ElderberryWine

about

Elderberrys are a deep maroon wild berry that grow in big clusters. The are pretty tart and aren't really that good raw but make awesome wine and jelly. This wine is thick like a sherry and packs quite a punch.

The ballon method mentioned below is pretty slick. Once you pour the wine stock into bottles it is important to keep air and rouge yeast out. This is accomplished by putting a ballon over the mouth of the bottle. The CO2 generated by the yeast inflates the ballon and keeps the whole system isolated from the world. Any interlock will work and you can age the wine in a carboy rather than a bunch of small bottles but that's just not how its done...

full recipe

This is the original recipe from my fathers wine notes verbatim:

• 4lbs elderberries
• 7 pints water
• 4lb sugar

crush fruit, pour on 1qt boiling water that has cooled - mix well - take 1/3 of total sugar and boil in 3pints of water. allow to cool and stir into pulp. add yeast and ferment in vat for 7 days. strain pulp in put in bottles with another 1/3 of sugar in one pint of water. ballon and ferment for 10 days. clean out bottles and combine last 1/3 sugar in 1pint of water. ballon until all fermentation stops.

• 1qt elderberries =1.25lb
• 1qt sugar = 1.75lbs
• 1/3 total sugar = 3/4qts

Refined Recipe

This was a perl script I wrote a while back. It handled scaling the recipe but you're smart - you can figure it out.

• 4lb elderberries
• 7 pints water
• 4lb sugar

Email me if you are interested in making this.

1. crush fruit and pour on 1.25 qts water (boiled and cooled to sterilize). mix well
2. dissolve 0.95 quarts sugar in 3.75 pints water. allow to cool and stir in pulp
3. add yeast and ferment for 7 days
4. strain pulp (press to remove extra juice) and rebottle with 0.95 qts sugar dissolved in 1.25 pints water and ballon. ferment for 10 days
5. rebottle in clean bottles with remaining 0.95 qts sugar and 1.25 pints water. ballon and ferment until bubbles stop.

-- ChristopherPepe - 12 Apr 2007