eandbwine.md

Elderberry and Blackberry Wine

Ingredients

3.5kg fruit, ~50:50 elderberries and blackberries.

2.1kg sugar

lemon juice or fresh lemons

red wine / brewing yeast

water

Steps

1. Remove stalks + underripe berries from elderberries (as these are poisonous).
2. Wash all fruit. Clean bucket with sulphite solution and put washed fruit in bucket.
3. Add 2 litres of slightly-less-than boiled water to the bucket.
4. Fill up bucket to a little less or 2 gallons with tap water.
5. Crush fruit to make a pulp (Any flat kitchen utensil you can press on base of bucket will work, or even clean hands.)
6. Add a tablespoon of lemon juice (fresh or bottle).
7. Add 2x campden tablets or 1/4 coffee spoon of metabisulphite and stir in. Cover bucket and leave 24hrs.
8. After 24hrs, make yeast starter: Add ~1/2 pint of tepid water (not more than ~40C) + 100g sugar to a jug. Add yeast and stir until you can't feel sugar grains with the spoon (i.e. all the sugar is dissolved). Leave 1hr.
9. Filter pulp in bucket through nylon mesh bag into other vessel(s). (Use e.g. funnel + demijohns awaiting use.) Squeeze nylon bag into vessel and get out as much juice as you can.
10. Clean bucket out again. Pour Juice from other vessel(s) in. Add ~1.1kg sugar to bucket and stir until dissolved.
11. After 1hr from making yeast starter, pour the starter into the bucket and stir in.
12. Top-up bucket with water to just less than 2 gallons if needed. Cover the bucket and leave for 3 days.
13. After 3 days, stir / dissolve in any remaining sugar into bucket.
14. Funnel contents of bucket into 2x 1 gallon demijohns, of equal proportions. Plugin bung +airlock (with sulphite solution added to airlock) and leave for ~ 3-6weeks.
15. After all bubbling has stopped and everything has settled to the bottom of the demijohns, syphon off liquid into bottles.
16. Store for a month then enjoy! (Or, store for 100's of years and then sell for millions of $$$ ;-).)