Elderberry wine

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hollz88

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I have picked about 4lb of elderberry and would like to make elderberry wine has anybody made it if so please comment as read so many different things and now have confused myself
 
II made elderberry wine for the first time this year. I used a recipe from jack kellers site. I don't think it maters if you cook them or not as I have seen many diferent opnions.
 
Not sure 4 lbs is going to give you that much.... maybe a gallon (net).
Either make Recipe #1 (http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/elderber.asp) as is with 4lbs berries or, you can it step up. Add 1/3 more to everything you do (since you have 1/3 more berries). Then you have a little extra when racking you will probably work yourself down to 1gal. I find that when doing gallon batches I loose such a large percentage due to racking that it's almost not worth it. Maybe it's just my racking technique.
 
Mix it with some frozen 100% concord juice or the like and it's pretty good wine at a years aging.
Straight elderberry wine is harsh and needs several years to mellow.
That's been my experience.
 
i made jack kellers #1 recipe a few days ago using 2kg berries, which is more than it called for but less than the #2 recipe. i don't really have anything useful to say since it's my first elderberry anything, other than that it started off smelling like paint and shrubberies but mid ferment smells more like black currants and the good aspect of gasoline/petrol
 
jack keller's #1- 1 week in and it is at 0.992, and it tasted surprisingly good! rich with bitey (yes bitey) tannin. i have high hopes for this stuff. however- the recipe says to leave it in an open fermenter for 2 weeks on the berries but i got a bit nervous and racked off today. i am a real novice winemaker so i probably should have just followed the recipe... also he says not to squeeze the berries after fermenting but i only read that part after squeezing them (fairly gently) ...
 
5 months on, i just racked for the second time. the color is beautiful, ruby red, very clear, and the smell is like eggs, old meat, spent coffee grounds, and very rich red wine tannins. i have no problem waiting this out, didn't intend to drink it for at least a year, but has anyone had a seemingly pleasant and good mannered mixture of berries and sugar turn into anything as foul as this only to have it emerge a nice finished wine within their lifetime??

anyone?


if no replies i'll just report back in september when i am deciding whether or not to forage for elderberries.
 
I made an elderberry wine last year. Mine started with a very fruity flavour, but an odd smell not too far off what you described.
It fermented out out into something quite harsh. I bottled a while a go and it tastes pretty good, albeit still a little harsh. I have one bottle left from a gallon to age a while longer as I think it really will turn into a great wine.

Gave me the worst hangover I've ever had too.

Dicky
 
Hmm... I've not had that in. My elderberries are American and I wonder if there is a difference in the fruit. The last 2 batches really smelled like a grape wine for me. I know you'll want to let it age quite a while.
Did you make sure to get all the stems off the berries before fermenting? I know it's a horrible job to do, but I feel it's necessary.
 
Gave me the worst hangover I've ever had too.

Dicky

ah! very reassuring!! i hope mine gets to the point where i could get enough down to create a hangover....

i did my best to get only berries and no stems. never perfect but i didn't just throw in the whole heads.
no idea if there's a difference between euro and new world elderberry??
now that the wine has cleared well, i'm going to forget about it for a long time, wrapped in tin foil and stuck away in the corner.
but just one more observation, my skeptical living companion smelled the jug before racking, which was like huffing crude oil and eggy gym shoes, and then smelled the jug after racking, which was already a bit more mellow, more like paint, capers and rust. could that tiny bit of aeration in (very careful) racking have helped drive off some stank? no idea but any improvement is good. update in 6 months, thanks for replies!
 
oh yeah i forgot the gripping conclusion to the daft anecdote, sniffing the first (pre-rack) jug, she wretched. sniffing the second jug she actually asked to taste it.
 
Sounds like you might have a case of Rhino farts. AKA sulfur. Usually created by the yeast. If you read thru the Apfelwine thread you can get some info on that.
 
I have read that this wine needs to age for at least a year. We will see if I can wait that long for mine.
 
one whiff of this stuff and i am pretty sure i can wait.
per rhino farts, that is sulfur stink during fermentation, and mine actually smelled really nice fermenting, didn't take on the sulfury smell until after it was done. weird
 
I made Jack Keller's mulberry wine in November (dropped a kilo of honey in to bring it to 14%) and I tasted it a few weeks ago and it was just like a light, very young red wine. All the scents I was expecting, and none I wasn't. I used VR21 Vintner's Harvest yeast. I'll wait it out to Christmas before bottling the first of two 5L carboys.
 
I have a gallon batch of elderberry wine fermenting now. It smells kinda like wet grass from under the lawnmower (not exactly but i cant describe it) not fruity, not rotten but an unfamiliar smell, which makes sense because I've never tried elderberry wine or jelly. Also it started out with a sludge floating on top, but that has for the most part mixed in now. I used about 4 lbs of wild black elderberries, and I used Red Star Montrachet yeast which was recommended in numorous recipes. I hope it tastes better than it smells.
 
I realize this is several years old, but I have 3 gallons of elderberries in the freezer waiting for me to either do something with them, or dump them in the weeds.

Dinnerstick - did you de-gas at any time before bottling?
 
Make wine but just add in some red grape juice or concentrate to give it extra body and I find it mellows out quicker. Would still give a min of 2 years in the bottle though!
 
Well, as a test batch, I whipped up a 3-gallon batch of Elderberry/Apple last night. Too scared to try pure Elderberry wine right now.

Used about 1 1/2 gallons of Braeburn apples (peeled/cored/sliced) and added 1/3 gallon Elderberries.

I used the apple wine recipe I normally use, but decreased the tannin after reading that the Elderberries provide their own.

Will pitch yeast tonight. Here's hoping :mug:
 
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