Recent content by Winefarmer1

Elderberries are a pain to gather and take the berries off the plant. My wine supplier gave me an idea which I have briefly tested and found very successful in small volume (because the berries are just beginning to ripen in Georgia.) Freeze the berries and then beat them against the side of a...

Alright, I have encountered the best method for label removal from used bottles. Use a razor blade scraper to scrape the label away. No wetting, less mess, less prep, and less muscle. Works at a rate of about one new blade per ten bottles for me thus far. After the labels are gone, the glue...

I experimented with flavorings last year. When they were young the taste was not popular, but with aging they were much improved. Apple flavoring added to the pear wine did wonders. I am still getting compliments about my pear wine.

Wade, I echo your enthusiasm for elderberry wine. Next year I am going to go foraging for enough for fifteen to twenty gallons of wine. I found that 15 pounds of elderberries was enough for 6 gallons of wine, and the finished wine needed no f-pak. I used a cote-de- blanc yeast. My freezer...

I steamed my elderberries including many green ones although they were destemed, and I am still alive. I noticed that there was no need for a f-pak in the wine. The flavor was very noticable once sugar was added. This wine is absolutely my best yet of about 14 different fruit wines this year.

I am late to notice the elderberry question, but since I just finished a 6 gallon batch, I will add my observations. My wine also had very little taste, but when sugar was added it suddenly became extremely flavorful. It is absolutely my BEST wine this year. I have given samples to 12 of my test...

A mayhaw is a southern native plant along the coast from Texas to Florida. The plant is a member of the Crataegus family, and is used primarily to make a popular and tasty jelly.

Rats, I made a visit to a physician fruit grower in my area yesterday. Turned out he is a relatively new wine maker. His sampled strawberry, guava, peach, plum, and grape wine were all superior to my measly attempts this year. My plum and blueberry wines were too bitter to be palatable, but when...

The berries I picked were mostly the size of BB's also, but for some reason some of the bushes had berries three times that size. It surely would be nice to fine bushes with berries allof the large size. I am jealous of your efforts since I only found a minimal amount of...

Tepe, That makes sense from my own meager experience. The best wine I have produced from my few batches including blueberry, plum, peach, mayhaw, mango, pawpaw, and elderberry is by far the mayhaw which started with about 30 pounds of berries. I have used a modified Jack Keller recipe on all of...

I have a batch of peach wine finishing now. ABV is at 14.2and the wine failed to clear. I sweetened it and it seems to be undergoing further fermentation. I wanted to use superkleer again, but did not. I think that I may have a pectin haze, and am now thinking about using juice from really ripe...

Thanks Tepe. I had already weighed them this morning. They came in at around 5.5 pounds per gallon. I actually have 2 1/2 gallons. The Keller recipe calls for 2 pounds per gallon. Is about 13 pounds going to be enough with that recipe?

Wade, Pick them when you see the whole pod drooping. Some pods will have some green berries along with the dark ones, but I picked them anyway. I read an idea about getting them off the stems after you pick them, but never was able to try it since my berries had already been destemed. The...

I too have been hard after the elderberries, a complete unknown until about three weeks ago. Here in Georgia they were very difficult for me to find, taking three days and over a tank of gasoline to run the farm roads. The end result was 2 1/2 gallon bags of destemed berries. I hope it is enough...

Thanks for the information from all. Pelican, I really don't know what I want. I just asked because I had sweetened a couple of bottles of blueberry when I went from 6 gallons to a 5 gallon carboy. My local HB supply had advised using lactose for some reason, and when I added a little to taste...