You're going to get a different wine when you use wild, foraged, blackberries than when you use something cultivated. even if that cultivation is as simple as pruning a wild bush (which is what i do). So you'll need to tweak the recipe to make something you enjoy.
I enjoy a big red wine, lots of body, acidity, astringency and alcohol, in balance. And balance is the key. Miss one part of it and your wine will be unremarkable, not great. Miss two and it'll be a flop. So aim for all 3. elderberries are great for adding balance. Go cautiously tho, the more you add the longer you'll have to wait for the wine to age. Pure elderberry wine takes years to age, the more the better. 5 years is what you should be looking at. Reduce the ratio to something like 33% and the time comes way down, around a year being enough. At 15% 6 months may do it.
For this recipe i've taken a punt on laying it down for a year minimum, and maybe more like 2. I got this brew going in September. It should come in around 13% ABV, so it needs time at that strength, and its so worth it. You may want to pop it open after 6 months, and you'll enjoy it cos you made it. but if you wait then you'll be making fine wine. It's so worth it. Need some replacement for disciple with that? Make lots of quickie wines. They are delicious, cheap, easy, quick. check out my recipe list page and look for those with "quickie" or "Q" in the heading.
But now, onwards with a recipe and method for making blackberry wine with some elderberries.
Recipe 2 Gallons
3.00 Kg Blackberries
1.35 Kg Elderberries
2.2 Kg Sugar
4 TSpoon Pectolase
1 TSpoon Citric Acid
1 TSpoon Tartaric Acid
2 TSpoon Yeast Nutrient (Tronozymol)
Yeast (lees from last brew, GV11)
Original Gravity 1092
I didn't take a picture of the ingredients, so here's a close-up picture of the material of a coat that was bought for me this year. I used this image in a DVD wallet that i made this year. Big up to Rob Walker for that idea, and big up to Mrs Critter Wines for buying me the coat.
I'm assuming that you're familiar with my blog, so i can give a short-hand version of the method. However, if you're not then don't despair, got to my index page (click) and find an earlier version of the wine, the method will be laid out there, more fully.
Mash your berries and put into the fermenting bucket. This is on the lees of the previous wine. So you will have decanted or siphoned that wine from its sediment. The sediment contains live and healthy yeast tho. So you can use it again. But be cautious, it is a living colony of biological critters. If you heat it up too much it'll get wiped out!
Dissolve sugar in hot boiled water and add to fermenting bucket. when it's cooled enough.
Dissolve pectolase and acids in warm water and add to fermenting bucket..
(for a more natural version use lemon juice at rate of juice of one lemon for a 1 teaspoon of citric acid)
Add yeast nutrient and stir. You'll have healthy colony of yeast there already. Just measure the
gravity after stirring well and cover it up.
After a few days (4-7 depending on season - cos using frozen berries works just fine) it will be a good time to decant into secondary fermentation under airlocks. After another week or so rack into demi-johns. At this stage you can add things like campden tablets, potassium sorbate and finings. Or you can wait for time to pass, the fermentation to run it's course and stop. The wine to clear and patience to pay dividends. Then bottle it when you want to drink it, or need the demi-johns. Then lay it down of it's bottled with corks.
Discussion.
I've used a high proportion of elderberries to blackberries this year. I'm aiming for a big wine and prepared to wait for it. i'm thinking 1-2 years and happy with it cos i made a few gallons of blackberry earlier this year, form last year's frozen berries.
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