an idea related to my project

[xyombee]

I have a project over the next year: won't let me post a link though... (google "a year in homebrew"). I plane to forage all the raw ingredients, and make yummy viable homebrew

got a question regarding elderflower / elderberries.

from what i understand, having never done a red wine, elderberries are going to make a pretty heavy red wine... if i save a gallon or two of the elderlower wine / champagne that i make in the spring / late spring, and blend these two at 1:1 ration... will it make a kind of elder rose?

am i being daft?

 

[oldbloke]

I dunno that elderberry is especially "heavy", but then I've only done it twice and used too much sugar the first time. It does take a while to mature though, and isn't short of tannin.
Assuming you can get enough berries, do some straight wine and some blend. The blend should be nice, but it'd be a shame not to have some straight berry wine.

 

[graysalchemy]

Hi and welcome to the forum xyombee.

Not a daft Idea I suppose. You are right elderberry does make quite a heavy red which is best left for a few years to mature in the bottle, however it is dependent on how much tannin is in the fruit some trees produce a lot of tannin others don't. Elderberry is best mixed with other fruit anyway ie blackberries raisins apples etc. I usually do 2lb of elderberries with 1lb of blackberries (or what ever fruit I can get) and half a pound of raisins and 1 KG of sugar in a gallon demijohn.

But even this will take time to mature. You could try using more of the other fruit and less of the elderberry and perhaps apples to make a more rose style wine. :thumb:

 

[Moley]

I have a project over the next year: won't let me post a link though... (google "a year in homebrew").

Welcome to the forum :

It won't let you post a link just yet, not until you've been with us for a couple of days and made a small number of other posts, that keeps out most of the spammers and gives us chance to spot the cleverer attempts.

Here's the link: >>>click<<<

 

[xyombee]

I appreciate the link, thanks guy...

 

[oldbloke]

Oh, re the "year in brewing" blog, I started one last summer, and it went quite well until just before christmas when I mysteriously kept forgetting to update it (there was a fallow period when not much was happening, but I didn't blog even the little that was)
I think it's a worthwhile thing to do (even if nobody but you looks at it), so when you start a brew you can refer back to how things went last time; but you do need persistence!

 

[xyombee]

yeah... i started it mainly to keep track of the things i've done and how i done-d them... memory of a fish...

 

[GeorgeSalt]

If you use elderberries with RGJ you get a very pleasant red, and you could play with the elderberry/RGJ ration to control how "heavy" you like it. You will need to dilute elderberries a lot to get a rose, the colour is incredibly intense.

 

[xyombee]

so as far as "dilution" for the heavy red... what kind of ratio to another "white" wine (undecided about the elderflower wine / champagne), I'd possibly be using something like perry as well... maybe a higher ratio 1:4??

I geuss i'll be able to experiment myself soon enough to get the right quantities.... i don't drink wine reall, and 'er indoors don't do red wines... seems a shame to make it to just sit and cure for years and then never be drank...

 

[GeorgeSalt]

so as far as "dilution" for the heavy red... what kind of ratio to another "white" wine (undecided about the elderflower wine / champagne), I'd possibly be using something like perry as well... maybe a higher ratio 1:4??

I've done the elderberry with grape juice wine using 70 cl elderberry cordial in a full demijohn of WGJ - and it's still very firmly a red wine..

 

[LeedsBrewer]

have a read of the WOW post mentioned in my signature. They're great (i'm sure finding WGJ and OJ on a supermarket shelf counts as foraging :wha: ) and don't break the bank.

Oh and since you like your ginger beer have a look at this thread viewtopic.php?f=39&t=5982

I did it with some oranges. It tasted great at bottling time and i normally cant stand GB.

I'm also looking at the whole foraging method to make wines and melomels. this time of year sucks for it though. But in a few months you'll have a lot more variety.

oh and do a search for cock ale if you want to try something cost effective and "Different" stuff it, i did it for you ... here you go... viewtopic.php?f=21&t=5446&hilit=cock+ale

 

[hedgerow pete]

I have a project over the next year: won't let me post a link though... (google "a year in homebrew"). I plane to forage all the raw ingredients, and make yummy viable homebrew

got a question regarding elderflower / elderberries.

from what i understand, having never done a red wine, elderberries are going to make a pretty heavy red wine... if i save a gallon or two of the elderlower wine / champagne that i make in the spring / late spring, and blend these two at 1:1 ration... will it make a kind of elder rose?

am i being daft?

so starting with the wines seperately,
elderflower wine is to me very very thin and is like drinking a glass of perfume, as you can see i dont like flower wines, as for blending yes you can but i would try to dilute the elderberry in another way that does noes over power its niff. a flower wine is to me out of balence for a red wine, far to niffy for me

straight pure elderberry is not a strong wine or a heavy wine, it is what every you want it to be, i make each year around 5 gallons of pure steam extracted elderberry wine each year, it is fairly normal for that to take at least 5 years before it is drinkable, before that it is better known as tannin soup.

as a hedgerow home brewer what we do is look not to blend wines from seperate seasons but combine fruits of the same season. so the standard way to work with elderberries is to combine elderbeerries ( high tanin) with a low tanin base, mine as they ripen at the same time has to be apples, as they work brilliantly,

by far to me the golden rule i was taught in regards of elderberries is MAX ONE KILO PER GALLON and as a rule i would not go longer than 36 hours on the fruit fermentation as the tanin is so high it adds several years before it drinkable, even then at the moment i am drinking a few last bottles of 2005 elderberry which is to me pure heaven to have

if your wanting a couple of ideas for now to try by the way, cheap oranges are one the market soon, so are root crops, and dont forget if your very lucky its less than 5 weeks till brich sap time, and dont forget the other tree sap wines aswell