Elderberry Advice...

[MrFox]

Hello all,

I've been a silent member of the forum for quite a while but this is my first query, so first of all, pleased to meet you all.

I have seven gallons of elderberry wine which I made in Autumn 2011. I have regularly racked it off and it is now a beautiful, bright and clear wine.

Three months ago when I last racked it, it still had too much tingle of life on the palate and also tasted pretty rough.

I had a taste of it today to see if it was ready for racking and the texture of the wine has finally become very pleasing but the taste is still not right. The first notes are quite sweet and fruity but as reaches the back of the mouth it becomes very dry and almost a little astringent, stripping the moisture out of the mouth.

I want to bottle the stuff because I'm out of opaque demijohns and want them to be free before this autumn but I worried about putting them into bottles incase what they really need is sweetener added to them.

Any thoughts or advice?

Thanks.

 

[Arne]

Draw a little glass and add a bit of sugar to it. If it helps, make sure you stabalize the wine before you sweeten the whole batch. Arne.

 

[Julie]

Hi MrFox,

Welcome to winemakingtalk. Like Arne says, sweeten a glass to see how that is for you. Can you post your recipe? It would be much easier if we knew what all you did to help you.

 

[ffemt128]

In addition to what they said about sweetening a bit, check the acid in it. I like my elderberry between .75 and .80% acid and about 1.008 sg for a finish. You may also want to try oaking a bit of it. I prefer the French Medium toast in my elderberry.

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

Everything above from some good elderberriests. It sounds like you extracted a little more tannin than you wanted, sweetening a little might bring it into balance but you say its already sweet at the start, even a little everclear, just a little might also tweak it a little. Another option if its tannin is possibly fining with I think its cassinate for tannins, havent had to do that yet but I think that is the right one for high tannins. The other option would be bottle it and forget it for a while. I have a carboy that I have been to lazy to bottle from 2010, been thinking of just leaving it there for another couple of years until I run out of carboys to.

WVMJ

 

[MrFox]

Thank you for your thoughts and advice so far.

- I'm going to try sweetening a glass of wine first and see what that's like. When you say to stabilise the wine, is that by adding campden tablets or something similar? I don't react very well to wines that have been sulphated and so tend to avoid this. Is there an alternative?

- I'm a pretty unscientific wine maker - how do I check the acid levels?

When I made this wine I wasn't as good at keeping recipes as I am now so I can't really remember. I probably used about 4lb elderberries per gallon. I also chucked in a bunch of bananas. 3lb sugar, come concentrated fruit juice and burgundy yeast. I imagine I would have also used citric acid...

 

[Stressbaby]

Mr Fox,
Stabilizing is the addition of both K meta (Campden) and sorbate (1/2tsp/gallon).

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

Then you can bottle it dry and then sweeten it as you are drinking it, young. WVMJ

Thank you for your thoughts and advice so far.

- I'm going to try sweetening a glass of wine first and see what that's like. When you say to stabilise the wine, is that by adding campden tablets or something similar? I don't react very well to wines that have been sulphated and so tend to avoid this. Is there an alternative?

- I'm a pretty unscientific wine maker - how do I check the acid levels?

When I made this wine I wasn't as good at keeping recipes as I am now so I can't really remember. I probably used about 4lb elderberries per gallon. I also chucked in a bunch of bananas. 3lb sugar, come concentrated fruit juice and burgundy yeast. I imagine I would have also used citric acid...

 

[SBWs]

I'd try egg whites, I use the powdered version, 1 egg white with a pinch of salt for 6 gallons. Wisk and skim the suds off the top before lightly stirring into wine. Rack after 14 days.

 

[MrFox]

I'd try egg whites, I use the powdered version, 1 egg white with a pinch of salt for 6 gallons. Wisk and skim the suds off the top before lightly stirring into wine. Rack after 14 days.

I've never heard of this, what would egg white and salt be added for?

Thanks!

 

[SBWs]

Adding egg whites to wine helps pull out excess tannins and phenolics that might cause a wine to be more astringent and/or bitter than you want it to be. If you google egg whites fining wine there is all kinds of information even instructions and why you add the pinch of salt.