Elderberry is the king of Country Wines, as with most of these it’s a faff to make, but in this case it really is worth it. Plus the longer you keep it the beter it gets, it varies year to year based on the quality of the berries and I’ve had ones that were light and refreshing and ones that were heavy as port.
Ingredients
2kg Elderberries – remove stems and any green berries
5l water
1 ½kg Sugar
1 Lemon, juiced or 1 tsp citric acid
1tsp Pectolase
1 Campden tablet
1 packet general purpose yeast
1tsp Yeast nutrient
You’ll need a large fermenting bucket with lid, a demijohn with bung and airlock, some syphon tubing and a thermometer. Everything should be sterilised before use.
Method
Remove the berries from the stalks with a fork into the fermenting bucket, the stems are a bit toxic so make sure you don’t leave any with the fruit – freezing them overnight helps a lot with this step. Squish them up a bit to make sure the skins are split wear, rubber gloves as the juice stains everything it comes into contact with. Don’t be too heavy handed, you don’t want to split the seeds as they’ll release a toxin.
Add the sugar and a litre of boiling water to dissolve it, then put the rest of the water in with the acid and yeast nutrient, give a stir. When it’s cooled to between 18 -24 degrees you can add the yeast. Put the lid on the fermenting bucket and add an airlock, after a week syphon the wine into a demijohn and top up with boiled cooled water with an airlock.
Leave the wine to ferment, once it slows rack it (siphon into a new demijohn to leave the sediment behind) into a new demijohn and leave for three months, rack it again and you should have a clear wine, if not do it again.
Once it is clear you can bottle the wine, then age it for six months to a year. That’s the hardest part.
Cover pic: Adobe Stock
