Elderberry Worries

[YoungJames]

Hiya.

I made up 3 DJs of Elderberry Wine using around 10lbs of fruit, and 4 kilos of sugar.

My worry is that after maybe 3 or 4 months since i put it on, having a taste while racking, it sort of just tastes like leaves or bark and it seems quite light. Not thin, but not quite what i was expecting.

Could this be because i neglected to mash up the berries? I simply left them in a fermenter covered with boiling water.

I know Elderberry takes a good while to age so looking for advice here, i have never tasted Elderberry before and i have no idea what it should taste like.

Would i be better advised to mix the Elderberry with something else, i was given a 6 bottle Cherry Wine kit for Christmas and thought that might be good blend.

Thanks for any advice.

James.

 

[graysalchemy]

Patience my young padawan, patience.

Fruit of the elder is full of tannin and is not a wine to be drunk young. At least a year in the bottle and even then it may still have too much tannin. 2 yrs minimum really.

When I was last making it in volume (pre kids) I aged it so that I was drinking stocks 7 yrs old, and very nice it was too. However I do have a bottle of 21 yr old Elderberry Port which is due to be aged for another 5 yrs. :grin: :grin:

 

[tonyhibbett]

I would treat elderberries like grapes, crushed and fermented with the skins (with pectolase) for 3 days and then pressed. I would also combine with apple and grape, to improve body.

 

[graysalchemy]

I actually mix with blackberries or if you can get them damsons usually 2lb of elders to 1lb of other fruit per gallon plus 1 kg of sugar. As Tony says crush them and ferment on the pulp. :thumb:

 

[tonyhibbett]

As with grapes, you can crush them with the stalks and fish them out after. This is a lot easier and far less messy than stripping. It sounds from the taste you may have had a lot of unripe ones.

 

[narmour]

As with grapes, you can crush them with the stalks and fish them out after. This is a lot easier and far less messy than stripping. It sounds from the taste you may have had a lot of unripe ones.

This is interesting!! stripping was the main reason I couldn't face making elderberry wine last year...

 

[graysalchemy]

Freezing is the easiest way of stripping. :thumb:

 

[YoungJames]

I froze the berries and stripped them with a fork.

They were dark and ripe, it was late September when i picked them, though i wasn't particularly strict if a few green ones fell in.

Advice just to leave it alone then?

 

[RobWalker]

Leave it. Sounds like your process was just right to me. Hi from longbridge!

 

[tonyhibbett]

So the process would be freeze, strip, thaw, crush, ferment for 3 days and press. An alternative to fermenting would be to heat to 60 c and maintain that temperature until the desired colour is extracted. The maximum would be when the skins become pink. This may reduce the tannin extracted.

 

[narmour]

Freezing is the easiest way of stripping. :thumb:

For that you need space in the freezer. :cry: will just have to clear out all the scraps of food which will never be eaten...

 

[rosie]

Try boiling all the scraps up and fermenting them and make a swill scrap wine :lol:

 

[chrig]

I had a similar experience whilst racking mine, it tasted very much like eating one did with a bit of water to wash it down... But that can't be such a bad thing, but very much on the thin side!

this reminds me I should check the carboy and ensure the air lock hasn't ran dry! and pribbably rack the ones I forgot about.... :-/

 

[arjie76]

After reading this thread i for the life of me cant understand why mine tastes so nice!

6kg elderberries stripped and blended with 4 kg of blackberries, 400g of blueberries and 400g of raisins. Cant remember how much sugar but would have been enough to ferment out to 13%. Got about 20ltrs

started to drink mine with in a month of bottling, tasted crap during the bottling but very nice after a month, added a little glucose to give mouth feel and some artificial sweetner, mrs likes her wine a little sweet, during the bottling. Bad times though ive only got 4 bottles left. Anyone who tastes is says it really nice.

Made some elderflower wine but that needed ageing and has only just come good.

 

[tonyhibbett]

It seems that a third racking works wonders, and not just with elderberry. It worked wonders with my dandelion, for example. While too much oxidation can be bad, some gentle oxidation seems highly beneficial.

 

[chrig]

The blackberry really helps. I've one with 50/50 blackberry / elder which is really nice, and having just back sweetened with apple juice very drinkable.

 

[tonyhibbett]

Perhaps incorrectly dubbed the English grape, I don't think the elderberry stands up alone as a wine ingredient, but rather as a very useful component for red wine, just as the wild blackberry, which can't hold its colour. The wild black cherry produces excellent results, if you can reach the fruit before the birds. The 'cherry picker' is an aptly named piece of kit!