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This year's Elderberry Wine
I just ran across this site and find it fascinating. I am a neophyte vintner in North Central Indiana who has been experimenting with making Elderberry wine. I have tried several methods and will undoubtedly try many more.
I grow the elderberries myself. My neighbors are not all that excited about my landscaping with elderberry bushes: the bushes tend to be somewhat blowsy and overgrown, but they complain a lot less when I give them a bottle of the wine. I have two different cultivars that supposedly help with pollination. I have wonderful full blossoms and almost always have good fruit set as well. It seems like a tradition now for the last several years I spend Sunday afternoon cleaning elderberries while I watch the Indianapolis Colts win football games. I put the berries into one gallon food storage bags and refrigerate them until all the berries are harvested. I started out with six plants five years ago. I have divided the plants twice and this year I harvested eight bags gallons of berries.
I put three of these bags into a stainless steel cook pot and add two cups of spring water, bring it to a boil and then cook it over a low heat for 20-30 minutes. I use a sieve to pick the berries out, draining the liquid into the fermenter. I put the drained berries into a cloth jelly juicing bag and let it drip into the fermenter as well, I DO NOT squeeze the juice bag, because I don't want any more of the waxy scum that is a by product in my wine. I had six gallons of berries in the freezer from last year and these 14 gallons of berries cooked to about six gallons of juice. After adding about ten pounds of sugar to bring the SG to 1.095 (13%alcohol potential) I had about seven gallons of must. I used champagne yeast and the fermentation finished in two weeks. I let it sit for on the lees for another week (busy with other stuff) and racked it into the carboy today.
There was a little bit more wine than would fit in the carboy, so I had to sample some of course to make sure it is going well. I am sipping some as I am typing this. The aroma is wonderful and the taste is fruity and a bit tart. At this point it is a very fresh wine with a rawness I hope will smooth out. The color is a beautiful deep blue almost black. The wines I have made in the past have tended to darker muddier colors, so I am going to try and keep this vintage away from the light to see if I can maintain the dark color. I plan to rack again Thanksgiving weekend, and then again during the Christmas holidays and then leave it in the carboy and bottle next August, just before the next vintage.
My next project is six gallons of cider to make apple wine. the recipe I intend to use is one I have used in the past which is simplicity itself.
apple cider from the local orchard. They have to pasturize in Indiana so you could buy at the grocery store which would be cheaper, but I like to support the local orchard and an extra $50 won't break me.
sugar to raise the SQ to 1.095
champagne yeast
time.
The apple wine blends nicely with the elderberry.
Cheers!
One of the issues with making elderberry wine is the green waxy residue. This is released by the fermentation process and there is usually a waxy scummy ring around the fermenter. It is very difficult to get off. Supposedly vegetable oil will help get it out and I will try that and report bck.
That is awesome! I just love harvesting your own home grown produce and then to process it yourself to final consumption. I just bought a house this year and I want to put some fruit along my north fence. Berries are a distinct possibility and one fruit tree is a definite. Any suggestions from anyone on what type of fruit tree? I'm open to suggestions for bushes, vines or trees.
I saw a typo in my first post that is pretty important. The cider bought at the orchard only cost fifty CENTS more than at the grocery, not fifty dollars.
I recommend a fruit that is close to what grows naturally in your area. Where I live there are elderberries growing wild along the highways and railroad right-of-ways. Besides, elderberries are just wierd enough to complement my personality. There are also plums and apples. Last year I made some drinkable plum wine from native plums. It wasn't great, but it kind of grows on you with each sip.
In my opinion, nursery stock is worth the money for fruit. What kind sort of depends on how much work you want to do and the climate. In the fingerlakes region of New York where I lived before Indiana, grapes were natural. Apples are always good, but both grapes and apples require diligent pruning and some spraying if you want a decent crop. Even if you are growing fruit naturally or organically you still have to spray some.
Anybody have any idea what dark maple syrup might ferment into?
Anybody have any idea what dark maple syrup might ferment into?
Drunken waffles.
This has been a good year for elderberry. I made 2 gallons and am just starting to drink it. Magic stuff.
I read your post about elderberrys,and have a question.I have made lots of elderberry wine in the past,and have about 30 pounds of them in the freezer.I have never cooked them,but have read that many do.I was wondering if theres a taste difference in the wine,cooked,verses uncooked.I havent started any yet because most of my carboys are full of other stuff.I am in southern indiana,and its been hot and dry.The elderberrys,and grapes are early this year,but I have made quite a hall of them.Most of the berry plants are wild ones,and some are very old,and over 20ft tall.I have been getting berrys off of them for a few years now.
I have a few plants on my property that I planted last fall from rootstock,and one of them is 10 ft tall.
They didnt produce too many berrys this year,but will next year.
wineo
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