Elderberry wine without added sugar?

[Molineux]

I was thinking about making some elderberry wine this summer. One question I have: If I get enough berries (to fill a 5 gal container with their juice), could I get a high enough gravity from the extracted juice instead of just adding sugar and water. Would the end taste be too rich?

Ps, I plan to pulp up the berries in one vessle, removing all the juice and keep adding it to another container, slowly filling it up. I will probably keep some of the skin in muslin for a while in the FV but I was hoping for a slightly lighter than red end result.

 

[graysalchemy]

I doubt you will get a high enough gravity from just berries alone as if you use just berries and if you used no water or sugar additions the berries wouldn't taste that great they have tons of tannin in them and even 3lb per gallon usually takes a couple of years to mellow IMHO.

My best recipe when I used to do it was

2lb elderberries
1lb of blackberries or damsons (or a mix)
2lb of sugar
1/2lb of raisins pulped or mashed in a blender.
water to 1 gallon

 

[PD]

that was my recipe also. I use to add a couple of bunches of washed elder flowers to the brew also gave it a slightly different aroma.

You can't beat elderberries and blackberries for making a Port type. But as already said, beware of the high tannin content off the elderberry stalks.
Also be prepared to wait with this wine and do several rackings with a month or two between them. Ooooo its worth it, honestly.

Try this as an additive to the brew. Go to your local chemist and ask for a small bottle of tincture of Capsicum, don't look surprised by his funny looks.
When your ferment is first racked add 3 and I repeat only 3 DROPS of the tincture to the brew. If you want to know why only 3 drops, put a bit onto your finger and lick it ! :twisted: Its rather potent and hot. In fact its volcanic. However it gives the final wine an incredible warmth, you know that feeling you get when you have had a mouthful of good Port, thats caused by the high amount of spirit in the wine, Capsicum mimics that effect.
Mind you you might like a drop or two more added, that's up to you to decide, I take no responsibility if your feeling adventurous or suicidal. Death is not caused by the Capsicum itself but rather by drowning... drinking all the water afterwards :grin:
When I bought my bottle it came in an eye dropper style bottle complete with pipette, and the chemist came out wearing gloves... ha haaa. wimp.

 

[Ken L]

I'm a little worried by the prospect of the berries being "pulped".
Mashing will be fine but pulping the pips could be bad.
I seriously doubt that you will get a high enough sugar content in a pure elderberry juice must to ferment a wine - and the tannin level in pure juice would also be very high.

 

[Moley]

I'm a little worried by the prospect of the berries being "pulped".
Mashing will be fine but pulping the pips could be bad.

I missed that bit.

Pressing the juice? ..... Maybe :hmm:
Smashing the pips? ..... :nono: Nasty, possibly toxic :sick:

Sugar content: Using metric, you might normally use 1.5kg of berries to 5L of wine, or 300g to the litre. The table I use says 11.5% sugar content, so I make that an OG of 1.012

 

[xhalmers_860]

how did it turn out?

 

[Molineux]

They have come out pretty late this year, I am just taking a break from de-stalking the berries now. I never knew how tedious that could be... I have scrapped the original idea, partly due to Greys advice and Partly due to the fact that I would have to forage the whole of Staffordshire's Elders for enough berries. I am making 5gal I need about 7.5k for a full bodied red? I only have about 5k tonight so I will have to do a little more foraging tomorrow.. Any thoughts on adding apples? I would use my juicer to juice them.

 

[PD]

yes nothing wrong in adding apple or any other fruit Again don't pulp the additions or you release a lot of pectins that makes for cloudy wines.
I'm drinking a blackberry and Nettle wine at the moment. admittedly its from fruit tea bags...

 

[oldbloke]

They have come out pretty late this year, I am just taking a break from de-stalking the berries now. I never knew how tedious that could be...

They're still green here! Or were a week a go, I should nip out and re-check...
Last year t'missus suggested that popping them in the freezer for a day would make them just fall off the stalks when taken back out. Going to try it this year.

 

[RobWalker]

They have come out pretty late this year, I am just taking a break from de-stalking the berries now. I never knew how tedious that could be...

They're still green here! Or were a week a go, I should nip out and re-check...
Last year t'missus suggested that popping them in the freezer for a day would make them just fall off the stalks when taken back out. Going to try it this year.

we do that, you can use a fork to comb through them too :thumb: the freezing also helps break the fruit down :)

i picked some last week oldbloke, the rest are on the way now, probably 60% of the tree is ready..

 

[Ken L]

I'm due another couple of foraging trips this week. Hopefully, I'll top up the 17L that I have going to 30.

 

[tonyhibbett]

Apart from anything else, I have been told that high concentrations of elderberry can prove somewhat toxic.