Homemade Elderberry Wine
Learn to make wild fermented elderberry wine with this easy tutorial.
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Servings: 24 bottles
Equipment
- 5 gallon Fermentation Crock w/ Lid
- Stock Pot
- Potato Masher or cap masher
- Large Kitchen Cloth
- Kitchen String
- Large Fine Mesh Colander
- 5 gallon Carboy
- Siphon Tubing ⅜" diameter
- Airlock to fit your carboy
- 24 750 ml. Bottles
Ingredients
- 11 pounds elderberries
- 3 pounds raisins organic
- 5 gallons water
- 18 cups sugar
- 1 cup lemon juice
Instructions
- To your fermenting vessel, add elderberries, raisins, and one gallon of boiled and cooled water.
- Using a potato masher, mash the mixture to break the skins of the elderberries and raisins. This process will take about 10-15 minutes.
- Cover the crock with a thin kitchen cloth and secure it with kitchen string. Place a loose-fitting lid over the top.
- Allow the crock to sit for 3-4 days in a cool, dark place, stirring once daily.
- Set up the colander over the stock pot.
- Remove the lid, string and kitchen cloth, and pour the mash through the colander to remove all the berries and raisins.
- Using the potato masher, smash the berries and raisins in the colander to extract as much of the moisture out of them as possible.
- Rinse out your crock, and transfer the strained juice from the stock pot back into the crock.
- Place the colander over the crock, and pour the remaining 4 gallons of boiled and cooled water through the mash in the colander to extract any remaining juice and flavor before discarding it.
- Add the lemon juice and sugar to the crock.
- Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. This will take several minutes.
- Cover the crock again with a clean kitchen cloth, string, and lid.
- Allow to sit for 3-4 days.
- Remove the lid, cloth, and string to check your ferment. By now, you should see some activity in the form of movement and bubbles coming to the surface. Additionally, the sediment should have settled to the bottom.
- Set up your fermentation crock on a counter above the carboy on the floor.
- Fill your siphon with clean water to begin the siphon.
- Place the tubing in the fermentation crock and pinch the other end until you feed it into the carboy. Release the tubing and allow the siphon to begin.
- Siphon all of the liquid from the fermentation crock to the carboy. When the crock is almost empty, tip it to the side to siphon every last drop.
- Fill the airlock with a little bit of water and seal the carboy.
- After a few minutes, you will see the gasses from the ferment escaping making the water in the airlock bubble.
- Check your ferment once a week until you notice that the bubbling begins to slow down.
- When the bubbling starts to slow, check once per day until the bubbling slows to less than once every 15 minutes.
- Remove the airlock and siphon the wine from the carboy to wine bottles and cap them off.
- The flavor of the wine develops as it ages, so allow the wine to sit for 5-6 months before consuming it.
Notes
See the three videos in the blog post above to watch Josh make this elderberry wine.
* Nutrition facts were not calculated because it's hard to know just how much sugar is consumed during fermentation.
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