Elderberry Mead Thoughts and help

[PaulUrban]

First time Poster.
I am a long time brewer, mead maker and bee keeper. I'm looking for help or suggested recipes for an Elderberry Mead.
Just finished picking a huge amount of elderberry, now all frozen. From searching this forum, seems some people do not cook the berries, I get that, not sure I agree.
Also, I'm confused about doing primary ferment on the fruit (cooked or not).
I want to do 5 gal's but not thinking of doing 3 or 4 variations, but just so much work.
My yeast choices are D47 or KIV-1116
I appreciate all input, many thanks, recipes or links would be great.
Paul

 

[Patrick Markovics]

I'm new to making mead myself and I have two batches of elderberry going atm. A straight elderberry wine and an elderberry mead. I was wondering about the berry issue myself, so I researched it a little. Apparently the ferment time of 5-10 days is not long enough for the alkaloids to leach out of the seeds in a large enough amount to do anything. The other thing that several articles mentioned is that the finer flavors are destroyed when you cook the berries. Personally, I cooked the berries and used the juice for the mead I made, and from the taste test I did, it is really good. The Wine I made I used the berries and it has a really strong harsh taste to it, It will have to age for at least 6 months to a year before it's drinkable. Now to repeat myself, I'm new to this hobby myself, but good luck and let us know what and how you use the elderberry.

Patrick