In the freezer...

[thebargee]

... I have 2kg of foraged elderberries, 1kg of foraged rosehips and a 1kg bag of Aldi's four-berry medley. I want to combine them all in a 2- or 3-gallon brew, but having had a bad experience in the past with elderberry wine that ended up being used as drain unblocker (well it went down the sink anyway), any recipe suggestions would be welcome.

 

[ChrisT]

Can't comment on what the rosehips would contribute, but the elderberries have loads of tannin and it takes a long time for that to subside to acceptable levels, patience is the key. The fruit would hopefully level things out.

I tried something similar, dried dark fruit and frozen black/blue fruit, when I returned to homebrew a few years back, it was not very nice when it finished, but was quite acceptable after a year.

 

[ChrisT]

Also, when I made homebrew in the past, one of the best I ever made was christened "bottom of freezer" wine. No idea what all the fruit was but roughly 4kg (frozen) of very mixed fruit from the bottom of the freezer. All into a bucket added water, campden tablet and stirred for a few days, added yeast, fermented for a few days in the bucket, strained into (2) demijohns, topped up with water and left for few months. Fermented slowly in the demijohns, came out quite dry but very fruity, added stabiliser/campden, finings. Bottled after clearing. Managed to keep one bottle for a few months but it didn't last long!

 

[thebargee]

Can't comment on what the rosehips would contribute, but the elderberries have loads of tannin and it takes a long time for that to subside to acceptable levels, patience is the key. The fruit would hopefully level things out.

I tried something similar, dried dark fruit and frozen black/blue fruit, when I returned to homebrew a few years back, it was not very nice when it finished, but was quite acceptable after a year.

Yeah, the tannin is what did for my previous elderberry I think, even though I kept it for a year. That's why I thought I'd tone it down a bit with the other berries. Actually, I'm a bit nervous about using the elderberries at all, I picked them last summer. It was such a dry season and the berries are pretty small, not sure what that might mean for tannin levels.

 

[DocAnna]

There's an article here on how to minimise the tannins in elderberry wine through cold maceration, however from personal experience I'd recommend making a soft sour with the rosehips and berry's using Phillysour or similar yeast. This will give you a bit of fresh fruit sourness without the pucker of a full on sour.
If you are interested I've made several fruited sours with a base beer and either puree or frozen fruit so would be happy share.

If I may suggest, take a nondescript supermarket lager/ale and try adding the juice from a small sample of the rosehips and berries to see whether you like the flavour first.

 

[thebargee]

There's an article here on how to minimise the tannins in elderberry wine through cold maceration, however from personal experience I'd recommend making a soft sour with the rosehips and berry's using Phillysour or similar yeast. This will give you a bit of fresh fruit sourness without the pucker of a full on sour.
If you are interested I've made several fruited sours with a base beer and either puree or frozen fruit so would be happy share.

If I may suggest, take a nondescript supermarket lager/ale and try adding the juice from a small sample of the rosehips and berries to see whether you like the flavour first.

Thanks for the link to the article on elderberries, it looks very interesting. As for the beer, I don't drink enough to make it worthwhile brewing it. Now wine on the other hand...

 

[thebargee]

... I have 2kg of foraged elderberries, 1kg of foraged rosehips and a 1kg bag of Aldi's four-berry medley. I want to combine them all in a 2- or 3-gallon brew, but having had a bad experience in the past with elderberry wine that ended up being used as drain unblocker (well it went down the sink anyway), any recipe suggestions would be welcome.

Hare's what I ended up doing for a 2-gallon batch:

• 2kg frozen foraged elderberries
• 1kg frozen foraged rosehips
• 1kg frozen mixed berries from Aldi
• 3 litres Lidl apple juice
• 2kg sugar, or enough to bring the S.G. to around 1.09/1.1
• 2 tsp acid blend
• water to 9 litres
• 2 tsp yeast nutrient
• 1 tsp Wilko pectolase
• 2 crushed Campden tablets
• 1 sachet Lalvin RC212 wine yeast
• ½ oz french oak chips

Fermented on the pulp for a week, then into demijohns. Racked a couple of months later, S.G. down to 0.993 or thereabouts. Racked again today for stabilisation & bottling in a couple of days time. First impressions... OMG, really nice mouth feel, plenty of body, not too tannic, incredibly dark colour. I'll definitely be doing this one again.

 

[Bzee]

There's an article here on how to minimise the tannins in elderberry wine through cold maceration, however from personal experience I'd recommend making a soft sour with the rosehips and berry's using Phillysour or similar yeast. This will give you a bit of fresh fruit sourness without the pucker of a full on sour.
If you are interested I've made several fruited sours with a base beer and either puree or frozen fruit so would be happy share.

If I may suggest, take a nondescript supermarket lager/ale and try adding the juice from a small sample of the rosehips and berries to see whether you like the flavour first.

We just had our first frost so it's now or never to gather rosehips. For your sours how did you use them please

 

[DocAnna]

We just had our first frost so it's now or never to gather rosehips. For your sours how did you use them please

Added them in the last few minutes of the boil then cooled to 80 and held as an aroma stand to get the fruity/floral flavour without the bitterness. Best to freeze them first - kills of any beasties and helps them release flavour too. I added them to a light base beer and then added raspberry purée at day 3 as I didn’t think the rose hips alone gave enough fruit flavour - but I think that depends on the amount of fruits you have.