Red WOW

[tonyhibbett]

Dried bilberries are really expensive, it seems. Regarding maturing elderberry wine, it is worth noting that the concentrate supplied with the Winebuddy cabernet sauvignon kit is in fact elderberry and apple concentrate, the only grape element is in the flavouring pack. Being a 7 day kit, it shows that the right amount of elderberry does not require long maturation. Use of finings which include gelatine (Clear It) also helps, as it reduces the tannin content and oak chips have a smoothing effect. By adding more elderberries (dried), red grape juice concentrate and apple juice, I produced a good Burgundy type wine which was ready to drink within a month. Buying a Winebuddy kit to make apple and elderberry wine seems rather expensive if you already have dried or frozen elderberries and 'value' apple juice being so cheap. My attempt to make red wine from red grape juice was unimpressive in terms of colour and flavour, but in combination with elderberry and apple could work well.

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

Being a 7 day kit, it shows that the right amount of elderberry does not require long maturation.

It may be that the kit's producers remove some of the tannin, similar to how tea & coffee producers remove the caffeine.

 

[tonyhibbett]

The tannin is in the skin, so if you just use the pressed juice, the tannin content is drastically reduced, but I suspect the colour will be too. So they add colour from grape skins to compensate. I added a kilo of dried elderberries and fermented them for 3 days, without using any hot water for extraction. The combination of juice concentrate and dried berries probably cuts the tannin down to about half without compromising the colour depth.