ELDERBERRY WINE.

4lb ELDERBERRIES.  2lb 11oz SUGAR.  BURGUNDY YEAST.  NUTRIENT.  CITRIC ACID.  1 GALLON WATER.   RED GRAPE CONCENTRATE (OPTIONAL)

To strip the berries from the stalks, wear rubber gloves or use the prongs of a fork or steel comb.  Otherwise, it is a messy and tedious business!  Be careful that drops of the juice do not stain your clothes.  Weigh the berries and crush them in a bowl or bucket.  If grape concentrate is being used it should be added at this stage.

Pour on 6 pints of boiling water.  Stir well and allow to cool to 20C.  Then add the yeast, acid and nutrient.  Cover closely and leave for 3 days in a warm place, stiring daily.

Then strain through a sieve onto the sugar.  Pour the liquor into a dark glass demijohn.  Do not fill completely until the first vigorous ferment has subsided.  Then, top up with cold boiled water and fit fermentation lock.  Leave till fermentation is complete, then syphon off into clean dark bottles.  (if you have no dark bottles cover your clear ones with brown paper).  Keep for a further 6 months at least. 

PLUM WINE.

4lb PLUMS.  3lb WHITE SUGAR.  YEAST.  YEAST NUTRIENT.  PECTIC ENZYME.  1 GALLON WATER. 1lb. WHEAT OR BARLEY - OPTIONAL.

Wash the fruit and cut it up, then put it in a bowl and pour over it 3 litres of boiling water.  Cover it with thick cloth or sheet of polythene and when it is cool add the pectic enzyme. 

Leave 4 days, giving it an occasional stir.  The, strain through a nylon sieve or muslin.  Dissolve sugar in the juice and add yeast.  Cover again and 2 days later pour into fermenting jar and fit airlock.  Top up to bottom of neck of jar with cold water.

When the wine clears syphon off the sediment, keep for a further 3 months, then rack into bottles.

More fruit can be used if available to lend more body to the wine, or failing that 1lb. of wheat or barley.  (Plum wine does tend to be rather thin). 

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