Blackberry & Elderberry Wine Recipe

Blackberry and Elderberry Wine RecipeThis simple and easy blackberry & elderberry recipe is another of those traditional hedgerow wines made in the countryside for many years. It’s similar to a Burgundy wine, well bodied with a strong multi-flavoured nose. The bananas are a more modern addition adding a subtle overtone.

If you’re foraging for berries, avoid busy roadsides where they may be tainted with exhaust fumes and particles. There’s nothing to stop you growing an elderberry in your garden and there’s information on the Allotment Garden web site about growing blackberries here: How to Grow Blackberries

 

Blackberry & Elderberry Wine Recipe

Ingredients for Blackberry & Elderberry Wine Recipe:

  • 2 lb blackberries
  • 1 lb elderberries
  • 2 ripe bananas
  • Campden tablets
  • 3 lb sugar
  • Wine yeast
  • Yeast Nutrient
  • Water

Method Blackberry & Elderberry Wine Recipe:

  1. Strip the elderberries from the stalks and wash well. Strip and rinse the blackberries.If you immerse the fruit in a bowl of cold water for a few minutes, any hidden insects and grubs will float out.
  2. Put into a fermenting bin and crush.A traditional potato-masher is prefect for the job.
  3. Pour on 4 pints of water. Add 1 Campden tablet, crushed and dissolved in a little warm water.
  4. Boil half of the sugar in 2 pints of water for 2 or 3 minutes and, when cool, mix into the pulp.
  5. Peel and mash the bananas and add to the pulp.
  6. Add the yeast and nutrient and cover and allow to ferment for a week, stirring daily.
  7. Strain and press and return the liquor to a clean fermenting bin.
  8. Boil the rest of the sugar in 1 pint of water for 2 or 3 minutes and, when cool, add to the rest.
  9. Cover again and leave for 3 or 4 days.
  10. Pour carefully into a gallon jar, leaving as much deposit behind as possible.
  11. Fill up the jar with cooled, boiled water to where the neck begins.
  12. Fit a fermentation lock and leave until fermentation has finished.
  13. Rack, as necessary, adding 1 Campden tablet after the first racking to stop fermentation.
  14. Syphon into bottles.

This Blackberry & Elderberry wine recipe will produce about a gallon of Burgundy style wine. Do give it at least a year to mature although two would be better.

Posted in Country Wines
5 comments on “Blackberry & Elderberry Wine Recipe
  1. Bertie Pollard says:

    Can somebody please help me? I’m making blackberry wine and it sounds like it’s fixing but no bubbles are coming through my airlock! Any ideas? Much appreciated bertie

  2. Paula Jones says:

    I’ve got five gallons on the go and I can see bubbles coming up from the mix but it doesn’t move the air lock. I am not worried so long as no bugs can get in it. No need to worry there’s probably not enough pressure to move the air lock. They seem to work better on demijohn containers.

  3. Hugh Moore says:

    I have 6 bottles of elderflower wine which I thought was clear now i see some sediment can i return to a carbon until fully cleared and rebottle ?

  4. Will Moindrot says:

    Hi John and others, I am using this recipe just at the moment to make some mixed-summer fruit wine. One thing I wasn’t sure about, and I think it could have been the issue with the other commenters is that with the instructions it doesn’t mention leaving any period of time between adding the campden tablet and the yeast, whereas in other recipes commonly they ask for leaving it 24hrs so that the campden tablet does not retard the yeast activity. In the batch I’m making I have left it 24hrs to be safe, and this morning I will go on to add the further 2pints and sugar with yeast/nutrients etc. I hope that’s right. Thanks for the recipe, very clear to follow, as are your books. Best, Will

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