Elderberry and Ribena port

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

stevey

Landlord.
Joined
Feb 8, 2013
Messages
531
Reaction score
174
Location
kent
when I was in my wine making stage, I decided to make an elderberry wine. I foraged a carrier bag full of rip elderberries, but when I came to make the wine there wasn't enough. I decided to top up the fruit content with Ribena.

Anyway, I sort of lost interest in making wine so it's been in the demijohn for about two years :oops: (I made sure I kept the airlock topped up).

So today, because I needed the airlock for fermenting beer, I bottled it.
It tastes lovely, just like port! :grin:

It's a pity I haven't a clue about the recipe, because I think it's going to go down well at Xmas.

Does wine turn into port if you don't bottle it for ages?
 
Sorry, port is made by adding brandy to the wine early in its fermentation. That what gives port it's sweet heaviness and high alcohol content.
Sounds like yours is just a really nicely aged wine,and with elderberry having a high tannin level, it's matured with a good body.
Got my elderberry wine sat in DJs and I have no plans on bottling it for at least a year.
 
Put some of the cheapest brandy you can find in, then it'll be closer to Port :)
 
I just finished making a 5 gallon batch of Port Wine a couple of days ago. The ingredients were a full 30 bottle Cabernet Sauvignon wine kit, dried elderberries, 8 pints of steam extracted blackberry juice from last year, about 3 pounds of fresh blackberries, bananas, grape juice, sugar, yeast and water.

I made a similar batch a couple of years ago, and although it was drunk young, it was fantastic. Learnt a lot from that batch, especially that it needs a long maturation time. I put the Brandy in at the end, once its stable and clear. After a few searches online it works out that 10 fluid ounces of Brandy should be added per gallon.
 
Back
Top