Elderberry Wine...Hedgerow Harvest

[Vossy1]

Today on a typically dull and wet Manchester afternoon we went to pick some elderberries with which we will make elderberry wine

Here's the recipe which will make 2 gallons of Elderberry wine, originally from CCJ Beery's First steps in winemaking.

3 kg Of Elderberries
3 kg of Sugar
2 teaspoons of Citric acid
9 ltrs of water
Yeast and nutrient

So we picked 3 kg of Elderberries and then removed them from their stems, with a fork....a pita...but then they cost nothing



Then I blended them in an old food processor



Then into the bucket of Elderberries I added 9ltrs of boiling water.



When the mix cools to 21 deg c I will add the citric acid, yeast and nutrient.
I will leave to ferment for 3 days, stirring daily.
On the 4th day I will strain the mix through a sieve into another fermenting bucket containing the 3kg of sugar.
Then I'll mix the sugar ti'll dissolved and will decant the resulting sugary fruity liquid into 2 demijons.
They should be dark demijons, but I'll use clear ones with a bin bag round them
I will only fill the demijon's up to their shoulders, keeping the excess mix, and when the initial vigorous fermentation has taken place I will top them up to the neck with the excess.
I will leave this to ferment out, in the case of elderflower wine this may be some time.
When fermentation is over I'll bottle and leave to mature for at least 6 months...hope it's worth it

[lockwood1956]

you will likely need to age it more than 6 months, using the blender splits all of the seeds releasing too much tannin, the batch of elderberry I prepared this way took nearly two years to become nice enough to drink, but elderberries are a fantastic wine making ingredient, second only to grapes.

(not wanting to be picky but this is Elderberry wine....elderflower is a white wine made from elder flowers although I suppose I was just "picky"...sorry

You might also find that the addition of some oak will help to soften the wine too, american white oak is better than French oak as it imparts more vanilla tones, which compliment the elderberries better

you can also back sweeten and fortify this into very drinkable port, add 1 can red grape concentrate and 1 bottle (70ml) of brandy to each gallon, yum yum.

hope this helps
regards
Bob

[Vossy1]

not wanting to be picky but this is Elderberry wine....elderflower is a white wine made from elder flowers although I suppose I was just "picky"...sorry

Not at all, thank you. I used Elderflower once by mistake, I have edited the flower out

I used the food processor on it's lowest speed setting to avoid slitting the seeds. I've done this before and it works very well as those seeds are hard little buggers. On softer seeds it will split them tough, so it depends what your making.

The oak chips sound interesting. We've used them in the past in white wine kits but we didn't like them, however I guess fruit wines are a little less subtle so I may try some.
I really like the sounds of the port option. By back sweetening do you mean at bottling, as I assume the additions are post fermentation

Cheers Bob

[lockwood1956]

well two ways to go......

you can finish the ferment and then add the brandy and grape concentrate, thats the way I do it

or..

you can stop the ferment using the brandy at your desired S.G. (traditional port making method)

[Vossy1]

Swimbo's just come in and she also likes the look of the port, so I might be splitting the batch

Thanks for the help Bob

[lockwood1956]

I use the italian red grape concentrate (sol vino)

yum scrum

won best of show at winepress.us winefest in Baltimore last year with it(the port)

[MickyD]

Thats great Vossy, looks nice and simple (just how I like it ) I am going to make this to half the amounts you say here, but do I need to add Campden tablets anywhere along the way? they seem to feature quite highly in wine making.

[Vossy1]

The Elderberry is fermenting nicely and all the seeds have been thrown to the top of the ferment as usual

Ps mods, not sure why this pic is so large, it was set smaller then the above....I'll try and change it

[Vossy1]

the type you see in disease of the month from one of those lads mags

As long as it gives me as much pleasure who gives a damn

[Vossy1]

Ps, I'm having trouble resizing the pics for our dial up buddies.
I've resized them on photobucket but it's not translating...any ideas

[GerryT]

Ps, I'm having trouble resizing the pics for our dial up buddies.
I've resized them on photobucket but it's not translating...any ideas

They are ok m8 , close your browser and re-open , there only 320 x 213 pixels

[Vossy1]

Hi Gerry,

I'm presently resizing all the pics to 539 x 407 pixels as Pix resizer and Photobucket are in conflict.....probably due to me

[Vossy1]

there only 320 x 213 pixels

How come...now I'm confused

[GerryT]

I just clicked on the properties



not sure m8 , let me have a few more beer and think about it

[Vossy1]

Cheers GT

I've just done the same with the same result...well I'll be