Fermenting Elderberries question

[fatbloke]

Well to my knowledge, with berbaris its only the ornamentals you see here as they're not native, but if you can find them in bulk, then most (all ?) are edible, but like some other berries, small and fiddly to harvest and not "trendy" here.

I suspect that cracked cork is the man who really knows for elderberries as I understand he makes shed loads and grows them for this very reason. I believe they're stuffed with vitamin C and anthicyanins.....

Sea buckthorn is also very good, but having watched a prog with HF-W making a sauce with them, it seems you have to wait until all the green has gone from the plant and the berries are mega ripe, then with a very sturdy pair of rubber type industrial gloves, drag/strip the berries/juice directly into a bucket, then later on strain the juice and then press any pulp. It high in various vitamins and also quite acidic (malic I believe). Then it can be fermented etc......

[WVMountaineerJack]

Bob must be busy, I suggest you read the book he painstakingly typed out on elderberry winemaking

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=1009

We grow the American Canadensis elderberries, not the Nigra, the european ones in our garden grow well for a year getting very tall but some leaf disease keeps knocking their leaves off and eventually the whole Nigra plant dies.

As for cooking elderberries to make wine, it does change the flavor, but elderberry jelly is cooked and it is good and boiled elderberry wine is good but in my opinion not as good as raw berries. If you want to reduce the tannins try this, freeze the berries, then thaw and crush, add pectinase and Kmeta and macerate overnight and then press or squeeze the juice out. The shorter time the juice spends on the pulp the less tannins. Steamed elderberry is also good, doing it this way you can use up to 100% juice!

I would also like to plug our elderberry winemaking webpage working with North American elders and all the ways people have told us to pick the berries and make wine from them at http://www.oatmealjack.com/

Crackedcork

[robwrx]

I can't believe Bob typed out the whole book, wow! That is dedication

Some great advice and methods posted which has given me ideas for trying different recipe processes to see what tastes the best.

Crackedcork, your website is a great resource for Elderberry wine making and I shall work my way through some of your recipes over the coming years.

A work colleague kindly "picked" (turns out she cut the whole heads off) some Elderberries and froze them for me. I will have to press the juice from the berries as it will be impossible to separate the stalks now. If I hadn't started this thread I would never have thought of doing that myself.

Cheers
Rob

[WVMountaineerJack]

Shake the berries loose in a bag, pass them thru a screen big enough for the berries to pass thru and then roll them down a towel while they are still frozen to get rid of a lot of the little stems. Glad you liked the elderberry webpage and yes Bob is a maniac and very dedicated to copy the whole book. Crackedcork

I can't believe Bob typed out the whole book, wow! That is dedication

Some great advice and methods posted which has given me ideas for trying different recipe processes to see what tastes the best.

Crackedcork, your website is a great resource for Elderberry wine making and I shall work my way through some of your recipes over the coming years.

A work colleague kindly "picked" (turns out she cut the whole heads off) some Elderberries and froze them for me. I will have to press the juice from the berries as it will be impossible to separate the stalks now. If I hadn't started this thread I would never have thought of doing that myself.

Cheers
Rob