Elderberry Wine

Elderberry Wine

Finished elderberry wine is more red than traditional grape wine.

Elderberries

​Two different species of elderberries are native to the United States. It is the black elderberry (Sambucus nigra), which is edible and used to make wine. Elderberries are large bushes that are easy to grow. If you do not have room to grow elderberries, you can buy them, usually dried. If you would like to learn more about elderberries, please see my previous article.

Elderberry Wine

​Elderberry wine is one of the few fruit wines that is as good as wine made from grapes. Although I have made wine from other fruits, and they can be great for everyday consumption, most fruits do not make amazing wine. Although this is a fairly straightforward recipe, if you are new to fermenting, I recommend checking out my blog post on “The Basics of Fermenting Wine,” and feel free to message me with any questions. 

Steam Juicing Elderberries

​The first step in making fruit wine is to break open the fruit to release the juice for fermentation. Softer fruit is relatively easy to crush with a handheld potato masher, wooden spoon, or even a sauerkraut pounder. More firm fruit like apples or Aronia berries or very tiny fruit like elderberries can be difficult to crush. In these cases, I often use a steam juicer to heat the berries, which breaks open the fruit and releases the juice. This also releases the color from the skins into the juice so when you ferment there is no need to worry about punching down the skins to get good color extraction. I also like to cook elderberries to inactivate the residual cyanogenic glycoside in the berries. However, many people do not cook elderberries before fermenting them. Ripe elderberries have fewer toxic compounds than unripe berries, so if you choose not to heat your elderberries make sure you get out as many unripe berries and stem pieces as possible. If you do not want to heat your elderberries but instead ferment them raw, you can freeze-thaw them, which will help break open the berries to release the juice.

​To steam juice, you add the fruit to the top colander-type compartment. Add water to the bottom of the juicer and start heating the fruit. Once the fruit softens and starts releasing the juice, it will flow into the middle compartment of the juicer and out of the attached tube. I collect the juice in half-gallon jars. Most juicing takes 1-2 hours to complete. Ensure that water remains in the bottom pan the entire time to avoid warping the pan. Stirring or pressing the fruit is not recommended since it can add small amounts of pulp or seeds to the juice, making it cloudy. If I plan to ferment the juice into wine, I do not care about cloudy juice since it will be clarified as it ages. Therefore, I usually stir the pulp or scoop it out, mix the pulp with a little water, and crush it with a potato masher or spoon a second time to release more color and juice. I then add the pulp and water back to the top of the juicer and let the steam extract a little more juice. This will add water to the juice, but I usually add a little water to my fruit wines anyway. The general rule of thumb is 3-5 pounds of fruit per gallon of wine, although there is nothing wrong with using 100% juice, as it will make a more flavorful wine. Once you have extracted as much juice as possible, let the juice cool (I put the jar in cool water in the sink to cool it down faster, being careful not to crack the jar) before starting your fermentation. You can also refrigerate or freeze the juice to ferment later.

Elderberries before removing stems (left), elderberries after cleaning (center), and elderberry-Marquette grape juice ready to ferment (right).

Making Elderberry Wine

In the fall of 2024, we juiced almost 15 pounds of elderberries and collected nearly 2 gallons of juice. We used the juice to make a 3-gallon batch of wine. The starting pH was 4.15 and Brix (percent sugar) was 5.8. I added sugar (~1 gram of sugar per 100 grams of juice will raise the Brix by 1%) to get a final Brix of 23.4 which should give an alcohol content of ~12.8% (multiply the Brix by 0.55 to get a rough alcohol percentage). I also adjusted the pH to 3.51 which is more in line with red wine (pH of 3.3-3.6 is recommended). A lower pH will increase the wine's stability and storage time. The total acidity (TA) measured 6.0 g/L. My recipe is below:

1. 3 gallons of elderberry juice at 23.4% sugar, 3.51 pH, and 6 g/L TA
2. Lallzyme EX in distilled water (this contains pectic enzyme)
3. GoFerm Protect Evolution in distilled water (yeast rehydration nutrient)
4. OptiRed (used in red wines to enhance mouthfeel and stabilize color)
5. RC-212 yeast
6. FT Rouge was added 8 hours after the other ingredients (this is a tannin used in red wines but should not be added at the same time as pectic enzyme)

I did not add a Campden tablet since the juice was sterilized from steam juicing, but if you add one, wait 24 hours before pitching your yeast. I used Lalvin Bourgovin RC212 yeast, which works well for me. This yeast is typically used to ferment red wines, has an alcohol tolerance of up to 16%, and ferments at 64°-86°F. Other yeast options include Red Star Premier Rouge (64°-86°F; 14% alcohol tolerance) or Lalvin EC-1118 (50°-86°F; 18% alcohol tolerance).

​I fermented the juice in a 5-gallon bucket with an airlock. The airlock started bubbling the next day and continued to bubble for about 2 weeks, indicating fermentation was occurring. If you do not see bubbling, it is likely that there is a leak in your lid, if you see bubbles rise to the surface when stirring the wine, fermentation is likely occurring. After a few days, I added Fermaid O nutrient to boost fermentation. When fermentation slowed, I racked the wine into a 3-gallon glass carboy. The pH was 3.45. After racking, I added 1.5 Campden tablets.

​I racked again a month later. The pH was 3.56, the TA was 8.5 g/L, and the sulfites were low, so I added 2 more Campden tablets. I also added 50 grams of medium toast French oak cubes. The recommendation from the oak cube manufacturer is to oak for 3-4 months.

​I will rack approximately every three months and bottle after about 1 year. In previous years, my elderberry wine had a floral aroma, similar to elderflower liqueur. This year I changed the fermentation ingredients and once the aging is complete, I hope to compare my 2023 wine with my 2024 wine to see if the changes improved the wine and also see how both batches age over time. In 2023 I used plain pectic enzyme instead of Lallzyme EX, I used a generic yeast nutrient instead of the GoFerm Protect Evolution, and I did not add extra nutrients a few days into the ferment. This was also the first year I used OptiRed and FT Rouge.

Our finished elderberry wine from 2023.

Conclusion

​Elderberry wine is one of the best wines I have made. Our 2023 vintage is still young, so I hope it will continue to improve with age. It does benefit to open it about an hour before drinking to let it breathe. I will continue to update this post as I follow both the 2023 and 2024 vintages and future vintages over time.