Elderberry wine at home: recipe

Elderberry shrubs grow in almost every country house or garden. But not everyone knows that from such unremarkable fruits we get quite tasty home-made wine.

Homemade wine can be made both from black berries and from its inflorescences. From a black berry a thick, dark and saturated wine is obtained, but from the elderberry inflorescences a softer alcoholic beverage with floral notes, light in color, is produced.

Berry selection

Elderberry home-made wine is, of course, tasty and to some extent even healthy. But when choosing a berry, you should pay attention to its color. Elderberry should only be black and ripe. Making red elderberry wine at home is highly discouraged. The fact is that such fruits are considered very toxic due to the high content of hydrocyanic acid in them, which acts on humans in the same way as poisonous mushrooms.

Black elderberry also contains such a toxin, but in small doses, and only in the stalk and seeds. There are two common methods that eliminate the harmful effects of hydrocyanic acid:

1. Squeeze the juice from each berry. With this processing method, hydrocyanic acid will not get into the wine from elderberry, but the aroma of the drink will be less pronounced, due to the lack of benzaldehyde in it. This compound is able to decorate homemade wine with almond notes.
2. To maintain a rich aroma, the berry can be subjected to heat treatment. It destroys all the toxic effects of acid, but retains beneficial properties and coloring matter.

Basic ingredients for elderberry wine

Making a drink does not require special skills or expensive equipment. The only thing needed is:

• elderberry;
• water;
• sugar;
• water seal or rubber glove;
• suitable fermentation tank;
• gauze;
• raisin yeast or wine yeast.

Elderberry must first be prepared for making wine using one of the methods presented above.

Raisin sourdough for homemade wine

This leaven gives the homemade drink a more refined taste, but it must be prepared in advance.

For starter culture you will need:

• 150 g of raisins;
• 75 g of sugar;
• 350 ml of drinking water (38-45 ° C).

Cooking:

1. Dissolve sugar in warm water, pour the mixture into a jar and add raisins to it.
2. We place in a warm dark place for four hours.
3. We take the raisins from the jar and grind them in a blender or mixer.
4. The crushed dried fruits are again placed in a jar of sugar and water, and we also add a couple of unwashed raisins.
5. We cover the neck of the jar with gauze and put it in a dark warm place without drafts.
6. If after five or six days a foam has formed on the surface of the sourdough, the sourdough is ready, and it can be used in making homemade wine. How to do it?

Elderberry wine with raisin sourdough. Cooking

Wine from black elderberry according to this recipe is very tasty, sweet, with notes of raisins.

The strength of the alcoholic beverage is 12-14%. The volume of the finished product is 7-7.5 liters.

Ingredients:

• 200 ml of raisin yeast;
• 3 kg of granulated sugar;
• 2.5 liters of drinking water;
• 5 kg of elderberry.

Cooking process:

1. Mix warm water with black elderberry juice, dissolve 2.3 kg of sugar in this must.
2. Add raisin sourdough to the wort and pour it all into a 10 liter fermentation tank.
3. Attach a water seal or rubber glove to the neck of the bottle.
4. Leave in a dark warm place (20-23 ° C) for two weeks.
5. After the set time, the active fermentation of the drink will end, and it will be possible to remove the precipitate from the wine with gauze.
6. Add sugar to the decanted wine from elderberry, pour into a container with a nominal value of 8 l and put in a cool place for two months.
7. Within two months, it is recommended to periodically remove the sediment using triple-folded gauze.
8. At the end of this time, homemade elderberry wine is removed from the sediment for the last time. Then the wine is bottled.

Elderberry Wine Recipe with Flowers

The strength of the drink is 13-15%, the volume of finished wine is 3 liters.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 kg of sugar;
• 5 l of black elderberry juice;
• 5 l of water;
• 2 tbsp. l lemon juice.

Cooking process:

1. Elderberry juice, lemon juice and 200 g of granulated sugar pour boiling water (3.5 liters) and put on fire.
2. Boil the wort before boiling and remove from heat, cool to 24-26 ° C.
3. Dissolve the remaining sugar in 1.5 liters of warm water, put on a fire and cook to a thick consistency.
4. Cool the resulting syrup.
5. Mix with wort, add raisin sourdough and pour into the necessary fermentation tank.
6. Install a water seal or glove on the neck of the container and put it in a dark place with a temperature of 20-23 ° C.
7. At the end of fermentation (14-16 days), remove the precipitate of wine with gauze.
8. Take a sample of wine and add sugar if necessary.
9. Leave in a cool place for 2-3 months, periodically removing sediment from the wine.
10. After - bottle homemade elderberry wine.

From inflorescences

Berry flowers produce a soft and tart home-made wine.

Fortress 13-14%. The volume of the finished product is 5 liters.

Ingredients:

• 5 l of drinking water;
• 1.5 kg of sugar;
• 150 ml of raisin yeast;
• 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup elderberry inflorescences;
• 2 pcs. dried cloves.

Cooking process:

1. Dissolve 1 kg of granulated sugar in 5 liters of warm water, put on fire and cook to a thick consistency.
2. Cool sugar syrup to room temperature.
3. Rinse elderberry flowers well, place them in a fermentation tank.
4. Add sugar syrup, lemon juice and raisin yeast to the flowers, mix thoroughly.
5. Close the bottle with a water seal, gauze or a medical glove.
6. Every day, homemade wine should be mixed and if a precipitate occurs, remove it with gauze.
7. Five days later, strain the wine and separate from the cake.
8. Pour elderberry wine back into the bottle and leave for another six days.
9. On the seventh day, dissolve 500 g of sugar in a liter of wine and pour back into the bottle, mix thoroughly.
10. At the end of fermentation (14-16 days), remove the precipitate of wine with gauze. Pour into bottles and put in a cool place for three weeks.

Making homemade elderberry wine is very easy. But despite this, the drink has a rich, deep taste and is easy to drink. To get a quality home-made wine, you must carefully select the ingredients and constantly monitor the fermentation process. Subject to the rules and the recipe, elderberry wine at home will certainly please with its qualities.