Help with elderberry wine recipe OG

[Beer666]

Hi all. I have made some amazing elderberry wine in the past (even if i say so myself) but i stupidly did not take notes. I do remember i added too much water so to fix it kept boiling up liters of grape juice to add as a syrup.
I bought some dried berries last winter and want to make that up first so i need to calculate how much sugar to add and how much of the concentrate

I would like an OG of 1.105 finishing at 0.996 for approximately a 14% wine. I am aiming fo 11 liters to go into secondary. I have 500g of dried berries and 1l of concentrate.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283315446136

Dilution to single strength:​

Single strength: 15.9 °Brix.
Dilute with 4-5 times the amount of water (406g water per 100g concentrate).

Net weight 1L of concentrate: 1.370 kg approx.

I am planning on skipping the cold steep part as i am using dried berries and i am a fridge down. I might also add some blackberries.
Cheers.

 

[Raptor99]

15.9 Brix =SG 1.065, which gives you a potential ABV of 8.8%. Since also have dried elderberries, they will add flavor and sugar, but it is difficult to predict how much that would be.

The best approach is to add the dried elderberries and add them to the normal diluted concentrate. Give them at least 12 hours to hydrate, then stir and check the SG. From that you can calculate how much sugar to use.

Hopefully you have a hydrometer. If not, I suggest that you get one.

If you don't have a hydrometer, you could use only the concentrate and not the dried berries. That will allow you to calculate how much sugar you will need to add, since the amount of sugar in the diluted concentrate is provided.

Two other suggestions:
1. Keep good notes. Your future self will thank you.
2. Don't boil any type of fruit or juice that you use to make wine.

 

[Beer666]

Ok thanks that makes sense to me. I have a refractometer and a hydrometer. Should i cold soak the berries cold with a campden tablet? Last time i soaked the fresh berries for 3 days at 0c but i dont have th fridge space anymore. I will definitely keep better notes in future. Only seem to do it for beer.

 

[Raptor99]

I would soak the berries for 12-14 hours to rehydrate them. It would be a good idea to add some Kmeta when you do that. If you add Kmeta, you can probably soak them at room temperature. Whether an entire campden tablet is the right amount depends on the volume.

 

[madscientist451]

A quick google search turned up many established recipes for making wine with dried elderberries, so why re-invent the wheel?
Try some of the established recipes with a small batch and then tweak it to suit your taste:

https://winemakermag.com/article/841-elderberry-wine

 

[Beer666]

The link was helpful as although i have a few recipes i dont have many for dried berries. I wanted to add blackberries as well so i will wait a week until my fridge is free just to be sure. I am too awkward to follow recipes exactly i am afraid. Appreciate your help.

 

[Beer666]

So i followed a recipe this time linked here but i have a very low OG of 1066. Must of miscalculated.
I used
2.9kg of frozen elderberries
2.6kg sugar
10.8 l water

Brewers friend says if it goes down to 0.994 its gonna be 9.45% abv. How much sugar would i need to get it to 14%? I am going to add 250ml of red grape concentrate and 500g of sugar. Does this seem about right? I have not pitched yet. Cheers.

 

[Beer666]

Anyone have any idea how much sugar the elderberries contribute?