Kenridge vieux chateau du roi

[johncrobinson]

You can get the same effect with a good rinse in sulphite solution.

My PERSONAL preference is to keep sulpite use to cleaning my equipment.
Sulphite also has the advantage of removing any taint from the use of bleach or bleach containing cleaners.

 

[johncrobinson]

All the above is only needed when making wine from fruit or berries gathered from the wild.

Tinned concentrates or fruit juice cartons will be just fine to use strait from the can or carton.

 

[Willshill1]

I have frozen elderberries if I do your 80 degrees method and then immerse pan in cool basin ,
1, will they cook some? , I can just add berries and liquid to fermenter?
2 can I put berries suspended above campden tablet solution in a sealed container as let gases kill any nasties?

 

[johncrobinson]

Re:>Willshill1

(1) The object of not boiling is so they dont cook.Yes berries and liquid into the fermenter.

(2) I had to smile when i read this. Some years ago a Dr Harrison developed a method of putting the campden above the fruit or wine and letting the fumes do the buisiness. Great minds think alike eh.!

Personally i would just wash the fruit in campden solution its so easy to do.

 

[Willshill1]

Dunk the elderberries it is then , 5 gallon kit how much elderberries would I need, don’t want to go crazy was thinking of 200 grams.
Thanks William

 

[Willshill1]

Dunk the elderberries it is then , 5 gallon kit how much elderberries would I need, don’t want to go crazy

 

[johncrobinson]

Or more.
At these doses in a 5 gal kit they should not effect the taste to much.
But will help give a red wine a nice depth of colour.

Elderberries can make execelent red wine in thier own right,So its hard to add too much and ruin the wine.The worst that is likely to happen in the event of an "overdose" is that the wine would take longer to mature than wine from the kit would do so on its own.

I think the best thing is to go by your own taste using same kit but vary the amount of elderberry until your happy.

 

[Willshill1]

I have just finished an elderberry batch of wine and whether I did something wrong it’s actually drinkable now , none of the harsh flavours , quite light in fact, I am aging it with oak chips and a small amount of whiskey I soaked the chips in , maybe flavour will develop in time.

 

[johncrobinson]

Elderberry is noted for been a long maturing wine and often can be very harsh when first made.
Given time it becomes superb some folks say 2+yrs to be at its best.
It is then known as english port. and many years ago was said to be used for mixing with real port,Then sold on to the unsuspecting public.

A PERFECT excuse to ramp up production so as to allways have some to hand.

 

[Willshill1]

Elderberries pasteurised and into The Range , make your own , red wine kit , patiently waiting for temp to go below 30 degrees before pitching yeast , what a great way to spend your long weekend.