juice from excess berries I had frozen.
When I bottled the melomel, it was actually quite bitter and harsh. I was a bit disappointed. But after three years it was transformed to into a fabulous beverage. It did not have a blackberry taste per se, but was something completely different. It was analogous to how wine does not taste like grape juice. I prefer it this way as opposed to some neutral alcohol solution back-flavored with fruit.
I also made a blackberry wine using the same amount of berries and table sugar to hit the target gravity. This was not quite as good, but began to mature just the same. However, I seem to be able to ALWAYS detect an very slight aftertaste when using table sugar.
