I found this add in one of our local papers for elderberries (almost ripe) to pick ;2lb for $1. I'm going to call the number and see where it is and such. I've never used elderberries before, so does anyone have any input on how these work for wine. Any insights would be appreciated. I'm sure I'll find a recipe on Jack's site, but it is always nice to get input from others who've made it. Thanks in advance. Darlene G'town, Wisconsin
Greeting Kinsman, I ususally go out to stream beds west of Madison, (thats in WIsconsin) and pick them for free of course till someone was able to prove to me what actual elderberries looked and tasted like I was pretty slow to do so. I was worried about getting the wrong thing. I took about a gallon of destemed berries ( I did that with a fork ) Froze them in a gallon ziplock, defrosted and squessed them in a piece of cheese cloth and ended up with about about a half gallon of juice. (which suprised me as the berries are tiny and the seeds seem to make up most of the berry) It was an instense blue black and I used that half gallon in a six gallon batch of mead with 3 lbs of my honey per gallon of must so ended up with a
1.105 SG using K1V-1116 yeast and pectinase it came out a very dark red with an intense flavor that completly hides the honey. I have yet to bottle it it had an end sg of 1.004 I have stabalised it and plan to sweeten it to 1.01 or so to make it more pleasnt on the tounge. Got to run to wrk but plan on two to three years for aging on elderberry from all the books I've been reading. Cheers, DutchElderberry is our favorite. I got 3 - 5 gal buckets of them last year (with stems) I made a total of 15 gal wine plus a couple pies and some jelly I freeze them for a couple of days, bag them, then pour hot water over them as I do most fruit. After a few days of fermenting, I squeeze the juice from the bag. Then I start a smaller batch using the same bag of pulp. It's lighter, but makes a nice wine, and you have to use another packet of yeast. One time I added them together, after the second batch got going. It was also good. BTW Be prepared for a very hard to clean film in your carboy after a couple of months. A real PITA. Good Luck
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