Elderberry Wine Stage 1

We completed the first stage--and likely the most involved--of our first elderberry wine making  adventure the other day. In all, it took four days, quite a bit of guesswork, and what must have been a hundred different checks of the wine's temperature while waiting for it to cool below 90 degrees Fahrenheit (it took about six hours for it to go from about 140 to 90). We also doubled the wine's recipe in order to make two gallons, using nearly 7 lbs of berries.

Here the berries are in the mesh bag, rinsed and ready to be smashed. We salvaged the gallon bucket from the nearby food co-op. This bucket had previously held feta cheese.

Rather ironically, we used a sparkling grape juice bottle to smash the berries. Note the fetching rubber gloves.

Once the berries have been smashed, we added the sugar, orange juice, and grape juice concentrate as the recipe called for.

Then comes the hot water. We put an old towel under the winemaking proceedings to catch any spills. It came in handy.

When you lift out the berry bag, what remains will become wine. Also green goo.

Filling the bottles. These are 1 gallon carboys.


A couple quick observations:

• DIY stoppers Modeling clay makes for a decent stopper.
• Mesh bags The small wire mesh bag used for holding the berries during crushing, which I feared would be too small, provided plenty of space to for the 7lbs of berries we used, especially once they were crushed. It could probably handle twice that amount.
• The heavy lifting Most of the work came in the first day: mixing the ingredients, mashing the berries, squeezing the oranges and lemons, boiling the water, and, as previously mentioned, waiting for the mixture to cool before adding the yeast. 
• The optimal temperature for adding yeast There was some confusion over when to add the yeast. The recipe says not to add the yeast until the temperature of the mixture has dipped below 90 degrees. However, the directions on the packaging of the yeast say to add it to the mixture when the temperature is between 100-105. Because the packet was enough to make five gallons of wine, we simply added half the packet at the 102 mark and the other half at the 90 mark. Hopefully the extra yeast won't affect the quality.
• No toes used in the smashing process Smashing the berries with the bottom of a wine bottle as the recipe suggests works well. I was a little concerned that maybe I had gone overboard with the smashing and crushed the seeds, which the recipe warns against, but after emptying the berries from the bag, they appear to be smashed to the right consistency. 
• That's a lot of sugar! I hate foraging wild food and then blending it with a bunch of processed food, especially sugar.
• The dreaded green goo As many articles warn about, elderberries emit a green goo, and it is, well, gooey. We tried salvaging our wire mesh bag, which was covered in green goo, by pouring boiling water over it. When that failed we boiled it in water and then boiled it in vinegar water, and then finally gave up and threw it away. We have traces of green goo in our boiling pots as well. Don't mess with the stuff. It will win.
• Temperature for the fermenting stage Temperature is important, which I didn't learn until after the primary fermentation. Apparently violent swings in temperature is bad for the yeast. The second night the batch was fermenting, the ambient temperature (and inside wasn't far off) dropped to 55 overnight before raising to 80ish during the day. On the third morning, vigorous fermentation, indicated by lots of bubbling action and strange odors, had subsided. Not sure if it was due to the temperature drop. Apparently, 55-65 is best. Keep it in that range.
• Airlocks Airlocks require water to function properly. We used a three part airlock and a single piece airlock that utilizes two water chambers (pictured). I prefer the latter. It's practically dummy proof. It's the one on the left.
• Recipe quantity The recipe was supposed to produce just under two gallons. We ended up with about 2.5 gallons.
• It is fun! Lots of fun! Quinn's parents were in town throughout the process and they really seemed to enjoy it. And it's a project that will last the winter (and remind you of the summer), when foraging opportunities are rather slim. 

We're Making Wine!

We've decided to make wine with the 7lbs of elderberries now in our possession. It was mostly Quinn's idea. I wanted to make jam, but she thought it would be too bitter. When I mentioned that my friend's grandfather used to make elderberry wine, she got really excited about the prospect of homemade wine, even though neither of us are big into wine. Quinn says it made her think of the currant wine that was part of a key plot twist in Anne of Green Gables. She thought that homemade wine must be delicious! But that's the power of wild food foraging, it makes foods you typically take for granted much more delicious and appreciated.

Of course, neither of us have ever made wine before. So we did what we normally do when starting a new hobby--we googled it. Specifically, we googled elderberry wine recipe. I eventually landed on this article and decided to go with their recipe, which they call "basic." A good place to start when you're just beginning. 

Typically, the more involved the procedure for harvesting and processing something--the more I enjoy it. This recipe calls for about an eight-month process so it definitely fits the bill. Plus, we might move out of the region in about a year and a half and a couple of bottles of home-brewed wine will make a great memento. It will also make a great Christmas gift.

Although the recipe itself isn't hard to follow (at least it seems that way), I had trouble with some of the lingo. Here's a rough breakdown of that lingo:

Primary:  Essentially, it's a bucket or some sort of container that you mix the berries and              ingredients in. It is called a primary because it is where the initial mixing is done before transferring it to a carboy.

Carboy:  A glass jug. They come in 1, 3, and 5 gallon sizes. You want to match the size of your carboy to the quantity of wine you are producing. Otherwise, you will be doing a lot of topping up.

Topping Up:  Apparently exposing wine to air for an extended period is bad. So you "top up" your carboy until the wine fills the entire thing. This can be done by simply adding water, another wine, vodka, or sterilized glass marbles. But it's best to add as little as possible. Hence the need to match carboy size with expected wine quantity. You'll likely have to top up every time you rack.

Rack:  This is simply transferring wine from one carboy to another empty carboy. It's done about 3-5 times throughout the six or so months. Its purpose is to remove the wine from the sediment that has settled to the bottom. You keep racking and topping up until no sediment remains.

Here's some additional supplies, all of which can be found online or at your local brewing store:

- Siphon hose

- Funnel w/ filter. For transferring wine from container to container.

- Airlocks: Google it. They have something to do with keeping air from touching the wine. If you get the plastic ones, they're relatively cheap.

- Stoppers:  They plug the hole at the top of the carboys. If using an airlock, you will need a stopper with a hole through its middle. 

- Bottles: Nothing wrong with use old wine bottles.

- Corks:  Surprisingly expensive.

- Straining Bag:  For putting the berries in to soak in the primary. We bought a small bag, but probably should have gotten a large one. 

- Corker:  For affixing the cork in the bottle. They can be ridiculously expensive or rather cheap. At this point, we haven't bought one yet. But when we do, it will be the cheap variety.

All in all, we spent about sixty dollars on supplies (although we got the primary from a local grocery store), including ingredients to make the first batch. That about gave Quinn a heart attack, but very few hobbies offer an inexpensive start-up fee and this hobby is no exception . Hopefully, we get good use of our equipment over the years and recoup our investment (below is the plant I found the other day that could easily make that wish a reality. It has enough berries to feed a small army). To put that cost into perspective, though, a hunting and fishing license in New York State costs up to $96 dollars. And that price doesn't include all the necessary gear.