Elderberry Wine Recipe - A King Among Fruit Wines

Maybe your like

Elderberries are one of the UK best fruits for making wine. Often referred to as the “Englishman’s grape” elderberry wine is a rich, full bodied wine and there is usually a plentiful supply of the fruit throughout much of the UK you can pick for free out of the hedgerows.

I know many enjoy making wine from elderflowers and even I have a batch made from this year. Elderberry wine, however, is in my opinion far superior. Despite the obvious difference in colour with elderberry making a deep red wine, elderberries do not require much work to go from grape to glass.

Elderberries have many of the qualities that grapes have that make them so well suited to wine making. In fact, elderberries have often been added to grape wines by commercial wineries to boost tannin and colour. The only difference between wine grapes and elderberries is that elderberries require a sugar addition at the sugar content of elderberries is around 7%.

Elderberries also possess some acids to balance the finished wine. As in many country wines, an addition of mixed acid is required or the finished wine or it will be flat or flabby tasting. Elderberries are high in citric, malic and fumaric acids.

Foraging For Elderberries

As far as I’m aware there isn’t a readily available supply of fresh elderberries available to buy. Although you can buy dried elderberries which are used for making wine, you will want fresh elderberries to make this wine.

The great thing about elderberries is they are abundant throughout the UK and they are very easy to harvest and prepare for winemaking.

Elderberries are small dark purple to black coloured berries, they hang in umbrella-shaped clusters and are ripe around August to October.

It goes without saying that if you are unsure of the identification you should not pick the berries. Take a good identification guide with you when you are looking for elderberries to ensure you are picking the correct thing.

The easiest way to pick elderberries is to take a pair of scissors and snip each cluster of berries at the base of the stem. You should be able to quickly harvest a fair amount and when you get them back home separate the berries from the stems with a fork.

Preparing Your Elderberries For Making Wine

Once you get the elderberries back home after picking you will want to remove the berries from the stems, the stems are slightly toxic so this is an important step.

The easiest way to remove the elderberries from the stems is by combing them with a fork. Gently comb the berries away from the stems a few at a time into a bowl and repeat for the whole harvest.

Once you have the berries de-stemmed it is time to clean them. Fill a large enough bowl to accommodate the berries with cold water and add the elderberries. The ripe and mature berries will sink to the bottom. Any green, damaged berries will float as will any leaves and bugs. Remove the bad berries and debris with a sieve and drain the well-cleaned elderberries.

After cleaning, if you are not planning to make wine straight away you can freeze the elderberries in a freezer bag which gives you the flexibility to make the wine at any point you choose.

What You’ll Need To Make Elderberry Wine – Makes 1 gallon / 4.5 litres

Small Fermenting Bucket
Demijohn
Large Pan
Syphon
Fine Straining Bag
Potato Masher
Airlock & Bung

Elderberry Wine Ingredients

1.2kg Elderberries
4.5 litres Water
1.1kg Sugar
2 tsp Acid Blend
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
1/2 tsp Pectic Enzyme
1 Campden Tablet
1 sachet of Yeast (we recommend Lalvin RC 212)

Elderberry Wine Method

1. Heat the water in a pan on the stove, add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Bring to the boil for a minute and then turn off the heat.

2. Take the prepared elderberries and place them in the straining bag inside the sanitised fermenting bucket. Use a potato masher to thoroughly crush the berries. It should be noted they will stain so try not to get any on your clothes. Your straining bag will never be the same colour after making elderberry wine!

3. Pour the boiling water over the crushed elderberries and give them a good stir. Allow to cool for a few hours and then add the yeast nutrient, acid blend and the crushed Campden tablet. Mix thoroughly, cover and fit the airlock and wait for at least 12 hours.

4. After 12 hours add the pectic enzyme mix thoroughly and wait for a further 24 hours.

5. After 24 hours add the yeast onto the surface of the must, there is no need to stir. Cover and fit the airlock and patiently wait for fermentation to begin.

6. Stir the wine daily for the first week of fermentation, after 2 weeks lift out the straining bag and allow the wine to drain from the berries. Avoid squeezing the bag.

7. Leave the wine to settle for a day and then syphon the wine into a demijohn. You may check the gravity now if you have a hydrometer. The wine should be close to, if not fully fermented out.

8. Allow the wine to condition in the demijohn for at least 3 – 4 months, racking when any sediment builds up. After conditioning for at least 3 – 4 months you should sample the wine. You may want to back-sweeten the wine if you prefer a sweeter taste if so follow this guide before bottling. If not rack them straight into bottles and try to keep hold of them for as long as possible.

Elderberry wine ages very well and will continually evolve so try and hold onto a few bottles for a year or more. You will be pleasantly surprised at how good an elderberry wine can get.

by Neil 37 replies

I use my Grand Fathers recipe from western Maryland 1935 for a picture of my Elderberry wine that’s not for sale check out my Facebook
Reply
- Elderberry wine and any product made from the amazing tree is nutritious and health giving. There is a country saying however that I always abide by and that is to ask permission from the “Elder Lady” who is the ancient guardion of the tree’s permission before removing any part of it. “OLD GIRLGIVE ME SOME OF THY FRUIT AND I WILL GIVE YOU SOME OF MINE WHEN I GROW INTO A TREE” is the way it goes and retribution befalls any who ignore it, so the folklore goes. I had an article published in This England on the folklore surrounding the Elder Tree and would gladly send a copy to anyone interested for just the cost of postage. Basil
  Reply
  - Would love to see your article.
    Reply
  - I would love to see your article please
    Reply
  - I would Love to see your article as well!
    Reply
In the ingredients, you say to use less acid if the apples are tart, but there are no apples, and you also say elderberries already have a mix of acids. Would you please clarify?
Reply
- Yes, I apologise that was a copy error. 2 tsp of mixed acid is the correct amount.
  Reply
Hi,

Great recipe! Do you think it would be ok to use swing top bottles rather than wine bottles? I assume that any excess pressure would be easily released while preserving an airtight environment.
Reply
- Swing-top bottles are fine. There will be no pressure build up because it is a still wine. As long as the seals are good then they are perfect.
  Reply
Hi, why are you suggesting not to squeeze the muslin bag after you take it out of the primary fermenter? Also isn’t it too much to add a whole gallon on water when the target volume is a gallon, considering there is also sugar and elderberry juice? Thanks!
Reply
- Hi Anton, you can squeeze the bag but I find it doesn’t yield much extra and it make the wine clear much slower as well as possibly extracting astringency from the fruit. The extra volume allows for losses when you rack and transfer the wine to new vessels and off the sediment.
  Reply
Would you add an additional camden tablet at the end? It was suggested to me to use one at the beginning to stop mould, and one at the end to help clear it.
Reply
- You can. It will help stabilise the wine. Potassium sorbate can be used in conjunction. I have a guide on how to stabilise a wine here – https://homebrewanswers.com/back-sweeten-wine/ which may be helpful.
  Reply
  - Thanks for your help with this! I’ve just made your peach recipe as well and im not sure what I’m doing wrong as both seem almost watery. Like they’re thin. Any thoughts on why (i used the right volumes) and if there’s a fix? 🙂
    Reply
I’ve just made two batches of this. Both exactly the same, made from berries collected on the same day and sitting next to each other. One’s bubbling away nicely, the other showing little to no activity… what’s next? Combine them? Add more yeast? Thanks.
Reply
After adding the pectic enzyme you haven’t mentioned covering and fitting the airlock. Should I therefore leave it uncovered at this stage?
Reply
- You will need to cover with the lid and airlock. Sorry, I should have been clearer.
  Reply
Hi,

I followed all the instructions apart from the airlock on the bucket (just a solid lid). I have moved to a demijohn and after a week there isn’t any movement in the airlock – any advice please?
Reply
- Hi Barry, It may be that the wine has fermented through all the sugars already. If you have a hydrometer it would be good to take a reading to see how much fermentable sugars remain. Take a look at this article which give a bit more indepth advice. It says it is about beer but applies equally to wine.
  Reply
I was wondering about the sap that the elderberry produces because it’s so sticky how do you get rid of it
Reply
- I’m not sure about the sap. WHen I make elderberry wine I remove all the berries with a fork and don’t have any issues with sap from the stems.
  Reply
Hello! Total newbie here, excited to find a new use for our elderberries. Can you explain the function of the pectic enzyme, and whether it can be skipped?
Reply
- The pectic enzyme is used to break down the cell walls of the fruit, it will also prevent a haze from forming in the finished wine. You can make the wine without the pectic enzyme but you may experience haze in the wine and less extraction from the elderberries.
  Reply
  - Thank you! That all makes sense 🙂
    Reply
Can this recipe be used with blackberries?
Reply
- Yes, you can also take a look at this blackberry wine recipe
  
  Cheers.
  Reply
When this wine is completed, what type of wine does it most closely resemble? Is it a dry wine or more sweet?
Reply
- Elderberry wine is high in tannins and full-bodied. Malbec and Syrah are good comparisons.
  Reply
The recipe explained is for 1 gallon, therefore if I were to make 2, 3 or 4 gallons the ingredient amount would be X’d by the volume amount I wish to produce, including Camden tablets at the beginning?. 3 gallons, 3 Camden tablets?.
Reply
- Yes, everything except for the yeast will need to be multiplied. One sachet of yeast is typically enough for 5 gallons.
  Reply
I remember finding a bottle of my late father’s homemade Elderberry wine at the back of the top shelf in my pantry back in the early 80’s. I remember exactly when it was made, as one of the fermentation containers popped and leaked wine down the walls…. It was the day of the moon landing in 1969. So the wine was about 12 years old. When sampled it was fantastic… reminiscent of a fine bottle of Port!
Reply
Hi, probably a stupid question but to make 4 gallons, should I just multiply all ingredient quantities by 4? Thanks. Luke.
Reply
- Multiply all the ingredients except for the yeast. One sachet will be enough for 4 gallons.
  Reply
Hello, I’m going to try this elderberry wine recipe next week (collected and froze berries the last moth or so). Question: another website/recipe suggests using the strained berries for a 2nd run to make a rose. That recipe suggests leaving the berries in for 2 days, then taking out to use for the rose. I prefer your elderberry recipe but I’m wondering if I could still use the berries after 2 weeks (as your recipe says) and using for a 2nd run rose? Do you have experience of this or would you just suggest dumping the berries after 2 weeks, or leaving in for less time and still trying for the rose? Thanks 🙂
Reply
- I don’t think it would hurt to try. The only thing I would worry about is you are mainly getting colour from the second batch and not much flavour. It would definitely be worth experimenting with.
  Reply
With regards to sugar, when does that go in?

Also where people have questioned things have you updated this in the text so I don’t have to go from directions to comments to see if it is right?
Reply
- Dissolve the sugar in the water when adding to the berries. The sugar needs to go in at the start of the process.
  Reply

Want to join the discussion? Feel free to contribute!

Neil At Home Brew Answers

I love brewing whether it’s beer, wine, mead, or anything else. I even became a professional brewer for a while. I hope the information here helps you in some way … read more