Sunday 10 November 2013

Elderberry wine

elderberry wine Nov 13

We are now well into our wine making session. Our latest from the Chateau Sunniside stable is elderberry wine. The two demijons above were set away earlier this week but we topped them up yesterday. We found the recipe in an old wine making book from Boots the Chemist. Boots used to be one of the biggest suppliers of equipment and ingredients for making homemade wine. I think they abandoned this activity years ago so their books are, I guess, possible collectors' items. The one we are using was printed in 1973 and has belonged to David for 40 years. He got it as a wine-brewing teenager!

I have converted the measurements into metric from imperial to make more sense of them. Add 1kg elderberries stripped from their stalks to a preserving pan and simmer in 4.5 litres of water for 20 min. Strain onto 1 kg sugar and 2 tsp of citric acid crystals. Then add 200ml red grape concentrate and a couple of tsp on yeast/nutrient. We left all this to stand overnight and then added them to the demijons.

We'll let you know how we get on but I can report they are fermenting well.

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