[NAFEX] Elderberry wine Martha D
Richard MURPHY
murphman108 at msn.com
Mon Nov 5 13:13:08 EST 2007
Hello Martha and All;
If you bought a wine kit, and it came with dried Elderberries, I can almost promise you that they are Nigra, not Canadensis. Across the pond, most, if not all are Nigra. When you buy dried Elderberries on the web from a Herb Co., they are almost all Nigra (I've not seen Can. yet). British people love Elderberry wine.
Regarding the winemaking........ I've used both successfully.
Observations:
DRIED: cheap - always avail - 'unknown spray history' (usually wild picked = no spray ??) , no green crud
FRESH: fresh or frozen - spray history known - green crud.
What is Green Crud ? It is a component of fresh Elder that turns into tar-like green glue on the meniscus of the Primary fermentation tank, and in hoses / tools. Not harmful, just a nuisance to wash off.
Both of my wines tasted very similar. Understand that I bring the fresh Elderberries (in about 1" of water) in a covered pot to a boil for about 3 minutes. This changes their taste, more like that of the dried.
Wine from 2/3 cider and 1/3 Elderberry-cooked-in-water is awesome !! Better you make a lot !
Get the initial S.G. up to 1.09 Ferment to dryness. Back sweeten it a lot. (sorbate too) Oh my...
Cheers !
Murph
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/private/nafex/attachments/20071105/9c755362/attachment.html
More information about the nafex
mailing list