Elderberry Wine (Part 1)

My mum & I used to make wine when I was a teenager, with varying degrees of success. Some were downright horrible, to be drunk only in extremis (my brother recently reminded me of an orange wine that tasted like a bitter alcoholic marmalade). Others were actually quite nice, and among those I would happily include elderberry and blackberry wine.

Harvesting the Elderberries

Elderberries & blackberries grow abundantly in the UK, ripening in Autumn. Right now, along the canal tow-path in Glasgow, there are elderberry bushes whose branches are being weighed down by their fruit. Large bunches of small almost-black berries that look like glistening vines of caviar, practically begging to be picked!

Elderberry Bush in Full Fruit

To be fair, they look rather nicer than they taste. At best, they are just OK to eat (when fully ripe and much less so before). You can get away with a blackberry crumble if enough sugar is added: you just wouldn't bother trying with elderberries. As far as I know, their only use is in wine-making (for humans, at least), and it seems almost criminal to let them go to waste.

Berries Stripped from Stalks
at about the 3lb stage!

Pick them by plucking the whole cluster of berries by the stalk from the bush. A standard supermarket carrier-bag full of stalks & berries will yield a rough 3lb of berries, enough to make 1 gallon (6 bottles) of wine. Use a fork to strip the berries from the stalks into a large container (take care, they can bounce and ping everywhere). This is quite a long-winded but effortless task: best done while watching some telly or listening to music. I easily gathered about 6lb of berries which took about 2 hours to strip free from the stalks.

Rinse the berries gently in some water and skim (not too fussily) any larger creatures, twigs and green berries that float to the top. The ripe berries will sink.

Strain the good stuff from the washing water and tip into a large STERILISED bucket.

A Note on Sterilisation (does not work on pets)

Nothing can ruin all your hard work like nasty little invisible bacteria. Sterilise all your wine making equipment from this stage on. You can buy sterilising powder in most chemists or brewing shops and from on-line suppliers. I got mine from Tesco. You can also use milton fluid or even good old boiling water (but I have no idea how long boiling water takes to sterilise something). Sterilising solution made from a powder takes about 10 minutes to work, and this extra minimal effort is worth every second. Indeed, without it you really might as well stop now.

Getting Brewing

NB: All added ingredients are for my 2 gallon batch (6lb of berries). Adjust as appropriate to the size of your own batch.

Also note that this recipe is pretty much experimental based on hazy memory and guessing. The idea is to record what I've done and adjust if necessary for next time.

Get the kettle on.

Mash the berries with the bottom of a (sterilised) wine bottle or glass jug, squashing at the same time against the sides of the bucket, until you start to see some pool of crimson berry juice forming, then mash a little more. Add 1/2 lb of black currants* and 1/2 lb raisins* and 6lb of sugar and the juice of a couple of lemons (I used 3 tablespoons of jiff lemon juice). If I'd had one I'd have put the juice of an orange in too, but I didnt. Will add some later if I remember.

Pour on 12 pints of boiling water and stir well.until the sugar dissolves Allow to cool to blood temperature.

Add  some pectic enzyme and yeast nutrient according to the packet instructions, and finally the yeast**. Cover your bucket.

After about 12 hours you should be able to see and hear your fermentation getting going. Stir well, daily for 3 or 4 days.

* left over from last years xmas cake and needed to be used up. I'm sure sultanas, prunes, dried apricots etc would all work just as well

** bread yeast will work, but you will get much nicer wine using a proper wine yeast. and there are many to choose from. I'm using a pretty generic one (again from Tesco) which promises high alcohol tolerance (which is why I have used plenty of sugar- I'm going for a strong one) and fast clearing. We shall see.

Welcome

Please don't be put off... by the cheesy blog title: I was keen to get started and was hit with immediate writers' block when it came to choosing a name.

"Brews, Stews & Other News" (get used to it) is, I hope, going to grow into a kind of diary & record of some of the home-brewing and other culinary projects I like to embark on from time to time. I also reserve the right to blog on just about any other topic I choose, hence the 'other news' bit.

So here it is: my new blog. Comments, advice, opinions and corrections are always welcome, especially so when they are polite (although obnoxious can also be fun).