Elderberry Pear Wine

[brwmistr]

Hello All,
This year in Ontario was a bad year for wild apples but the Fall Pears did very good. I and a buddy of mine decided that it was time to use these Pears and his Elderberry's for wine. Since I have never made Elderberry wine I though heck ya lets give it a go. We pressed 30liters of pear juice and three years worth of frozen Elderberries and this seasons fresh Elderberries and mixed two 23liter batches. The first one is a 50/50 Pear/Elderberry mix and the other 23liters was a 25/75 Pear/Elderberry mix. If you have ever made elderberry wine you already know two things about it; 1) The mess and 2) the time it will take. I had to rack four times to get this to clear and it took two months to get to the aging stage! Once the first press was done the liquid was very thick so I added 3.8 liters of water to thin it and tested the O.G 1.050. Not very high so I added some honey to raise it 250mL of it. I tested this and yep that's better 1.100. I used Lavlin 1118 as I wanted this to thin out. Now after three months it's still a week out from bottling but tastes good. Time will tell how this project will be. BTW the 25/75 had a much higher acid level on the tongue.

 

[Scientific hippie]

I'll be very interested in learning how the wines come out; I am practicing with kits, but I'm growing my own elderberries and want to make wine from them.

 

[brwmistr]

Make sure you use only ripe Elderberries as the green one's are toxic. You will know when they are ready as the stem will be dark purple as well. What I have found is elderberry is so strong in flavor that you can cut the juice in half and still have the flavor and character of the fruit. I did a 50/50 Pear and Elderberry mix and you can't even taste the pear.