Early on we decided not to be limited by traditional elderberry winemaking recipes and to experiment with lots of different ways to make Elderberry wine. We will start off with a traditional Elderberry wine recipe, but after that one we toss out traditions and try to make even better Elderberry wines. We assume the reader has basic winemaking skills and can measure the Specific Gravity and Total Acidity of their must and will use these recipes as simple guidelines. We do not include the amount of sugar to add to each recipe as fruits vary in sugar content from season to season and from different states. We aim for 0.65% TA in our wines and include the amount we added to our recipe only as a guideline. We also assume the you can determine when to rack and how long to wait until the wine clears. We also only use a limited variety of yeasts, we experiment a lot with recipes and keeping the number of different yeasts low to those whose behaviour we can predict allows us to change recipes and not worry about the effects of the yeast. We also like to oak a lot of our fruit wines which some readers may find non-traditional, the taste though is fantastic and Elderberry and oak go very well together.

There are many ways to make this basic Elderberry recipe. For high tannin levels the pulp can be left in the primary for 7 days or more, for a lower tannin and more fruity flavored wine remove the pulp after 1 day. It can also be finished dry or off-dry. The oak is of course optional and not traditionally added, but it does add some flavor.

Whenever traditionalists see 100% Elderberry juice they shudder, someone told them this could not be done and so they never tried to do it. We have never know what we could not do so we tried it and it makes a great wine. The goal of this recipe is to make a full fruity flavored wine with low tannin levels that can be consumed early. If you want to add Potassium Metabisulfite add it after the juice has cooled. Juicing releases pectin so an additional amount of pectinase is required for the wine to clear. This recipe can be varied by using less Elderberries, even 17 pounds of berries makes a good wine, but some red grape concentrate should be added to provide body if less berries are used.

Do you have a lot of small stems mixed in with your berries after you did the Freeze and Knock the berries off the bunches? Worried too many stems might give your wine a off taste if you ferment on the stems to long? One way to avoid that problem is to press the berries. Make sure to remove the big stems and ALL of the bugs. Thaw the berries overnight at room temperature and then press in bags.

100% Elderberry Juice and a Mead, this is not for the beginner or the faint of heart and the fermentation will fight back but if you keep your head about you this is a great mead.

We wanted to make a heavy Port style wine with lots of different flavors. When sipping this wine a carnival of flavors swirl around. There is no guessing as to what is in here, you can taste them all. The must is started off and then fed slowly with concentrated fruit juices. An alternative is to just add all the fruit juice concentrates at first and feed with sugar syrup as the fermentation progresses.

Dried Elderberries taste significantly different from fresh berries, they have a raisin like taste. For high tannin levels the pulp can be left in the primary for 7 days or more, for a lower tannin and more fruity flavored wine remove the pulp after 1 day. It can also be finished dry or off-dry. The oak is of course optional and not traditionally added, but it does add some flavor.

You will be glad you made this cooking wine, a couple of shots of this into your stir fry will add both ginger and a little elderberry to brighten up the dish, a couple of shots into the cook will brighten them up also. This can be drunk, its hot hot hot with ginger, the elderberries really just add color and a little flavor.