Elderberry question with pics

Mar 13, 2005 5 Replies
H

Hi all,



Just got started making my first batch of Elderberry. Picked berries last summer, froze, destemmed to best of my abilities, and followed the less fruity recipe on Jack's website.



Since Elderberry isn't that sweet, it took just about what the recipe called for, 2.5 lbs sugar per gal to get to result of 1.090. I started the must last sunday and added yeast by monday night.



Everything was clean, sterilized, measured, water boiled, yada yada yada.



Tonight (sat) I check SG, down to 1.04, pulled out the fruit and did last stir. Will rack to secondary in one more day.



The recipe says to primary ferment 14 days, which i think is way too long, especially with my SG the way it is going...



Here's the question....



There's a bunch of sticky gooey muck, unlike any other wine I have made. It has the consistency of rubber cement, and will roll into balls if your fingers are wet. The color, well, you'll see. Please look at these pictures and see what you think it may be.



The interesting thing is that I used two fine straining bags to hold the fruit, but only one seemed to collect this sticky muck.



What is it?



Will it hurt the finished wine?



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Thanks, Greg, Erie, PA


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G

The voices in the head of Hoss caused Hoss to write in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Man, that's gross - it looks like a bomb went off in an abortion clinic!

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J

Greg, the problem you are experiencing is the infamous "elderberry goo." The riper the berries, the less goo there will be.

Clean-up can be really frustrating or really simple. Use any commercial cleanser and you will be frustrated. Use plain old vegetable oil and the stuff comes right off. Then you have to use really hot water and a degreaser to get the vegetable oil off, but that is easier than the mess you will have with a commercial cleanser.

When you rack, the goo will be left behind. If any transfers into secondary, it will be very minor and you can clean it later.

Good luck, and good wine.

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page

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H

Thanks for the help and the cleanup trick Jack, and all.

I'm glad I posted this to ease the worries and the frustration of cleanup.

Greg

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M

Gregory

Your Elderberries were picked to green, you have to wait until the stems are purple black almost back to the main plant and you will have no green sticky goody muck at all. You will have to freeze berries to get them off of main stem because the berries will be ripe,big, & juicy. don't worry about the little stem that hold's the berry if they are deep purple put in bag and heat up and squeeze out juice. I use a paint strainer bag. Your wine will be your best ever.

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