# elderberry



## david1 (Feb 15, 2009)

does any body have a tried and true elderberry recipe? iv'e seen the recipe in c.j.j. berry's first steps in wine making. what does he mean by red grape concentrate?


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## Wade E (Feb 15, 2009)

Wine supply stores sell these usually made by the big wine kit manufacturers and they add bodt and color to a wine which IMO either of these are needed in an Elderberry wine as it has plenty of both.
Heres a recipe Ive used a few times.

6 Gallon Recipe for Elderberry Wine
17 lbs Elderberries previously frozen and thawed to help break down cellular structure.
Approx. 10 lbs of table sugar to bring sg to 1.090
1/4 tsp of liquid Pectic Enzyme 
6 tsp of Yeast Nutrient
3 tsp of Yeast Energizer
1/4 tsp of K-Meta
5 1/2 gallons of water


Pour 1 gallon of warm water in a 7.9 gallon primary bucket or bigger. 
Add K-meta, Yeast Nutrient, and Yeast Energizer and stir well. Put all fruit in fermenting bag and squeeze over primary to extract most of juices and then put bag in primary. Pour the 1 gallon of boiling water with all dissolved sugar over fruit. Fill the rest of the way with remainder of room temp water and check SG, it should have a SG of around 1.090 give or take a little, if more then add a little more water, if less then add a little more dissolved sugar in small amount of water as sugars from fruit can vary a little. Let sit for 12 hours with lid loose or with a cloth covering bucket with elastic band or string tied around so as that not to sag in must. After those 12 hours add your Pectic Enzyme and wait another 12 hours while also adjusting your must temp to around 75 degrees. After those twelve hours, pitch your yeast either by sprinkling yeast, dehydrating yeast per instructions on back of yeast Sachet, or by making a yeast starter a few hours prior to the 12 hour mark. At this point either leave primary lid off with the cloth again, place lid on loose or snap the lid shut with airlock. Once fermentation gets going well you can let the temp get down to upper 50’s through lower 60’s to help retain more fruit esters. Punch down cap twice daily to get all fruit under the liquid level. When SG reaches 1.015, rack to 6 gallon carboy and let finish fermenting with bung and airlock attached. When wine is done fermenting, (check a few days in a row to make sure SG does not change and SG should be around .998 or less) you can stabilize by adding another ¼ tsp of k-meta and 3 tsps of Potassium Sorbate and degas your wine thoroughly. You can now sweeten your wine if you like by using simple syrup which consists of 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of boiling water or by using a juice or frozen concentrate. I typically take 2 quarts of an alike juice and simmer on stove at medium heat with lid off until its 1/3 its original size and let it cool to room temp and then add slowly to taste. Be careful not to over sweeten. At this point you can use a fining agent or let it clear naturally. Once clear, rack into clean vessel and bulk age more adding another ¼ tsp of k-meta at 3 month intervals or add ¼ tsp k-meta and bottle age for at least 3 months and enjoy. Longer aging will give you a better wine so save a few bottles till at least 1 year mark so you can truly see what this wine can aspire to.


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## david1 (Feb 15, 2009)

*wow!*

wow!, recipe complete with instructions, thanks a ton! i'll give it a go when i raid my neighbors shrubs scince mine aint in the ground yet


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## shoes (Feb 20, 2009)

thats just about my recipe Wade! its a good one too


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## Wade E (Feb 20, 2009)

It makes a great wine with plenty of body!


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## Luc (Feb 21, 2009)

Each year I make about 100 liter full bodied elderberry wine in a port style.

Here is my recipe:

http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2007/08/scroll-down-for-english-version-ik-had.html

Luc


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## jamesbsmith (Aug 10, 2014)

Hi Luc,

Have you ever used dried elderberries? If so, did it come out OK?!


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## Julie (Aug 10, 2014)

Hi James,

I hate to tell this but this post as made in 2009 and Luc hasn't been on the site for quite a long time. Have you looked at the recipe section? I believe there are posts about making wine from dried elderberries and if not contacet WVMountaineer he will help you out.


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## jamesbsmith (Aug 11, 2014)

Thank you Julie!


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## jamesbsmith (Aug 12, 2014)

Hi guys,

I found a really nice looking recipe on here by "Becks The Elder". Looks like shes put in a lot of work there, so I look forward to trying the recipe. http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f5/my-dried-elderberry-wine-recipe-4376/

As I love elderberry wine, I wanted to make a few variations, so I ran the recipe through the YoBrew wine calcs.

Just a couple of things I have noticed with the original recipe was that the wine is likely to come out (with 250g elderberries, 250g raisins and 1280g sugar per UK Gallon), at 17% ABV, 0.45% acidity and 0.13% tannin! I think that most yeasts wont ferment that high, so I would probably reduce the sugar by 80% to get a dry wine with ABV of about 13.5%, (i.e. 700g white sugar and 320g soft light brown sugar per UK gallon).

Also, the acidity is quite low for a red wine as it stands at 0.45%, with reds typically being between 0.5 to 0.65%. There is probably then scope for adding in some more "fruit". I would cap elderberries at 250g dried berries per UK gallon (as you have due to their high tannin content), so you could add in 500g of fresh fruit or berries, or 125g dried, or maybe half a litre of red grape juice. As the extra fruit would also contain sugar (say approx. 10% for fresh or 40% for dried), the total sugar content could be reduced further by 50g when adding in the extra fruit, (giving 660g white sugar and 280g light soft brown).

I think that Becks' recipe could be used as a really nice base, with these new sugar levels, with additions of combinations of extra fruit. Im going to trial a few combinations using the following recipes for a UK gallon (going off my thinking above):

660g White Sugar & 280g Soft Light Brown Sugar
Cover with water and boil to dissolve. Allow to cool, and add to demijohn along with:
250g Chopped Raisins OR 1 L Red Grape Juice
250g Dried Elderberries,
500g Fresh / Frozen / Tinned Blackberries / Blueberries / Cherries / Plums / Raspberries (If tinned account for extra white sugar) / 500ml Red Grape Juice / 125g Raisins,
2 Teaspoons Pectic Enzyme,
1 crushed campden tablet per gallon.
Leave for 24 hours, then add:
1 Teaspoon Yeast Nutrient,
Gervin GV2 Yeast.
Ferment on pulp for 4 days, strain and top up to a gallon. 
Ferment to dry and mature for 6 to 12 months.

In US Gallons, that recipe would be:
560g White Sugar & 235g Soft Light Brown Sugar
Cover with water and boil to dissolve. Allow to cool, and add to demijohn along with:
210g Chopped Raisins OR 840ml Red Grape Juice
210g Dried Elderberries,
420g Fresh / Frozen / Tinned Blackberries / Blueberries / Cherries / Plums / Raspberries (If tinned account for extra white sugar) / 420ml Red Grape Juice / 105g Extra Raisins,
2 Teaspoons Pectic Enzyme,
1 crushed campden tablet per gallon.
Leave for 24 hours, then add:
1 Teaspoon Yeast Nutrient,
Gervin GV2 Yeast.
Ferment on pulp for 4 days, strain and top up to a gallon. 
Ferment to dry and mature for 6 to 12 months.

The extra fruit could always be added after the initial 3 weeks when fermentation has slowed down a bit, as this may retain a bit more of the flavour of the late added fruit.

Cant wait to try Becks recipe and a few different combinations! The elderberries are almost ripe now (4 times the dried amount would be used). Ive also bought some dried ones so I can do both!


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