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Seeing as we are approaching the blackberry picking season, I intend to get a couple of demijohns going of blackberry wine.

Does anyone have any impressive recipes, or will I revert to my simple 'bung it in the bucket and brew' method?

 Hi curry,
              Blackberries are very good for winemaking, but are quite high in acidity so if you have a home brew shop near you try & get some acid reducing powder which will help. The other way around this problem is to make medium sweet or a full bodied port style wine.
For the first one use 4lb blackberries, washed & placed in a bucket, add one can of red grape juice concentrate,(homebrew shop again) Dissolve 2lb sugar in 2 pints of hot water & add to the bucket. Add more water to make it up to 1 gallon. add the acid reducing powder (if available) 1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient, & 1 teaspoon of pectolase. get a good quality yeast & add according to the insructions. Leave this to ferment for 3/4 days ,stirring twice daily. Then strain into a demijon, fit an airlock & ferment to dryness, approx 14 days.(During this time top up the demijon with water so that it is full)  Leave it for another 14 days then siphon off the sediment that has formed in the bottom. Add 1 camden tablet & leave for 3 months. Siphon again &  put a small portion of wine into a saucepan,  warm this up & dissolve 8 to 10 ounces of sugar in it. Add this back into the wine ,leave to settle for a few days then bottle.
I bottle with t stoppers & leave the bottles up right, this helps in case of refermentation.
For the port style, use the same method but add extra fruit such as elderberries, plums ,damsons to take the weight of fruit up to 7lbs. This will take longer to mature, & possibly need more sugar at the sweetening stage.

                                                                            Adrian.

First bucket of blackberry wine is in the kitchen being prepared as I type. Two gallons, with 8 lb of blackberries, stewed with 1 kg of sugar (a second kg to be added in a few days).

Ẁell life never goes smoothly does it?
Added the yeast to the brew, once it had cooled, and zilch. Added two more spoons of yeast over a period of two days, but nothing happening. Finally I went and bought a new pack of yeast today, and the stuff sprung into action within an hour !

I think the old stuff had been killed off by our hot summer.

I find the home brew shops expensive. I know they are small shops and have to make a profit in a specialist market.

Has any one found alternatives to the items necessary for wine/beer/cider making which can be substituted with items from other retail outlets.

My only good buy was to get a 2 meter length of tube for syphoning from the tropical fish shop for 64 pence, a similar tube in the home brew shop was going to cost £2.49.

The old fashioned bread yeast is cheaper but I am told it makes a weaker brew, so I do make sure to get the proper yeast and always buy sterilising powder from the home brew shop, but wonder if the baby bottle steriliser is suitable and less expensive.

Are there any other cheapskates out there with ideas on this subject?

I buy my stuff from Wilkinsons, which I find very reasonable, as I don't like paying more than I need either. May I suggest that you open a new thread on this subject, then you can get plenty of dialogue going  :)