Dried Elderberries

[RBelanger]

Just wondering if anyone has successfully used dried elderberries and how?

About 2 weeks ago, I experimented with a chocolate-rye porter and added cinnamon and an ounce of crushed, dried elderberries during the last 10 min of the boil. I've never used them before and haven't found any solid information about how to brew with them....it was just a shot in the dark (no pun intended, lol)

I'll post how it turns out after kegging.

 

[Brewkowski]

I tried them in a mead, and in the short term it tasted somewhat like cough syrup, but after a year I was pissed that I drank the 2-3 bottles I had tasted before hand (made less than 1 gal). The final meads had kind of like a port/chocolate/tootsie roll taste to it. Based on that experience, I think a chocolate porter with cinnamon sounds like a great flavor profile for the elderberries. Good luck.

 

[RBelanger]

Thanks, that gives me some hope. Sounds like a tasty mead. What I'm wondering is if people add elderberries to the boil or the secondary? I crushed mine with a rolling pin before adding them to the boil. I sampled the gravity test and it was really good.