Elderberry Wine - Quantities?

[Mark H]

Hi folks,

After a morning of foraging elderberries, destemming them and cleaning them i have a total weight of 9lbs of berries.

This is my first time making a proper homemade wine, (i have only used wine kits before) and my problem is, i am not sure how many gallons of wine 9lbs of elderberries will make, or how much sugar to use.

I have looked at several recipes but they vary greatly. What i am hoping for is a finished wine at about 12-13%.

Could anyone give me a pointer to how much water, sugar, etc. to use with the amount fruit i have got. I have a fair idea of how to make my wine, its mainly the quantities i'm not sure about.

Cheers all,

Mark.

 

[Crastney]

I think CJJ Berry uses 3lb of elderberries to one Gal of wine.
Others on here making port use 3lb of elderberriess plus similar quantities of other fruits.
I've just used 7lbs of just elderberries in 1 gal (which I think might be a bit too much, so it might get blended with something else later).

There's plenty of different recipes so I'd suggest that whatever you make will be ok, and then you can decided how to adjust the quantity next time, either more or less.

 

[hypnoticmonkey]

If you only have elderberries, that will make you 3 gallons. Check out Moley's 'How to' on making elderberry wine in the HT section for a recipe. NB: you'll want some raisins too.

If you can find 7lb of blackberries, put the whole lot together and make 4 gallons of Blackberry and Elderberry.

 

[Mark H]

Cheers guys, so if i make 3 gallons using the 9lb of elderberries, how much sugar would i need to also add?

 

[Mark H]

Ah, i've found Moleys thread, so i'm reckoning 3kg of sugar and 600g of raisins.

 

[Moley]

Make it up as you go along, raisins are optional or you could use red grape juice instead of some of the water.

Ideally, you need around 1250g sugar in the gallon, and 3 lbs of elderberries contains around 150g, so a bag of sugar and half a bag of raisins is spot on.

If you can find any damsons or blackberries, so much the better.

 

[Mark H]

I don't have any damsons or blackerries.

I do have a couple of punnets or red and green grapes though and a litre of pure cherry juice in the fridge, maybe they could be utilised?

The other thing i am missing is citric acid or a lemon. Can bottled lemon juice be used instead?

 

[hypnoticmonkey]

I do have a couple of punnets or red and green grapes though and a litre of pure cherry juice in the fridge, maybe they could be utilised?

To this, all I can say is "it's not going to do any harm".

The other thing i am missing is citric acid or a lemon. Can bottled lemon juice be used instead?

I've been known to do that in the past. Can't remember quanitites though. 1tbsp maybe per lemon?

 

[MadrikXIV]

I have kinda developed a rule of thumb, 4lb fruit, 1 bag(ish) sugar, 1 gallon.

Seems to serve well for most recipes, from what I've seen for elderberry, the more per water ratio, the fuller bodied it can come out.

 

[divingdavey]

I have some Elderberry wine on the go - I used Graysalchemy's receipe which included some Blackberries I had too, thanks for the help GA!

I have seen a number of Elderberry receipes, some say that by using more sugar you get a sweeter wine, but my logic and limited knowlege tells me that would just make a stronger wine as all the sugar would be fermented - does anyone have a view on that?

Also, more of a general question, although they're not equal qantities, can you treat 1gallon and 5l as pretty much the same when following receipes etc depending on the size of FV you have available?

Thanks folks :drunk:

 

[graysalchemy]

IMHO elderberries do need other fruit otherwise there is to much tannin. This does fade with time but we are talking years rather than months. Having said that even with fruit in it elderberry is best after 2-3 years.

I always go for

2lb elders
1lb blackberries/damsons
1kg sugar
250g of raisins
pectolase
yeast.