1987 Elderberry
September 2006 – We had elderberry bushes growing along the river by our main field. My brother helped me pick the elderberries and strip them off the branches. It was a lot of things … but fun wasn’t one of them. 🙂
But the end result was good!
Ingredients
| Fruit | 15-3/4# elderberries |
| Water | 4-3/4 gallons |
| Sugar | 23 cups |
| Acid | 2 tsp acid blend |
| Nutrient | 4 tsp nutrient + 2 tsp energizer |
| Sulfite | 1/2 tsp K-meta |
| Pectic Enzyme | 2 tsp |
| Yeast | Red Star Epernay II |
Method
| Started | 08/26/1987 SG 1.087 |
| Yeast added | 08/29/1987 SG 1.087 |
| Strained | 08/31/1987 SG 1.042 |
| Racked | 09/06/1987 SG 0.993 |
| Oak chips added | 10/25/1987 SG 0.993 |
| Racked | 12/06/1987 SG 0.993 |
| Filtered, #2 filter pad | 02/27/1988 SG 0.993 |
| Bottled | 05/29/1988 SG 0.993 |
Notes
| Yield | 30 bottles |
| Alcohol | 12.8% |
| Afterthoughts | I strained this one early — SG 1.042 — as the last one came out too heavy. Elderberry wine tends to be heavy in general — very strong flavor. I had customers who made several gallons each year with champagne yeast, feeding it sugar until the yeast died. Then they’d sweeten it up and treat it as a port-style dessert wine. |