Elderberry wine

[ffemt128]

I decided that I will be starting my Elderberry wine while I'm on vacation after Christmas. I have 110-115 lbs of berries in my freezer. I'll be shooting for 6 lbs per gallon which should yield approximately 18 gallons of finished wine.

My plan is to steam the berries as I have done in the past. 10 lbs of berries yields a gallon of juice. I will be shooting for 1.085-1.090 starting gravity and will adjust acid to .72%. Once this batch is done steaming I'll save the skins and start a 2nds batch with all the skins which will yield approximately 5-7 more gallons.

Here is a past recipe I've used with great success. The recipe below used about 4.5 lbs per gallon.

I started my 2011 Elderberry today. I need to go to the store for red grape concentrate. I'm using the same basic recipe that I have used in the past and will adjust accordingly. My recipe for each 5 gallon batch will be as follows:

2 1/4 gallons of steamed Elderberry juice
Sugar to 1.085
4 cans Welches red grape concentrate
Acid Blend to .70% (Second batch will use Tartaric acid)
3/4 tsp tannin
Pectic enzyme as per directions
1/4 tsp Kmeta
Yeast Nutrient as per directions
Lavin D47 yeast (had good luck with this last year)
1 1/2 oz Medium toast french oak cubes for 6 weeks.

 

[ffemt128]

My Red Grape Concentrate should be arriving today. Not going to use frozen concentrate as has been done in the past.

 

[Stressbaby]

Hi Doug,

My 2015 elderberry is done fermenting and aging in the carboy. I will be following this thread.

My recipe differs from yours in a number of ways, but one I want to ask you about is the acid. I feel as if I've been making better wine since I stopped using acid blend (for anything except apple), and switched to only citric, tartaric, or some combination of the two. This year's elderberry I made with 80% tartaric and 20% citric.

I welcome thoughts from you or anyone on the acid used in elderberry wine.

Robert

 

[wineforfun]

I too will be following as this years elderberry is clearing in carboys as I type.

Robert,
I do use acid blend so am curious about your use of only tartaric and citric. Why just those two and not the blend?

My differences from Doug's are a)I don't steam my juice, I just freeeze the fruit then let thaw and squeeze the #%^& out of it to extract all the juice I can and b) I don't add any grape concentrate.

I make it with oak and without, both. Without gets backsweetened to make a semi-sweet wine.

 

[Julie]

I don't steam mine either, I use about 5 pounds per gallon, leave the berries in for about 5 days, take them out squeeze but not as hard as wineforfun does. I then put the bag of berries into another fermenting bucket add 5 to 6 cans of Welch's white grape juice, add enough water for 5 gallons and I make a 2nds. Another thing I do is add sacrificial and cellaring tannins.

 

[ffemt128]

Hi Doug,

My 2015 elderberry is done fermenting and aging in the carboy. I will be following this thread.

My recipe differs from yours in a number of ways, but one I want to ask you about is the acid. I feel as if I've been making better wine since I stopped using acid blend (for anything except apple), and switched to only citric, tartaric, or some combination of the two. This year's elderberry I made with 80% tartaric and 20% citric.

I welcome thoughts from you or anyone on the acid used in elderberry wine.

Robert

Robert,

I generally use tartaric only any more. In 2011 I did 2 batches, one with Acid Blend and one with Tartaric. Both finished with the same TA%. I thought the Tartaric was more bold tasting but the one with the Acid Blend seemed to be slightly smoother to the taste. I received the same comments from several people.

 

[wineforfun]

I then put the bag of berries into another fermenting bucket add 5 to 6 cans of Welch's white grape juice, add enough water for 5 gallons and I make a 2nds.

Great idea, I usually just discard it due to not much substance left. I may give the seconds a go next time. I assume it would end up similar to a blush or rose.

 

[Julie]

Great idea, I usually just discard it due to not much substance left. I may give the seconds a go next time. I assume it would end up similar to a blush or rose.

Yes it comes out as a rose but the elderberry flavor is still pretty strong. It needs to age for at least 2 years.

LOL, two years ago the elderberries, very plumb and very juicey, so I bought a Niagara from homewinery and added the berries after it was done in the 2nds and made a 3rd wine.

 

[cmason1957]

This is my third year to make elderberry wine. Both of the previous years were pretty durn good. I ended up with about 110 lbs of elderberries this year (long story) and a local winery had niagra and concord grapes for almost next to nothing. So my wife and I decided to make elderberry wine three different ways. We have some with concord grapes, some with niagra grapes, which are both aging with some oak in them. We will also be making some plain elderberry. The two aging both taste interesting. I used acid blend to up the acid just a bit and added some water to them. The elderberries were frozen prior to using.

 

[Julie]

This is my third year to make elderberry wine. Both of the previous years were pretty durn good. I ended up with about 110 lbs of elderberries this year (long story) and a local winery had niagra and concord grapes for almost next to nothing. So my wife and I decided to make elderberry wine three different ways. We have some with concord grapes, some with niagra grapes, which are both aging with some oak in them. We will also be making some plain elderberry. The two aging both taste interesting. I used acid blend to up the acid just a bit and added some water to them. The elderberries were frozen prior to using.

I am very interested in the elderberry and concord, please let us know how that is.

 

[cmason1957]

I am very interested in the elderberry and concord, please let us know how that is.

We have heard that from several folks. It was the ending up with so many elderberries and a winery nearby deciding not to harvest their grapes, due to tornado damage, that gave us the opportunity to try something a wee bit different. I am sure we will be reporting on how this goes. So far the Niagara tastes and smells better, but it is early and things change with time, as we all know.

 

[Julie]

Niagara and elderberry pairs very well together. Another one that totally surprised me was elderberry and fredonia.

 

[Stressbaby]

Yes it comes out as a rose but the elderberry flavor is still pretty strong. It needs to age for at least 2 years.

My second run elderberry from 2014 is pretty darn good at 1 year. So I guess this is good news to me in a way!

 

[Julie]

My second run elderberry from 2014 is pretty darn good at 1 year. So I guess this is good news to me in a way!

LOL, I thought mine was pretty darn good at one year until I tried it at 2 years.

 

[ffemt128]

Steaming the elderberries eliminates the green goo. I will take a the skins and run a seconds batch as well except rather then using white grape concentrate I use the same red grape concentrate. Turns out pretty well..with strong elderberry flavors due to the amount of skins..

 

[FTC Wines]

Ok, I take the easy route! I buy elderberry concentrate from Home Winery in Dundee Mi, like $32 bucks to make 5 gals. But I add a pint of Cab to the mix. So it's a little more but 5 pints to a 5 gal batch makes a GREAT every day wine! Brought it tonight to a "low country boil" party & it was a BIG success! OK they are mostly beer drinkers. BUT the wino's loved it! Roy

 

[ffemt128]

The closer it gets to Christmas, I'm getting more and more anxious to get this started. I figure the steaming process will be done over the course of 2 days since each 10 lbs of berries take about 45-60 minutes to finish. Each 10 lbs yields about 1 gallon of juice and there is plenty of juice and flavor left in the skins to make the seconds batch. I have my 2 1/2 gallons of red grape concentrate ready to go. Hoping to have a nice fermentation of the full batch and the seconds batch going by New Year's Day.....

 

[ffemt128]

Cleaned all equipment and fermenters tonight. Going to start steaming 120lbs of elderberries tomorrow. Hope to pitch yeast Wednesday on both primary and secondary batch Wednesday...

 

[montanaWineGuy]

My 2015 Elderberry wine is many times better then last years. One significant thing I did different this year was racked the wine more often. I'm convinced that the green goo does harm the finished product. My 2014 when complete still developed some green goo as it aged. My 2015, bottled over 2 month ago is still clear as a bell.

Raw wild picked berries, before de-stemming 5 gallon bucket of berries for 6 gallons of wine. Next year I'm going to do second runs to use in topping off the carboys after racking, vs. using grape concentrate.

 

[ffemt128]

Had some technical issues after the installation of the new microwave so I'm using the induction cook top this year..

I've found steaming you don't get the goo...