Elderberries

[Featherhat]

Sorting out my freezer earlier I came across a small bag of elderberries, the last of this years crop from my garden. Only 192g. Not enough to make even one bottle. So, the plan is: steep them for a day or two in a litre of boiling water with a half tsp of pectolase and half a ct then strain off into 2 litres of rgj. I'm thinking that the elderberries will add colour and tannin to what would otherwise be a fairly light wine. May need to add some acid as well but I'll sample the must before I add the sugar (about 850-875g). This is, very much, an experiment. I have mixed elderberries, in about the same proportion, with blackberries to make a very palatable and easy drinking wine,the last gallon of which is maturing for Christmas, and I've just bottled a brew made from blackberries, elderberries and lidl's cranberry and raspberry juice, the first taste of which was a bit disappointing. Anybody else tried anything similar?

 

[Jonny69]

What about add them to a 500g pack of frozen forest fruits. That would give you about 700g of fruit which would be enough to do a light half-demijohn of wine. Defrost the fruit. Pour over about a litre of boiling water and steep, mashing the fruit up well. I'd then pitch the yeast and let it ferment on the fruit for up to 5 days. Then pass it through a muslin and squeeze all the juice out the fruit into a clean demijohn, add 500g of sugar, a mug of strong black tea and top it up to halfway up the demi with red grape juice or apple if you want a rose.

This is basically the recipe I use for a gallon of blackberry wine but halved and a little short on the fruit, but it should be a good drinker and you should be able to taste the elderberry in there.

 

[Featherhat]

I've just racked this for the first time. I followed my original plan and added the elderberries to 2l of Lidl rgj and 875g of sugar. Its's had a peculiar floating mat of gak all through fermentation which has never sunk despite regular shaking and swirling but other than that it has been stable and completely clear for over a week. I've got about 3l I reckon, racked into a second dj, avoiding all the gunk. 16.5 % ABV though and my sneaky sample from the trial jar has got me buzzin'. It's probably going to need a month or two to lose the paint stripper tang but the tannin from the elderberries is evident and it has body and despite the strength, some sweetness.