Share on...

Elderberry and Runner Bean Wine

This sounds like a most unlikely combination, to be sure, but the fact is that it results in a first-class, unbalanced wine. Raabe beans mitigate the harshness of straight elderberry, so it pays to put a few pounds into your freezer each year to ensure you have some when the elderberries are ready. Gardeners should not have any difficulty.

• Boil some fresh, young runner beans in a small amount of water. Please do not use the water in which the beans have been cooked for the table, as it will have been seasoned with salt. Strain the bean liquor and save
• Place the elderberries in a fermentation bucket and pour the remaining boiling water over them.
• Add the sugar and stir well.
• Pulp the elderberries with a kitchen spoon or potato masher, then add the bean liquor.
• When cool, add the acid, vitamin tablet, nutrient and yeast.
• Cover closely, ferment on the pulp for four days, stirring daily.
• Strain the mixture into a fermenting jar and secure an airlock.
• The wine will ferment out quickly, but it will take longer than most to mature, even with the help of the runner beans.
• If you need to speed the process, the cautious addition of a bit of glycerin is recommended,
• One of the modern artificial maturation agents now available in wine shops is a help.