# Elderberry Mead Recipe Help



## Ben Brewcat

I estimate a starting gravity about 1.108, not that big at all. Beer hydrometer?



> I have about 10 lbs frozen elderberries,de-stemmed.How much should I use?


You can always add more later, but I'm a go-big-or-go-home guy. I haven't made elderberry mead though, and they are pretty assertive. Someone else?



> What form should the fruit be in?


I like whole frozen. Easy enough to rack off the debris after aging, and you do get more flavor than with just juice. Juice is easier to deal with though. 



> I have heard about the "elderberry scum" that is imposible to remove.


Haven't met a scum I couldn't remove (or live with) yet







. Unripe fruits will be higher in pectin which can cause haze, but can be addressed easily with pectinase. Many hazes will eventually drop on their own without finings if you wait long enough. If it's something large like hairs or stem bits, it'll rack right off. 



> Is this enough honey to make a sweet mead?


Maybe a little sweet. Off the cuff I think 1.108's about 14% potential alcohol. With a 15% strain and decent yeast health, that'll be dry, perhaps very dry tasting with the tannins from the elderberries. Consider a less aggressive yeast (like the D-47, actualy a good choice for a red mead) or upping the honey by a pound or so. 



> With this much honey,the OG will be quite high,off the scale of my brewing hydrometer.Will I have a problem getting the fermentation going if I put all the honey in at once or should I start with less honey and then add more as fermentation slows?


Shouldn't be a problem at all, wine yeasts can handle that kind of gravity routinely. A liter starter is great... what medium will you use? If you're a brewer and have it around, use some DME to make up a 1.020 wort, aerate, ferment it out and pour off the spent beer. Rouse and pitch. If you're absolutely bent on making a mini-mead starter (and recall that this does little for the yeast), use a lower gravity than your must. As Dr. Clayton Cone (microbiologist of Lallemand, makers of Lalvin wine yeasts) says, "your yeast should be healthy but hungry"!

Lastly, and opinions vary on this, but I'd cut the nutrient and energizer additions to half what the *packages direct* . NEVER just add what a recipe says, since manufacturers have different formulations and you could end up with a fraction or many times what the yeast want, seriously harming your mead. It's like reading the milligrams on a medication.


----------



## SGebauer

The scum is something else! If you use plastic as a primary fermenter you might have to chuck it after. I use all glass and was able to get the carboys clean with long soakings. 

I made a elderberry mead 2 years ago and they are assertive. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly how much in the way of elderberry I added. My mother burned out on making jam and gave me some juice and berries. 

I think what you have laid out will taste great when it is all done. As usual, IF you can age it, it gets very good. 

cheers,
Shane


----------



## Jack Grimshaw

Thanks for the comments.

I will up the honey to 17 lbs and check for the recommended amounts of energizer and nutrients.

I think I will try to juice the berries(hoping to avoid the scum).I will add most of the juice and freeze the rest in an ice cube tray.I can always add more later>


----------



## Ben Brewcat

Might consider freezing in a ziploc or something... freezers are terribly unsanitary (you'd think they'd not be) and open ingredients can be a problem when added later. In a ziploc, just thaw, sanitize and pour.


----------



## Jack Grimshaw

Sorry I wasn't more clear.I'm a lazy typist.After freezing in an ice cube tray,next day pop into a ziplock.Great way to store small portions of herbs,juices etc.Just thaw what you need. Jack


----------



## LMN

I use a gallon of fruit for a gallon of wine, except elderberry I cut in in 1/2. The Elderberrys are just to strong for 1 to 1.


----------



## Jack Grimshaw

Update;

I followed the recipe pretty much as planned but upped the honey to 16 1/2 lbs(plus 1 lb in the starter).

I put the berries through a Foley Food Mill and added after 6 days(6 cups of very berry flavored,almost nasty, juice)

SG off the scale of my beer hydrometer(only 1.080)

Racked from plastic to glass after 2 weeks,not much scum but a very difficult clean up.Soap doesn't cut it.

Stored in 55-65deg cellar.

Racked again in about 2 months.Very murky but good aroma.Forgot to get a sample for SG.Oh well

Racked again yesterday.Crystal clear,a beautiful ruby red.SG 1.004.I tasted the sample in the hydrometer tube.Slightly sweet,a nice berry flavor,with a bit of an after burn.But,amazingly,by the time I finished the sample,the burn had disapeared.

I plan on aging in the cellar for about a year before I bottle.

Next batch will be peaches.Same recipe I think.I've got 11 lbs,frozen but not cooked,skinned and de-pitted.The Foley Food mill makes a nice puree that releases a lot of flavor but the solids will soon settle out.


----------



## Jack Grimshaw

*Update----07*

Bottled in July,couldn't wait.Nice flavor,mildly sweet.

Entered in EAS honey show in Aug. Blue ribbon!! OK,there were only 5 entries in the class and 2 were disqualified.

Judges comments:

Score Criteria Remarks
20 clarity Excellent
10 color excellent
14 taste poor finish
6 body lost during process
6 bouquet lost during process
10 bottles 
10 bottle closure

-----
76 Total Score not that great(my comment,not the Judge)

Any suggestions on what I could have done to improve my low scores?

Would adding an acid blend at bottling have helped?

Or how about acid in the beginning? Juice of a lemon or a couple of tea bags?

I'm sure aging would have helped but I'm not sure how much.


At the same conference,I met Ken Schramm.He gave 2 presentations on Mead and Melomel.

Nice guy.Very patient with beginners questions.Tasted one of his Melomels,made with sweet,dark cherries. WOW!!! 1lb fruit per bottle. 

When I picked up my entry at the end of the honey show,I caught Ken eying the bottle,so I offered him a taste of the elderberry.He said it tasted good. Honest answer. It definitly wasn't a WOW!!! mead.

I would like to make meads that make people say WOW!!! and stick out their glass for a refill.


----------



## Ben Brewcat

Acids should only be added to meads that need acid to balance sweetness IMO. Really, you'll need to sit down with a clean palate and taste, with an eye towards "what would add a complimentary complexity?" or "what would have streamlined this flavor so the [whatever] came forward more?". Good questions to ask the judges. Try entering in more contests (same mead, you'll have to ship) to get more feedback.


----------



## AndrewSchwab

send some to me. I will help judge for you.


----------



## Aspera

Sounds pretty scrummy.....congrats. A very good score. Try it again sometime with the D-47. This yeast gives a very thick, full body, but may leave your mead a bit sweet.


----------



## WVMJ

So do you still have any bottles of this batch setting around to try and see how well it aged? WVMJ


----------



## Fl_Beak

We can get wild elderberry around here, as for clean up- try vegetable oil. It's a pain to clean up, but is a neat addition to some wines, and give a nice color.


----------



## WVMJ

After the vegetable oil, the green goo does not dissolve in water or alcohol, just wash the vegetalbe oil off with warm soapy water. We have a bunch of elderberry stuff like how to pick and sort and how to tell if the berries are ripe and wine recipes on our website in the sig below. WVMJ


----------



## Gypsi

I need an elderberry mead recipe that suits my alcohol consumption and elderberry stock (I have about 1 quart of fresh ripe elderberries). Got 30 lbs of honey total, so it is NOT all going into mead making. I want maybe a gallon of mead, can freeze the elderberries until more ripen.


----------



## WVMJ

My webpage wvmjack.com has some elderberry mead recipies to help you get started. Keep picking and freezing until you get enough for a 5 gal batch, its worth the work of picking. WVMJ


----------



## Gypsi

Should I boil first or just freeze the ripe berries in ziplocs?


----------



## Vance G

What is this boiling thing? Why? Too often when I tried that I got that cooked fruit taste. Freezing the berries will break the cell walls nicely and those yeasties can walk thru berry skin without even walking sideways. Personally I would find a yeast table on the internet that will give you the hydrometer reading required for some nice cool weather yeast like D-47 if you can wait for cool weather. It will make a 13%ABV mead or a little more and passes on the fruit flavor nicely. Or go with KIV-1116 and ferment honey and nutrient under 75 degrees for three days and then add the frozen berries. It will wake back up in a day and shoulder in those berries and ferment the available sugars there. Then you can sorbate and sulfite the wine to kill the yeast and back sweeten to your preference. It will be up to and over 16% ABV but not too harsh and should be drinkable in six months and wowsers in a year. I use melter honey with tart berries and the carmelized honey gives it some sweetness although worked very dry on the hydrometer.


----------



## Bee Bliss

I know elderberries cannot be eaten raw. Wine is another story I guess.


----------



## Gypsi

I ate a couple raw when I was picking, went ahead and threw the bag in the freezer. (I rinsed when I cleaned from stems and I don't spray anything)


----------

