At this time of the year, there is a distinct possibility that you will have some dried elderberries left over from the harvest of last Autumn (or you may have bought a bag from your local homebrew store), now is an ideal time to use them to make dried elderberry wine.
The common method used in CJJ Berry's book to make 1 gallon is to take:
250g of Dried Elderberries
100ml of Red Grape Concentrate
1.25kgs of Sugar
1 teaspoon of Citric Acid
4.5ltrs of Water
The water is brought to the boil and then the grape concentrate, dried elderberries and sugar is stirred in to dissolve the sugar. Once it has cooled, citric acid and pectic enzyme is added, followed by Yeast and Yeast Nutrient. It should be kept in a warm place and stirred daily for a week and the fruit should be pushed down regularly. At the end of a week, it is strained into a fermenter and left to ferment out.
This will produce a dry table wine which will be ready to drink much sooner than wine made with fresh elderberries. The same method can also be used to produce dried sloe wine.
