Elderberry & Blackberry Wine
Recipe (3 Gallons)
2.7 Kg Elderberries
2.75 Kg Blackberries
2.6 Kg Sugar
Campden
Pectolase
2 Teaspoons Citric Acid
1/4 Teaspoon Tartaric Acid
Yeast Nutrient
Water to 3 Gallons
Sauternes Yeast
edit: OG 1090, FG 999 gives 12.4% ABV
Method
Remove all the stalks etc from your berries and wash them. Drain and tip into your fermenting bin. Mash them, add enough water to get them covered/floating, throw in 3 crushed campden tablets, stir well, cover and leave overnight.
Next day add 4 litres of boiling water and mash again, then add pectolase, stir, cover and leave overnight.
Next day add all your other ingredients and measure the gravity. Mine was 1090. 2 days of soaking mashed berries should have released most of their sugars into solution. Freezing berries is a good way to go as this will pop a lot of their skins so you wont have to mash as much. Now give it a good sloshy stir and add your yeast. Stir once or more daily for a few days and then remove the fruit after about a week and move the wine to your secondary fermenter(s). Remember to keep the fruit and lees tho', 'cos you want to do a second run! Rack degas, stabilise etc as and when needed. This wine did not need fining or filtering.
Thoughts
This is a great wine if you like to forage. Both the berries are abundant and easy picking in the UK, and you should be seeing berries forming or ripening all around you now. Get out there and pick 'em. You can wash and freeze them for winemaking, it does no harm at all, and hence save them all up til the season ends and make one huge batch. The higher proportion of elderberries you use the more robust red wine character you'll get. Swing more to the Blackberries and you'll end up with a more rosé like character.
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