[smokegrub]

Has anyone steam-juiced elderberries? Thoughts/recommendations?

[Cracked Cork]

Hi Smoky, we have steamed elderberries, we got about a gallon of juice from about 10 pounds of berries, "about" is as close as I can get as we never actually kept records for them, just juiced until I got enough juice to do whatever we wanted. The acid levels will be lower for some reason, at least for us it was very low after juicing. If you can get enough elderberries try to make a 100% juice wine, its really worth it. We juice the berries, add sugar to the hot juice to melt it. We let it cool, take an acid reading and then add acid, nutrient, oak and the yeast. I dont usually add KMeta to the steamed juices as its basically sterilized and t he yeast will get a fast start.

TRY IT YOU WILL LIKE IT

Crackedcork

[Waldo]

Cracked, do you seperate them from the stem before steaming

[Cracked Cork]

Yes we separate t hem from the stems by hand picking them. We havent tried steaming with the little stems in them yet, it just seems that maybe some nasty tasting stuff would come out of the stems. CC

[Waldo]

Thanks cracked..I was just remembering them "purple fingers" i got from last year and was hoping that maybe just mytbe I was doing it the hard way

[Cracked Cork]

Purple fingers just show you arent afraid to get your hands dirty making a good wine Crackedcork

[Boydd]

Try using a paint brush comb such a the one made by Purdy. Has stainless teeth.

Works slick getting the berries off the stems.

[Waldo]

Thanks Boydd..where would one most likely find this item? I looked at Wally World and could not find it..I was so disappointed, hell I thought they had everything

[Cracked Cork]

For our cultivated elderberries the problem is that not all of the berries on a flowerhead are all ripe at the same time. Some even look ripe but are still hard and not soft and take more of a tug to get off the stem than a ripe berry. If the berries are ripe they come off easily with your fingers and you can leave the unripe ones on the stem. No you dont pick each ripe berry off individually, you run clusters through your fingers at a time. The ripe ones come off easy, the green ones, red unripe ones stay on the stem. Any other method is going to give berries that are not ripe mixed in with the ripe ones.

If you dont care if the unripe ones get mixed it the easiest was is to just freeze them and knock them on the ground in a bag to get the fruit. As has been mentioned on here you can then sift them through a screen to get out some of the stems and then use a sorting table to separate the berries from the little stems. YOu can get a lot of berries fast this way, but you will still get a lot of unripe berries.

Crackedcork

[Boydd]

Menards, HOME Depot, or Lowes should work. Maybe a paint store such as Sherwin Willams.

There are lots of wild elderberries around here. I only pick them when their stems are bright purple and don,t have a large problem with unripe berries.

Must turn out ok. Wine doesn't last long after it is ready. A bottle of wine lasts me for over a week, but lots of people come by for a few bottles.