How do you make dragons breath (elderberry and cherry)

[Isabella Von carstein]

Hi I've been asked to make a elderberry and cherry mead.
I've tried googling but I've found nothing, not a single thing. So I was wondering if any of you kind people know how much elderberry juice I should add and if I need to cut out some cherries to my normal cherry mead recipe?

Any advice is welcome and will be greatly appreciated thank you.

 

[Dan O]

I, too, would be interested in a recipe for that mead. Unfortunately, I cannot offer advice on it, as I have no experience with elderberry @ all & my cherry is still in primary.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Isabella Von carstein and welcome. Sorry, I have no idea how much of each you might want to use but why not make a batch of elderberry and a batch of cherry and blend them at different ratios to see which blend YOU prefer. When you make a wine to please yourself you know that it pleases at least one person in your circle. Cherry mead and elderberry mead can be delightful. I am sure a blend of both can be equally delightful (though, I might want to avoid sweet cherries and go for the sour variety if you want to avoid any question of making a wine that reminds many of cough medicine. (phenols and cherry... and all that).

 

[Maylar]

Agree with the cherry comment. One thing that seems to work well is to replace some of the water with Montmorency cherry juice (look for no preservatives).

 

[bernardsmith]

Nice idea.

 

[Ryue]

Hm. I'm going to have to try this. I have a wonderful Elderberry recipe that everyone loves, never worked with cherries before. I'll follow the above advice and lean toward sour cherries

 

[Kyzaboy89]

Experimenting with montmorrency cherry juice and it's coming out of primary this weekend, great stuff all around but heads up while fermenting. It is thick almost concentrate juice and your foam will rise surprisingly higher than normal so leave plenty of headspace. And the blend option is also a good one, I find blending small batches together easier than a big batch with everything in it. Also if you've got a solid traditional recipe down just add berries and/or juice in secondary, less fermented wine flavor and more fruit flavor.

Also, liking the Von Carstein reference

 

[Dan O]

Hm. I'm going to have to try this. I have a wonderful Elderberry recipe that everyone loves, never worked with cherries before. I'll follow the above advice and lean toward sour cherries

Have you posted your elderberry recipe somewhere yet? I may have missed it, but, I'm always looking to try a new flavored recipe Would you be willing to share your recipe and process, please?