Elderberry

I picked a lot of elderberries, so much that I stained my hands purple. These are going to be wine, and some might be port (fortified with brandy).

The wine (1 gallon):

1.8kg elderberries, stripped from stems (use a fork if you don’t want purple hands)
1.2kg sugar
1 tsp citric acid
Burgundy Yeast and nutrient
water to 4.5 litres

Strip berries, and pour 3 litres of boiling water over them. Allow to cool to 21C and add yeast, nutrient and acid. Leave for 3 days, then strain onto sugar in demijohn. This is liable to froth, so you might not want to put all the juice in the demijohn, but reserve some in another bottle from which to top up.

To make the port:

Using the wine recipe, proceed as above. Closely monitor fermentation and gravity. When the gravity reaches approx 1.030 stop fermentation with an addition of brandy (this pushes the alcohol beyond the tolerance of the yeast). Aim for around 20%. The formula to be followed is:

X = V(C-A) / B-C

X = GAL BRANDY NEEDED

V = GALLONS OF WINE

C = FINAL ALCOHOL % WANTED

B = ALCOHOL % OF BRANDY

A = ALCOHOL % OF WINE