Elderberry Wine

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

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

Wade E

Beer Buster
Joined
Mar 25, 2008
Messages
792
Reaction score
10
Location
Middlebury, Ct.
17 lbs Elderberries previously frozen and thawed to help break down cellular structure.
Approx. 10 lbs of table sugar to bring sg to 1.090
1/4 tsp of liquid Pectic Enzyme
6 tsp of Yeast Nutrient
3 tsp of Yeast Energizer
1/4 tsp of K-Meta
5 1/2 gallons of water
Pour 1 gallon of warm water in a 7.9 gallon primary bucket or bigger.
Add K-meta, Yeast Nutrient, and Yeast Energizer and stir well. Put all fruit in fermenting bag and squeeze over primary to extract most of juices and then put bag in primary. Pour the 1 gallon of boiling water with all dissolved sugar over fruit. Fill the rest of the way with remainder of room temp water and check SG, it should have a SG of around 1.090 give or take a little, if more then add a little more water, if less then add a little more dissolved sugar in small amount of water as sugars from fruit can vary a little. Let sit for 12 hours with lid loose or with a cloth covering bucket with elastic band or string tied around so as that not to sag in must. After those 12 hours add your Pectic Enzyme and wait another 12 hours while also adjusting your must temp to around 75 degrees. After those twelve hours, pitch your yeast either by sprinkling yeast, dehydrating yeast per instructions on back of yeast Sachet, or by making a yeast starter a few hours prior to the 12 hour mark. At this point either leave primary lid off with the cloth again, place lid on loose or snap the lid shut with airlock. Once fermentation gets going well you can let the temp get down to upper 50’s through lower 60’s to help retain more fruit esters. Punch down cap twice daily to get all fruit under the liquid level. When SG reaches 1.015, rack to 6 gallon carboy and let finish fermenting with bung and airlock attached. When wine is done fermenting, (check a few days in a row to make sure SG does not change and SG should be around .998 or less) you can stabilize by adding another ¼ tsp of k-meta and 3 tsps of Potassium Sorbate and degas your wine thoroughly. You can now sweeten your wine if you like by using simple syrup which consists of 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of boiling water or by using a juice or frozen concentrate. I typically take 2 quarts of an alike juice and simmer on stove at medium heat with lid off until its 1/3 its original size and let it cool to room temp and then add slowly to taste. Be careful not to over sweeten. At this
Eldeberry
 
At this... what? I am very interested! Please finish your elderberry wine recipe! It looks awesome!
Thanks!
 
Seems like everybody uses tooo many elderberries to make wine.I use two and onehalf gallons to make 50 gallons of wine and I add 75 lbs. of grapes picked off the stems or you can use 8 gallons of store bought grapejuice.ferment this for 5 days ,stir every day,strainoff and press out the juice,desolve 135 lbs of sugar in luke warm water and put this all in barrel,add 1 pack of yeast desolved in luke warm water.put airlock on barrel and let set 4 to 6 months before drinking it.You do not need to add any other ingredients and it will turn out good.I been making it this way since 1977 and has always turned out excellent.This is the way grandpaw makes his wine.
 
Has anyone else made elderberry wine in the meantime? (I started a 2 gallon batch this past week, with 7 1/2 pounds of fresh elderberries.). What have your experiences been?
 
I use 5 lbs. of elderberries/gallon, and it turns out very nice.

Elderberry wine needs to age at least 1.5 years before it is good. If you cut back on the amount of elderberries it might be drinkable sooner, but you lose part of the rich elderberry flavor.
 
I use 5 lbs. of elderberries/gallon, and it turns out very nice.

Elderberry wine needs to age at least 1.5 years before it is good. If you cut back on the amount of elderberries it might be drinkable sooner, but you lose part of the rich elderberry flavor.
I'll keep that in mind for next time (which should be in the next couple of weeks)....
 

Latest posts

Back
Top