Experimental: Elderberry Wine

This was my first attempt at "wine". And why did I try to do this? My good friend, Dan (pictured below), has 2 elderberry trees in his backyard. And they produce a lot of berries (for some reason the birds have not found his house). I know we were not going to make something that would be considered exquisite by a wine expert, but we were aiming for a nice country wine. There are a lot of recipes on the web, but as I know by being a homebrewer that it is important to be critical of each ingredient. And I know about what is important for good fermentation from beer making.

Recipe: Elderberry Wine

O.G.-1.100  F.G.-.998  ABV-13.6%   Batch-1 Gal

Grain Bill Ingredients:

3.5 lb Elderberries (Frozen as picked)

2 lb  Sugar (12%)

1 - 12oz Red Grape Concentrate

1 juiced lemon (needed for acid*)

2 juiced oranges (needed for acid*)

*If you have an acid balance kit then you can use this after fermentation

  

Yeast:

1 gal container - 1/4 packet of Red Star Pasteur Red (rehydrated in warm water)

.5 gal container - 6 oz starter with Russian River Redemption dregs (which are mostly wine yeast - RockPile)

Water:

San Diego Alvardo Tap Water

1 tsp Wyeast yeast nutrient

1 tsp Fermaid K

Boil Details:

We added all the ingredients including the all the frozen elderberries and mashed all the berries. (We started with a potato masher and then Dan decided to just use his hands). Then we stirred as we brought it up to a boil to help dissolve the sugar. It boiled for only a few moments and then was cooled in the sink.

Ferment Details:

O.G.: 1.100

Ferment Temp: Pitched at 70 and kept in low to mid 70s

F.G.:  .998

We poured everything (juices and berries) into the 2 growlers. We then pitched the yeast once the must was at the proper pitching temp. The wine fermented actively for a week and then was allowed to age for a few more months. We plan to make this once a year and perfect our recipe.

We recently bottled the wine after a Charger game (we sampled a lot because this was during our 6 game losing streak). The wine turned out surprisingly well, with great color and very nice berry flavors. There is still some alcohol heat, but that is understandable since this is so young. I really liked how the Russian River version turned out, with much bigger fruit and berry notes. We bottled half straight up and then Dan bottled the other half with different fruit juice mixes to make some great Sangria.

(Dan please post you Sangria combinations in the comments or on your blog and give me the link)




And Dan still has 3.5 lbs of Elderberries, any ideas? (elderberry mead, dark elderberry sour...)