Elderberry Wine...Hedgerow Harvest

[danbrew]

Nice one faulknerm for resurrecting an old thread. I getting my hands on some of these lovelies next week and looking forward to getting a brew on...

Truly the king on homemade wines.

[fill2top]

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

i two have just started 2 gallons of elderberry wine, from c.j.j.Berry book 1982. not ccj beery's book

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

[Yeasty Rob]

Racked off my elderberry wine last night into a glass demi for some long term storage on an air lock to let the last remaining CO2 hopefully escape.

Couldn't resist trying a little taster and was really impressed. I should mention this is my first elderberry wine so wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I'll definitely be putting on more than a gallon next year.

Still a slight fizz and some remaining acidity to mature out, but its not far from tasting like a nice light port. Really impressed.

[fill2top]

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 To make two gallons of Elderberry wine I use
3 kg of Sugar ingredients:
2 teaspoons of Citric acid 3kg-Elderberrys.
9 ltrs of water 2kg-sugar.
Yeast and nutrient 2lt-red grape juice.
2tsp-citric acid.
2tsp-yeast & nutrient.
TW-or mineral water.
1tbl-wine finings(per gal)
2tbl-glycerine(per gal)
So we picked 3 kg of Elderberries and then removed them from their stems, with a fork....a pita...but then they cost nothing

i two have just started 2 gallons of elderberry wine, from c.j.j.Berry book 1982. not ccj beery's book

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

[Yeasty Rob]

Hmmm, reposting the original thread from 2007 with nothing else, twice - am I missing something.

[fill2top]

Hmmm, reposting the original thread from 2007 with nothing else, twice - am I missing something.

ionly use 3kg-Elderberrys and 2kg-sugar with 2lt of red grape juice, to make 2 gal's

[Chard]

RESURRECT THE THREAD! ITS ELDERFLOWER TIME!

ok i picked 3kg elderflower on the stalks but when i took em all off with a fork and discarded the green ones (using the water floating trick) I'm down to about 1.8 kg.

My question to Vossy is - did you do this recipe with 3kg of elderberries as wieghed with stalks or was it 3kg of pure berry?

let me know asap as the berries are waiting patiently in my fridge!

[fill2top]

it's 3kg of berrys, no stalks.

[Chard]

damn! looks like i need to get a chair out to reach the top ones and another night spent forking berries!

hopefully it will be worth it in 6 months time!

[fill2top]

I am drinking Elderberry wine that i made last year, elderberrys make a very good wine.
Note: i try to leave my wines to mature of 12 months.

[Geezah]

I tried a bottle of mine from April this year (elderberry and sloe) and the tannin is now starting to mellow out a bit.
Still need another 6 months at least before this will be ready, but its gonna be a good one.