Blackberry and elderberry wine day

Nicks90 · Sep 8, 2024

As usual about this time, I drag all my berries out of the freezer and do my annual wine making day.

Been a really good year for blackberry down our lane, and the birds haven't totally decimated my elderberry tree, so managed to gather 3.8kg of blackberries and 1.4kg of elderberries
As it's a bit of an Inbetweener between 2 and 3 demijohns of berries, I'm going to make it stretch to 3. If it was just blackberry I would have done 2, but elderberries are very potent so I don't mind stretching this one.

Usual method, bring them to the boil for a few minutes to defrost them, soften it all up and kill off any nasties. Then dump it in a bucket with a campden tablet for 24 hours and 3kg of sugar dissolved in a litre of boiling water

On Monday I'll top it up to 12l and add the yeast and give it a couple of weeks for primary fermentation, then filter it to 3 demijohns equally and top them all up with water to the neck and leave it for a month, before doing a secondary racking before storage.

An Ankoù · Sep 8, 2024

That's one of my favourites, too. I use four parts blackberries to three parts elderberries.
If it were me, I'd make 2 demijohns of 1kg blackberries and 0.7 kg elderberries, each and a separate demijohn with the rest of the blackberries. But dividing the lot equally between 3 is by no means "stretching" the fruit, in fact I reckon it's spot on.
My blackberry crop has been krap this year, and I'll be struggling to accumulate enough for a gallon. Elderberries, too have been quite poor and I've used nearly all of them in plum and elderberry jam. So much so that I'm having to buy some dried ones this year.
Good luck with your wines.

Wrh · Sep 9, 2024

Hello nicks90 I have blackberries and elderberries in my freezer to , I was going to make separate wines with them do you think if they are mixed you get a better wine in the end or is it just so it's easier to make also do you leave the fruit and Campden tablets for 24 hrs and then add the sugar or sugar too then Campden tablets thanks in advance for taking the time to answer . Do you add pectolase or anything else to the mix , sorry for newb questions but I've only made wine with kits before

An Ankoù · Sep 9, 2024

Wrh said:
Hello nicks90 I have blackberries and elderberries in my freezer to , I was going to make separate wines with them do you think if they are mixed you get a better wine in the end or is it just so it's easier to make also do you leave the fruit and Campden tablets for 24 hrs and then add the sugar or sugar too then Campden tablets thanks in advance for taking the time to answer . Do you add pectolase or anything else to the mix , sorry for newb questions but I've only made wine with kits before

In my experience, elderberry wine is just too full on. Mixing the two gives much more balance.
I don't use Campden tablets, I pour two kettles (about 4 litres) of boiing water over the fruit in a bucket and cover it closely with a tea towel. When it;s cool enough I add the pectinase, nutrient and yeast. 24-48 hours later, I strain the wine through muslin onto the sugar, mix well and funnel into an oversize vessel (an 8 litre mineral water PET) fit an airlock or fix a sandwich/freezer bag over the top with a rubber band**. When fermentation subsides and the wine begins to clear, rack into a demijohn and top up to the top of the shoulder. Leave until fermentation is finished and wine is perfectly clear before bottling.

That's how I do it, but everyone has their own way.

** There have been so many fruit flies / drosophila this year that they were getting into the airlock and drowning there so I've been fixing a freezer bag over the airlock to keep the blighters out. I use 40% alcohol (for preserving fruit) in my airlocks, but even so, I don't want them getting sucked back into the wine.

Wrh · Sep 9, 2024

Thanks for your answer an Ankou , how much blackberries and elderberries per gallon I see you mentioned 4 parts blackberries to 3 parts elderberries previously I have quite a bit I can't remember exactly but I think I have enough for about 5 gallons ish in the freezer . Also is 3 pound of sugar per gallon about the right amount to add I know its not exact but a ball park figure will do . Thanks very much for your help I appreciate it

An Ankoù · Sep 9, 2024

Wrh said:
Thanks for your answer an Ankou , how much blackberries and elderberries per gallon I see you mentioned 4 parts blackberries to 3 parts elderberries previously I have quite a bit I can't remember exactly but I think I have enough for about 5 gallons ish in the freezer . Also is 3 pound of sugar per gallon about the right amount to add I know its not exact but a ball park figure will do . Thanks very much for your help I appreciate it

The recipes I use call for 4lb of Blackberries or 3lb of elderberries so I used around 2lb and 1½lb respectively in a 1 gallon batch, together with 3lb sugar.

Interestingly, I served this to the bro and sis -in-law (both French) recently with lunch. It was a bit tongue in cheek as the wine they bring is far from the best. Well, they loved it. Couldn't get enough. I'm not sure what that says for how good the recipe is, but it fooled the French: well, these two, anyway!

Wrh · Sep 10, 2024

An Ankoù said:
The recipes I use call for 4lb of Blackberries or 3lb of elderberries so I used around 2lb and 1½lb respectively in a 1 gallon batch, together with 3lb sugar.

Interestingly, I served this to the bro and sis -in-law (both French) recently with lunch. It was a bit tongue in cheek as the wine they bring is far from the best. Well, they loved it. Couldn't get enough. I'm not sure what that says for how good the recipe is, but it fooled the French: well, these two, anyway!

Thank you ,if its good enough for them I'm sure I'll be impressed too

An Ankoù · Sep 10, 2024

Wrh said:
Thank you ,if its good enough for them I'm sure I'll be impressed too

The only recipe book I've ever used is Berry's "First Steps in Wine Making" which I started using in my late teens. It's very dated now, and Berry is very "stuffy", but it has served me well. I made loads of wine as a kid as I could just about afford the sugar and the ingredients were all foraged.
I'm not a big wine-maker these days, but I'm fascinated by all the yeasts and, in particular, those with high beta-glucosidase and their effect on musts using sauvignon blanc and other white wines. I've always found NZ sauvignon blanc to be infinitely better than the French and had always thought it was a terroir issue, but maybe it's the yeast.
Bottom line: there's plenty of scope for experiment and I wonder if anybody out there has already trodden this path and would like to share their thoughts.

Nicks90 · Sep 10, 2024

@Wrh as an ankou has said, no wrong way of doing it
1kg sugar and about 2kg of fruit per demijohn (4.5l) is a good general rule of thumb.

Personally I rarely use pectolase, as I find it clears itself over time and I generally don't bottle it until I've hit 6 months. By that time it's crystal clear. Only time I've ever had a problem was when I once used finings and it made the wine murky (go figure)

Just get it chucked in a bucket and stick some yeast in and have some (very slow and long term) fun with experimenting with different yeasts.
This time round I am using a white wine yeast for a crisper and drier finish, instead of my usual lalvin red wine yeast (1118 or 1116 )

Wrh · Sep 10, 2024

Nicks90 said:
@Wrh as an ankou has said, no wrong way of doing it
1kg sugar and about 2kg of fruit per demijohn (4.5l) is a good general rule of

Personally I rarely use pectolase, as I find it clears itself over time and I generally don't bottle it until I've hit 6 months. By that time it's crystal clear. Only time I've ever had a problem was when I once used finings and it made the wine murky (go figure)

Just get it chucked in a bucket and stick some yeast in and have some (very slow and long term) fun with experimenting with different yeasts.
This time round I am using a white wine yeast for a crisper and drier finish, instead of my usual lalvin red wine yeast (1118 or 1116 )

I'm waiting for a beaverdale 5 gallon wine kit to clear in a fv bucket (finings added a couple of days ago)then I'll rack that into demijohns then I'll start the bb/eb combo in that fv I'm looking forward to it I've bought wine yeast I'm not sure what it is I didn't realise there was so much variety. I've done 2 beer batches a small George's kit and a tom Caxton lager I'm impressed with both but especially the Tom Caxton after 2 weeks conditioning in the bottles it was already better than my local sells lol

started a muntons gold pilsner kit yesterday i hope that goes as well as the other 2 thanks to you both for your help I'll try not to keep hijacking your thread thanks gents

An Ankoù · Sep 10, 2024

Wrh said:
I'll try not to keep hijacking your thread thanks gents

I've never been sure about hijacking a thread. Rather than a strict academic discourse on a narrow subject, I've always thought of a new thread as more like somebody introducing a new topic of conversation in the pub- after ten minutes it's widened, gone off a tangent come back again, and then revived a fortnight later. Sure, it's hard to see how to pull the conversation round to Brexit or whether the landlord's daughter favours psychedelic knickers, but it's better than having an infinite number of new threads or even threads with branches.

I nearly always use pectolase and never use finings. The latter should be unnecessary, perhaps the former are, too, but I haven't taken the risk.

AlBrew · Sep 28, 2024

Very poor show of elderberries for us this year, I should have made elderflower wine as there were heaps of flowers but when it came to the fruit the bunches were mostly empty. Been here for 4 years now and this is the first year it's failed.

I usually mix in whatever blackberries appear in the garden too, probably a 1 to 3 ratio bb to eb, but didn't even bother picking them as there were no eb's to go with them and not much room in the freezer. That reminds me I need to get a brew on and use up some of those cheap hops I got earlier I the year!

Pectolase yes
Campden tablet yes
6 months in demi John - 2 racks
Up to a year in the bottle (depending upon how good the first "test" is)

An Ankoù · Sep 28, 2024

Same here. Both elderberries and blackberry harvest very poor indeed. No apples either, hardly.
Too much rain at the wrong time, methinks.

Blackberry and elderberry wine day

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