2022 Elderberry
March 2022
This wine has been planned since last summer, but I’m just getting around to making it.
I have a 25 liter (6.6 US gallon) demijon free, so the plan is to make enough wine to fill it. Since the elderberry concentrate reconstitutes to 5 gallons (19 liter), I purchased 1 liter of red and 1 liter of white grape concentrate to extend it to 7 gallons. I wanted 2 liters of red grape concentrate, but it wasn’t in stock at American Brewmaster, so I snagged what I could.
Ingredients
| Fruit | 1 gallon Vintner’s Best Elderberry fruit wine base 1 liter Global Vintners Inc red grape concentrate 1 liter Global Vintners Inc white grape concentrate |
| Bentonite | 3 tsp |
| Yeast Nutrient | 6 tsp Fermax |
| Yeast | 2 tsp Avante + 1/2 tsp Fermax + 1 tsp sugar |
| Fermentation Sugar | 6 cups |
| Pectic Enzyme | 3 tsp |
| Fermentation Oak | 2 cups medium toast American shredded oak |
| Fining Agents | 12.5 ml kieselsol & 75 ml chitosan |
| Sulphite | as required |
| Aging Oak | 1 oz medium toast Hungarian cubes |
| Finishing Sugar | 10 oz wine conditioner plus 1/2 cup sugar |
| Glycerin | 6 oz |
Method
| Added a few cups of hot tap water to a 6.5 gallon primary, then stirred in 3 tsp bentonite until it was as dissolved as it would get. Added Fermax.
Poured in gallon of Elderberry concentrate. Used 3 quarts of hot tap water in 3 batches to rinse the jug, emptying all into the fermenter. Topped up with cold tap water to 5 gallons. Racked into a 32 gallon Brute, as I don’t have a smaller fermenter that can handle 7 gallons of must. Since I don’t have a better way to measure, poured the white and red grape concentrate into the 6.5 gallon primary. Used a couple of cups of hot water, each, to rinse the bags, putting all water into the fermenter. Topped with cold water to 2 gallons. Poured this into the Brute with the Elderberry. The SG is a bit low for my tastes, but I’ll fix that tomorrow. I’m targeting 1.090. Created a yeast starter with 2 tsp Avante, 1/2 tsp Fermax, and 1 tsp sugar in 1 cup water. |
03/14/2022 SG 1.080 |
| Stirred in 6 cups sugar to raise the Brix. Added pectic enzyme and fermentation oak. Note: the SG is higher than I planned, but I’m ok with it.
Added yeast starter. |
03/15/2022 SG 1.100 |
| There is no activity, so it appears the yeast starter failed. I had the yeast stored in the freezer, and suspect the jump between freezer temperature and room temperature was too much.
Created a new starter with 4 tsp Avante, 1/2 tsp Fermax, and 1/2 tsp sugar in 1 cup 93 F water. This one took off within 15 minutes, and I inoculated 8 hours later. |
03/17/2022 SG 1.100 |
| Racked the wine into the 25 liter demijohn. Managed to mix up the last bit, so a 4 liter jug is filled with sludge, that should clear. | 03/27/2022 SG 1.001 |
| Racked the “sludge” wine, netting about 80% of the total in clear wine. Added to demijohn.
Added 1/4 tsp K-meta and 12.5 ml Kieselsol. Stirred for 60 seconds, changing direction half way through. Added 75 ml chitosan. Stirred for 60 seconds, changing direction half way through. Topped with 1 bottle 2020 second run wine. |
03/31/2022 SG 1.001 |
| Racked the wine. The SG dropped a bit and there was very little sediment. Added 1 oz medium toast Hungarian cubes, 1/4 tsp K-meta, and topped with a bottle of 2020 second run wine. | 05/02/2022 SG 0.998 |
| Racked the wine, reserving 4 liters that will be bulk aged an additional 4 to 6 months, then backsweetened and bottled without sorbate.
To the 5.5 gallons bottled today, added Stabilizing pack (sorbate + K-meta) from last fall’s kits, 10 oz wine conditioner (from Eric’s Riesling), and 1/2 cup sugar, stirring well after each addition. Bottled. As with the Blackberry, forgot to take a final SG reading. I’ll do that when I open a bottle. UPDATE: opened a bottle and checked SG. |
10/06/2022 SG 1.010 |
| Bottled the final 4 liters of wine, using no sorbate.
I didn’t record the amount of sugar used, although the taste was as close to the first bottling as we could make it. |
04/23/2023 SG ??? |
Notes
| Yield | 33 bottles + 5 bottles (no sorbate) |
| Alcohol | 13.9 % |
| Residual Sugar | 3.1 % |
| 06 Oct 2022 | We backsweetened a bit more than I would have for myself, but the target audience should like it better. |
| 23 Apr 2023 | Bottled the final 4 liters without sorbate. |
| 12 Jul 2023 | Taste tested with Shannon. The wine fermented in the bottle, producing some carbonation, but not enough to blow the cork. The wine is bone dry, and we added a small amount of honey to smooth it. |