How to make Elderberry Blossom Wine:

Elderberry blossom wine is made from the bracts of flowers that are found on the black elderberry bush. This bush is usually a blossom at the end of May or early June that is the time to pick the flowers. It takes a quart of flowers that are picked off the bracts to make a gallon of wine. When it is finished elderberry blossom wine as an oily smooth sweet flavor and is amber colored. The finished wine is really a treat like nothing else that you have ever drunk. This is a real sipping wine!

My introduction to elderberry blossom wine was a couple of years after grandfather made his elderberry wine; this time my mother was the winemaker. It seemed that my sister was going to get married in a couple of years and my mother decided to make the wine sold would be ready for the wedding. She never did marry the guy but we got to drink the wine anyways.

These are the ingredients that you will need to make a batch of wine besides that my mother did which was also 5 gallons.

Ingredients

5 quarts of elderberry blossoms that have been picked off the bract.

5 gallons of boiling water.

15 pounds granulated sugar.

Five lemons thinly sliced.

One packet of winemakers yeast.

Some of these ingredients can be bought in the local grocery store, the winemaker’s yeast is available at specialty shop selling winemaking supplies. There may be one of the shops in your town or it is available on the Internet.

The next thing she did was put the blossoms into a large soup kettle and poured the water over the blossoms. Then she let them set for about an hour, with occasional stirring. At the end of our she strained the blossoms out of the water using a piece of cheese cloth that had been doubled over a few times.

Step two of the process involves bringing the water to a boil and dissolving the sugar into the water. Once a liquid is lukewarm add the lemon and the yeast. Let it stand for 24 hours then once again strain it, and pour it into bottles. Fill the bottles will enough water to bring the level up to the neck of the bottle.

In the case of the wine that my mother was making instead of bottling it and was put into a 5 gallon keg that was fitted with an airlock allowing it to age for several months before drinking. The wine was made in the spring of the year and it was ready to drink the following Christmas. That will give you an idea of how long you have to allow it to age before drinking the stuff.

If you want to make a smaller batch, like a gallon, divide the ingredients by five.

Remember that wine making is like going to church, cleanliness is next to godliness!