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Yes, it did. Thanks. If I can find the time (my son's getting married Saturday, so I may not), I will try to make mine. The rest of my Norton grapes will be ready in a week to 10 days, and I'd like to use this on those grapes. Thanks again, Jim

Thanks for your help, Mac. Have a few more questions for you: On the suction bucket, is that a rubber gasket around the opening? Is that from a lid gasket or is it something else. If you are using a rubber gasket, is it required? How far in is the strainer bucket? It looks like about 3...

What a great idea! Thanks for sharing. Have a few questions: Does the strainer bucket fit "vacuum tight" with the lid on the suction bucket? Is there a lid on the strainer bucket? It seems like there would be. What size holes did you drill in the strainer bucket? Did you feel the holes...

Congrats on bottling your harvest already. Nice labels. De-stemming is a bit of a chore, equipment cleanup is a chore, but have to agree with Julie - waiting is the hardest part! Kinda jealous of all the elderberry wine started from this year's crop. My winemaking takes place in our...

Thanks, Doug. Steamed-juiced some elders Memorial Day weekend, and 21 and 1/2 pounds got me 2 gallons and one 750ml bottle of elderberry juice. I racked that wine today, and, for 2 1/2 months, it's really good. It has a very strong fruity flaover, a thick consistancy, and starting to smooth...

Looks great! Question: How many pounds of elders to produce 1 gallon of juice? I have some winemaking chores on 10 wines before I can start steam-juicing some of my elders. I was surprised I had so many wines to work on; mostly racking, and half are 1 gallon carboys. Two are ready for...

Yes, you can find them along creeks and rivers. Another good spot is by railroad tracks. Like just mentioned, you have to worry about the bushes being sprayed if they are too close to the tracks.. Jim

Congrats on the size of your harvest. That's great! I intend to steam juice some of my elders as well. Jim

You're welcome, Reefman. I'm glad it helped. Jim

Picked about 10 lbs. this morning. Maybe another 5 lbs. or so left to pick. So far this year, picked just over 70 lbs. from our backyard. That's the most ever! My wife deserves the credit. She has been watering every day for the last month or so. Thanks to her watering, our very short row...

I'm picking tomorrow morning as well. Good luck! Jim

bg, the more stems you remove the better, but in my opinion, you don't need perfection here. Below is a link for a video I did, http://s883.photobucket.com/albums/ac34/TwinMaplesVideo/?action=view&current=ElderberryDeStemmingVideo.mp4 showing the various methods of de-stemming...

Those are nice looking berries. My wife picked 5 1/2 lbs. yesterday. I helped her de-stem them after work. We probably need to pick more tomorrow. It seems like every other day more are ready. I am very thankful we're getting these berries in the drought we've been in. Jim

My Carmenere was 5.4 gallons (with a lot of lees), and my Cabernet Sauvignon was 5 1/2 gallons. I put them both in 5 gallon carboys, so I'll have more of the same wine to top off with. The bad news is I think I only have one more 5 gallon carboy...and have 4 more pails to go. I don't have...

That is a bit of a bummer. So, what is your estimate, Bob, 5, 5 1/2 gallons? I started 2 pails, and I'm putting mine in carboys this weekend. I'll let you know what I ended up with. :Luckily, I have all my 5 gallon carboys empty, so I may fill those up along with some bottles. Jim

I always have at least one (usually all 3) of these 3 wines on hand. Most people like all of them--that's part of what makes a "house wine", right? People like to drink it? They need just 3-4 months of aging. Some improvement with more aging, of course, but drinkable in 3-4 months: Skeeter...

Bob, I did the same with some two buck chuck, it was surprisingly good. I think I'll go into the "cellar", and see if I have any left! Jim

Thanks for your suggestions. Couldn't find anything close on Craigslist. Looked at ebay; some interesting offers, but many had no returns, or funky freight conditions. I ordered from High Gravity in Tulsa, for several reasons: * Have worked with them for years, both online and in the...

Want to buy co2 cylinder, dual guage regulator, co2 hose line, with fitting that I can hook up an air chuck. I'm going to make some carbonator caps for sparkling Skeeter pee, etc. Only beveragefactory.com seems to have everything but the air chuck. Has anyone had a good experience with...

You are right about that! I had my bottling day 2 weekends ago, and we bottled 34 gallons in 2 hours. Could not have done it without my bottling crew. I always feed them first (steaks or our homemade pizza), sample wine as we go, then give them some wine to take home. Like you, we're ready...