I have lots of elderberries - any ideas

[beesley121]

Hi guys,

Im almost finish de stalking the elderberries. I may have around 5 or 6kg. what can i make?
it to make it even beter
i would like to make a sweet, ful bodied wine
anyideas how

is there anything i can add extra to it to make it even better

[Richard S]

Elderberry recipes here.

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=39

Use a high alcohol yeast and feed sugar to the must when the sg drops below 1.040 (Karl will say wait even longer ). Repeat this process until the yeast dies off, usual abv approx 17%. Taste and sweeten more if required. This will give you a dessert style wine, it needs to be very sweet to balance the amount of alcohol, if it were dry you would have an alcahol burn (hot) taste.

There is quite a bit about making dessert style wines on here, do a little more research before you start.

[Duffbeer]

Elderberry recipes here.

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=39

Use a high alcohol yeast and feed sugar to the must when the sg drops below 1.040 (Karl will say wait even longer ). Repeat this process until the yeast dies off, usual abv approx 17%. Taste and sweeten more if required. This will give you a dessert style wine, it needs to be very sweet to balance the amount of alcohol, if it were dry you would have an alcahol burn (hot) taste.

There is quite a bit about making dessert style wines on here, do a little more research before you start.

Well there is a reason for this, if you feed at 1.040 and the alcohol tolerance is met and you have increased the sg by say .020 you will end up with a finishing gravity of 1.040 at minimum maybe higher.
If you feed at a lower sg say 1.020 and increase by .010 at each feeding you are never going to have a finishing gravity of more than 1.030 which would be about right for a dessert wine.

[Richard S]

There you go, I knew there would be a sensible (slightly geeky) reason, makes sence though.