2011 Elderberry

[docanddeb]

I have no one to drink more wine... so 2 batches is plenty! LOL

I like my Elderberry Pee to have a strong elder flavor, so I squeeze the heck out of the bag at that point.

Debbie

 

[ffemt128]

I racked off the 2011 Elderberry wine today and I am in the process of backsweetening. Both batches were at .992 sg and I am back sweetening to 1.002 for starters. The Tartaric Acid batch is very smooth to the taste and has good mouth feel. Both dry and back sweetened. There is noticible tartness to the Acid Blend batch in it's dry state. I will be adding my simple syrup later this evening and will do a better comparison at that time. Later I will taste both dry and both sweetened and report back, initially there is IMHO significant taste difference to each.

Just an FYI, both batches had 1.5 oz Medium French Toast oak cubes added 6 weeks ago.

 

[Boyd]

Gots about 75 pounds in the freezer and a 15 gallon conical fermenter.

Stumbled onto a bunch near Minneapolis at the end of the season.

Thinking about going whole hog and using them in one batch.

Should work? I hope?

Did 5 gallons of Marquette/Elderberry/Black raspberry last year. Tasted it today. Not bad. More important my youngest daughter says it is good.

Going to let it set in the carboy for another month.

 

[ffemt128]

I checked the PH and Acid levels this am after calibrating the meter. The readings were as follows;

Tartaric Acid Batch - Ph 3.04 .74% TA
Acid Blend Batch - Ph 3.44 .78% TA

Not sure if those number correlate given the different acids. I'll check them again after the back sweetening has a chance to blend for a week or so. Will determine if I need to back sweeten any more at that point. Right now being at 1.002 it's tasting pretty good, however I did like the tartness of last years batch.

Any comments from someone more in the know about the PH and TA levels?

 

[ffemt128]

Well after playing around with a 1/2 gallon of this over the weekend. We increased the sweetness from 1.002 to 1.006 and added another 1 1/2 tsp of acid to each. The added acid would be half of what we added while playing around with the sample. Will add more if needed later.

 

[ffemt128]

Just got done racking both batches of the 2011 Elderberry. I have 2 very full 5 gallon carboys of each. I did bottle 2 bottles of the acid blend batch, one with a T-cork and one with a regular cork. The additional adjustment to both sugar and acid were well worth it. I have to say it is quite good. Both batches are smooth with not bitter taste or bite to them. I think they will be well received when they are bottled in January.

 

[docanddeb]

I find the Elderberry can take quite a bit of acid and is much improved by the final tweaking!!

I loooove elderberry! We opened one from 2009 the other night... man.... it was fantastic!

It's super with honey too!! and of course... elder pee! It's such a pain to sort them that you have to use the same batch 2-3 times to get your labor costs out of it!! Thank goodness the berries are wild!

Debbie

 

[ffemt128]

Over the last week I have filtered and bottled both batches of the 2011 elderberry wine. As you recall, one had acid blend added and the other utilized tartaric acid. Both had very similar ph and acid % readings to start. I have taken the opportunity to taste both of the batches at bottling. While both are very good in flavor, I have to say that the batch with the tartaric acid tastes smother with a bolder flavor than the batch with the acid blend.

I believe that in the future when I make elderberry, I will be using tartaric acid in place of acid blend.

 

[Wade E]

Thanks for the update on this!

 

[ffemt128]

Thanks for the update on this!

My pleasure, I was quite surprised at the difference in taste between the 2 batches.

 

[ffemt128]

Well, sorry to say, I only have a case and a bottle or so of each batch left. I'm not sorry to say that this wine has been a hit with everyone who has tried it. We've drank some with close friends and gave some away to those same friends. I need to hide the remaining bottles so that It can age until I get more berries.

Don't worry Julie, I got you covered with your bottles since you said you wanted to try the different acids.

 

[mrpoland]

My eldberry was a big surprise! With the first taste I was not happy with the wine and I thought it was wasted time. Then with every sip the taste was changing. After another glass the wine becomes very interesting. I have a feeling like this is like olives! Lots of people didn’t like them, including me, but with the time they love it. I also believe you guys that with the time the wine will be better! I am going to wait longer to taste it again and then decide if I should repeat it next year.

 

[Boyd]

Racked a 13 gallon jug of elderberry yesterday and had more green goop sticking to the side than you could shake a stick at.

Man at midwest supply sugested PBW. Tried it and it disolved all the goop in a few minutes. Dumped 3 tablespoons full in the jug, added about 1/2 gallon of water, the rolled the jug around until clean.

No more vegetable oil for me.

 

[gird123]

My primary and secondary were covered in green. I used 2 tbs of oxyclean and it worked very well.

 

[Julie]

Alright Doug, do you still have me covered????? LOL, we need to do a taste comparison. I am getting ready to start another batch of this, still trying to clean out the freezer. I still have my son's freezer filled with apples, hopefully I can get to that this spring as well.

 

[ffemt128]

Alright Doug, do you still have me covered????? LOL, we need to do a taste comparison. I am getting ready to start another batch of this, still trying to clean out the freezer. I still have my son's freezer filled with apples, hopefully I can get to that this spring as well.

I got you covered. Don't you worry.