How To Make Elderberry Wine – Traditional Folk Method – Foraging Recipes

Add the berries (with stems removed) – do not clean too thoroughly as you want the natural yeast from the skins – and 2 litres of the water. Mash with a potato masher (or in my case I used the stick blender) to break the skins of the berries and expose the juices. Add the raisins (before or after water and mashing). Transfer to your fermentation jar or bucket, and add the remaining litre of water.

Leave for 3 days at 21 degrees.

Strain out fruit, fully dissolve 1.2kg sugar, this may take a lot of stirring, and top up to just below the neck with cold water. then put back in cleaned fermentation jar for 3 more days at 21 degrees.

After the full 6 days it should be bubbling away fermenting nicely – if not leave a while longer and check temp is ok.

Fill bubbler with water that has boiled and then been allowed to cool. Now we “rack” the wine to remove any sediment from bottom. Siphon wine into a 5l demijohn, careful not to disturb or transfer the floating scum or the sediment dregs. Fill to the neck of the demijohn with cold water. Then attach bubbler and make sure that is working properly – else kaboom! Leave at 21 degrees for 4-6 weeks.

Start checking that bubbling is no longer occurring. If it is, leave for a while longer.

Once bubbling has stopped, do a quick taste test to make sure nothing terrible happened – it may be quite tart at this stage though. Then “rack” the wine again, siphoning it off into a clean container, then bottle your wine. Leave to mature for at least 6 months before drinking. It gets better with age so leave longer if possible.