Elderberry wine

[photoguy]

Hallo fellow winemakers . Getting ready for lunch and wanted a glass wine to go with it. Spotted my elderberry wine I made in 2020 and almost forgot about. I tasted it in its first year and frankly almond spat it out. Needs more time i said to myself. So i opened one today and let me tell you what a difference. Much more drinkable, some delicate flavors I'm having difficulty describing. You that have made it before what is your impression? Would love to hear from you. Thanks.
G

 

[Jovimaple]

I haven't made elderberry yet but I am thinking I need to try it! Based on what others here have written, I am not surprised it is better with more time.

 

[Raptor99]

Elderberry wine benefits from 2-3 years aging. It is so-so the first year, but awesome by year 3.

 

[photoguy]

Thanks for your comments. I read some before making so was not too surprised. But 4 years? Damn! I did not think I had that much patience. I take my dogs to a 160 acre park near by and there is lots of high Bush cranberries,saskatoons and most importantly (for me) chokecherie bushes,elderberries, hazelnuts free for the picking. I love free fruit!

 

[BarrelMonkey]

From what everyone says on this forum, your experience is typical.

I made my first elderberry in 2021, so it's still a relatively new thing for me. My comments at bottling were 'sour, thin and tannic'; my wife thought it was like 'kool aid before you've added the sugar'. We almost didn't bottle it but decided we didn't have much to lose so went ahead. Tasting 15 months later (so ~27 months after vintage) was much more encouraging; 'assertive acidity but nice fruit (though a bit light); tannins mellowed out'.

That 2021 wine had 9lb elderberries and 2lb (Black Monukka) grape in 3 gallons, so ~3lb/gal elderberry. In 2022 I used 8.25kg/18.15lb elderberry in 6 gallons, so similar amount of fruit but I did an initial 4 day cold soak and drained/pressed after a week when brix was still relatively high. Tasting notes at bottling were 'Fruity, rounded with unobtrusive tannins', I figure I have at least another 9 months to go before trying my first bottle.

My 2023 version had a lot more fruit: 16.15kg/35.5lb in a 7 gallon batch, so a little over 5lb per gallon. I did the same 4-day cold soak and drained/pressed after a week. Too early to tell how it will turn out, but taste at 5 months after ferment was 'Intense elderberry flavor and not too tannic'.

What recipe did you use? Curious to compare and contrast...

 

[Raptor99]

@BarrelMonkey My 2022 Elderberry used 20 lbs. of elderberries in an initial total volume of 4 gallons, aiming for 3+ gallons of finished wine. So that is a similar amount of fruit to your 2023 version. I had to add quite a bit of tartaric acid and acid blend to get the pH down to 3.6. So far, after almost 2 years, the flavor is developing nicely. I look forward to seeing what this tastes like next year!

Edit: I bottled this batch about 6 weeks ago. I put the leftover partial bottle in the fridge, and when I tried it my reaction was, "This is why I make Elderberry wine!"

 

[ChuckD]

I did not care for elderberry wine until I tasted my 2yr old wild elderberry. At three years it was already better than any commercial offering I have tasted… backed up by everyone I know who likes elderberry! Unfortunately, at year four I only have a few bottles left

 

[Jovimaple]

I did not care for elderberry wine until I tasted my 2yr old wild elderberry. At three years it was already better than any commercial offering I have tasted… backed up by everyone I know who likes elderberry! Unfortunately, at year four I only have a few bottles left

You can make more!

 

[Larsen Cottrell]

Dreaming of experimenting sometime......

"your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries" - Monty Python

 

[Raptor99]

In March I planted three elderberry bushes. It will be a year or two before I get much of a harvest, so this year I'll be visiting a friend this year to harvest some elderberries.

 

[hounddawg]

for me ,, 8 to 10 years is perfection ,,, for quicker aging i like fermenting 50% elderberry and 50% wild blackberry, a couple three years and it's great,
Dawg

 

[wood1954]

As I’ve been driving around I’ve noticed the elderberry bushes are ripe now. Time to get out and harvest. This year I’m going to pick and freeze the berries for a winter project.

 

[ChuckD]

As I’ve been driving around I’ve noticed the elderberry bushes are ripe now. Time to get out and harvest. This year I’m going to pick and freeze the berries for a winter project.

how do you judge the ripeness? I see a lot of variability here. Some are dark purple and others are solid green.

I typically cut off the umbles and freeze them in paper bags then rub off the frozen berries.

 

[wood1954]

I taste them, if they arent real bitter they’re ready.

 

[DrGriz]

Green berries are not ripe and will be more toxic. Pick the purple berries and come back later for the green ones.

We picked wild berries on Monday last week. About half of the clusters were purple/ripe. Went back Thursday and we could find hardly any green berries, and many of the ripe clusters were so ripe they were soft and falling off the branches with a touch

 

[winemanden]

The main ingredient in an Elderberry wine, is PATIENCE!

 

[hounddawg]

Hallo fellow winemakers . Getting ready for lunch and wanted a glass wine to go with it. Spotted my elderberry wine I made in 2020 and almost forgot about. I tasted it in its first year and frankly almond spat it out. Needs more time i said to myself. So i opened one today and let me tell you what a difference. Much more drinkable, some delicate flavors I'm having difficulty describing. You that have made it before what is your impression? Would love to hear from you. Thanks.
G

6 to 8 years great, 10 years HEAVEN,
now-a-days I make 50/50 elderberry/blackberry, it greatly reduces the aging time,
but elderberry is my love...
Dawg

 

[davemo]

I do not post on here very often but make various wines from country fruit every yr and have been since around 2010. I have 7 elderberry bushes,2 aronia bushes and 2 rows of blackberries each with 6 plants dedicated to making wine! I want to remind folks that elderberries must be fully ripe and heated to remove the cyanide compounds in them. I heat mine in my beermaking ss 12 gallon mash tun for 45 minutes at around 170 degrees . This yr as usual i started with a mixture of berries 9 lb elder and 16 lb blackberry heated in the pot and this yr i decided to add 3 TBS of golden milk spice we use to the heated mixture, when drained and squeezed out(its in a nylon brewing bag) it netted 4 gallons juice i then topped to 5 with water,ph of 3.8 sg 1.023.added sugar and yeast nutrient to sg of 1.103. Pitched r56 wine yeas on march 3 2024.When done fermenting i added a F Pack made of 4 lb blackberries and 4 cups water heated and squeezed and got 1/2 gallon juice.I racked the wine to secondary got 4 gallons of wine,added potmetabisulfite and sorbate plus a super smoother pack ,let sit 1 hr added the 1/2 gallon Fpack and 1/2 gallon distilled water to 5 gallons. And there it has sit i did that on march 3 2024,Planning on bottling this weekend.

 

[hounddawg]

I do not post on here very often but make various wines from country fruit every yr and have been since around 2010. I have 7 elderberry bushes,2 aronia bushes and 2 rows of blackberries each with 6 plants dedicated to making wine! I want to remind folks that elderberries must be fully ripe and heated to remove the cyanide compounds in them. I heat mine in my beermaking ss 12 gallon mash tun for 45 minutes at around 170 degrees . This yr as usual i started with a mixture of berries 9 lb elder and 16 lb blackberry heated in the pot and this yr i decided to add 3 TBS of golden milk spice we use to the heated mixture, when drained and squeezed out(its in a nylon brewing bag) it netted 4 gallons juice i then topped to 5 with water,ph of 3.8 sg 1.023.added sugar and yeast nutrient to sg of 1.103. Pitched r56 wine yeas on march 3 2024.When done fermenting i added a F Pack made of 4 lb blackberries and 4 cups water heated and squeezed and got 1/2 gallon juice.I racked the wine to secondary got 4 gallons of wine,added potmetabisulfite and sorbate plus a super smoother pack ,let sit 1 hr added the 1/2 gallon Fpack and 1/2 gallon distilled water to 5 gallons. And there it has sit i did that on march 3 2024,Planning on bottling this weekend.

been drinking elderberry wine better than 50 years, Zero heat, I do freeze mine to break them down yielding more juice, I put mine in ferment barrel whole, stirring daily using a cordless drill with a stainless steel stirrer, but never no heat, nor did the old timers that made it here in the Ozarks for well over a century before me that taught me how, originally I join here to learn a couple tricks to sanitize, measure/read SG, and so forth, and to learn to repeat my flavor profile year after year, keeping the profile consistent, and never ever have i put heat to anything, I make a very wide variety of country wines (Fruit Wines),
and still no heat, and I bulk age everything for at least 4 years some much more , everything that is but skeeter pee for years, skeeter pee i bulk only 2 years,
Dawg

 

[ChuckD]

I do not post on here very often but make various wines from country fruit every yr and have been since around 2010. I have 7 elderberry bushes,2 aronia bushes and 2 rows of blackberries each with 6 plants dedicated to making wine! I want to remind folks that elderberries must be fully ripe and heated to remove the cyanide compounds in them. I heat mine in my beermaking ss 12 gallon mash tun for 45 minutes at around 170 degrees . This yr as usual i started with a mixture of berries 9 lb elder and 16 lb blackberry heated in the pot and this yr i decided to add 3 TBS of golden milk spice we use to the heated mixture, when drained and squeezed out(its in a nylon brewing bag) it netted 4 gallons juice i then topped to 5 with water,ph of 3.8 sg 1.023.added sugar and yeast nutrient to sg of 1.103. Pitched r56 wine yeas on march 3 2024.When done fermenting i added a F Pack made of 4 lb blackberries and 4 cups water heated and squeezed and got 1/2 gallon juice.I racked the wine to secondary got 4 gallons of wine,added potmetabisulfite and sorbate plus a super smoother pack ,let sit 1 hr added the 1/2 gallon Fpack and 1/2 gallon distilled water to 5 gallons. And there it has sit i did that on march 3 2024,Planning on bottling this weekend.

I have never heated mine. I haven’t seen this warning on any printed recipes either… not that that is definite.