Favourite Elderberry Wine Recipe (13% ABV)

[jamesbsmith]

Favourite Elderberry Wine Recipe (13% ABV)

22.5L Carboy
5L Red Grape Juice
5Kg Fresh Elderberries or 1Kg Dried & 4.4Kg Sugar
GV2 Yeast & Nutrient.
Add Late:
2.5Kg Raspberries / Blueberries / Cherries / Forest Fruits

1 US Gallon
830ml Red Grape Juice
830g Fresh Elderberries or 200g Dried & 730g Sugar
GV2 Yeast & Nutrient.
Add Late:
400g Raspberries / Blueberries / Cherries / Forest Fruits

1 UK Gallon
1L Red Grape Juice
1Kg Fresh Elderberries or 250g Dried & 880g Sugar
1.5 Teaspoons Pectic Enzyme,
GV2 Yeast & Nutrient.
Add Late:
500g Raspberries / Blueberries / Cherries / Forest Fruits

Process
If using fresh berries, use a fork to remove the stalks and give them a rinse to remove any bugs. Place your dried or fresh berries into a brew bucket and cover with water, and add one crushed campden per gallon and leave for 24 hours. Mash the berries if using fresh. Measure out your sugar and place into a saucepan and cover it with water. Bring it to the boil while stirring. As soon as it is dissolved, turn off the heat, allow to cool and add it to your bucket. Add the grape juice as 1 teaspoon of yeast, yeast nutrient and pectic enzyme per gallon, and fix air lock. After a week, strain through a fine muslin into carboy or demijohn. When fermentation has slowed, add the mashed up, late add fruit and a little more pectic enzyme. (Holding the fruit back, and adding it at this later stage, will give a load more flavour, as taste is lost during the initial vigorous fermentation stage.)

After two days, strain out any late added fruit. Leave to ferment until SG is less than 1.000, and then siphon from sediment. Add fining agent and rack.

Bulk mature for 6 to 12 months then bottle.

 

[WVMJ]

Did you come up with this on your own or just forget to add the source in your post? Looks like one of the Brit ones? WVMJ

 

[jamesbsmith]

On my own!

 

[jamesbsmith]

WVMJ, the evolution of this recipe was as follows:

There are quite a few recipes knocking around for Elderberry Wine which for a UK Gallon usually include 250ml Red Grape Conc and between 1.5Kg to 2Kg of elderberries or 1/4 the amount dried. Such recipes are good, but take preferably 2 years to age sufficiently due to the high tannin content of the berries. I therefore decided to reduce the elderberry content to 1Kg and add less tannic red fruits. I have trialed plums, blackberries, sloes, blueberries, cherries and raspberries. The favourites I found were raspberries, blueberries or cherries. Also, I dont like the idea of using costly red grape concentrate, so substitute this for red grape juice. Most recipes state using Lavin yeasts, I prefer GV2.
I have tailored the sugar content to give a wine of approx 13% ABV.

I have made a wine which has all my favourite additional fruits which I call Black Magic. It is more concentrated and does use a few bananas. For the UK gallon I used the following. Multiply each value by 0.83 for a US gallon:

Black Magic ~13%
Acidity - 0.68%
Tannin - 0.19%
1L Red Grape Juice
1Kg Elderberries
450g (3) Bananas
350g Black Cherries
350g Raspberries
350g Blueberries
770g Sugar

I use YoBrews wine calculator to design wines with acceptable acidity, ABV and tannin. Cant recommend the calcs enough!

 

[jensmith]

For the UK gallon I used the following. Multiply each value by 0.83 for a US gallon:



I love it when people give me the math equations right where I need it!!


Sent from my iPod touch using Home Brew

 

[ukulele01]

WVMJ, the evolution of this recipe was as follows:

There are quite a few recipes knocking around for Elderberry Wine which for a UK Gallon usually include 250ml Red Grape Conc and between 1.5Kg to 2Kg of elderberries or 1/4 the amount dried. Such recipes are good, but take preferably 2 years to age sufficiently due to the high tannin content of the berries. I therefore decided to reduce the elderberry content to 1Kg and add less tannic red fruits. I have trialed plums, blackberries, sloes, blueberries, cherries and raspberries. The favourites I found were raspberries, blueberries or cherries. Also, I dont like the idea of using costly red grape concentrate, so substitute this for red grape juice. Most recipes state using Lavin yeasts, I prefer GV2.
I have tailored the sugar content to give a wine of approx 13% ABV.

I have made a wine which has all my favourite additional fruits which I call Black Magic. It is more concentrated and does use a few bananas. For the UK gallon I used the following. Multiply each value by 0.83 for a US gallon:

Black Magic ~13%
Acidity - 0.68%
Tannin - 0.19%
1L Red Grape Juice
1Kg Elderberries
450g (3) Bananas
350g Black Cherries
350g Raspberries
350g Blueberries
770g Sugar

I use YoBrews wine calculator to design wines with acceptable acidity, ABV and tannin. Cant recommend the calcs enough!

Just checked out that YoBrews wine calculator you referenced. It's amazing and will be so helpful. Thank you so much!

I am about to make my first elderberry wine, which will also be my first red wine. My recipe is somewhat similar to your recipe, with a good whack of bananas and blackberries, and small amounts of blueberries, and sour red cherries.


Cheers!

 

[Blacksmith1]

Sounds really tasty. I don't think the guy you quoted is going to answer you though.
Learned this the hard way my self here. always check the post date and if you click on a members name, you will see when they were last on site.
jamesbsmith was last seen: Sep 23, 2015