2014 Elderberries

[WVMountaineerJack]

Excalibur sells a mesh sheet that we put ours on, I think the ones for making fruit rollups would also work. The sugars in them really show up when dried, they get a little sticky to the sheets, we just put the sheets into a container and brush off the berries, allow to cool to RT and then vacuum pack them. They do get crunchy, sub dried elderberries in some muffins for the blueberries, save some to drop into a good fruitcake recipe also! WVMJ

 

[Julie]

Mine are past their prime. Got these at their peak. Got lucky.

Are these wild elderberries? They look so different than the ones we have around here. The berries are more of a flat cluster and yours are more rounded.

 

[spunk]

Found me a mesh sheet works great did my fist batch. Im excited. So how much will i need to make a gal batch of mead or wine. Thanks!!

 

[spunk]

Can I make a secondary wine from the dryed berries when i pull them out from the forment i was thinking of making something with some dried figs

 

[Stressbaby]

Question for the group:

My 2014 elderberry looks like it is ready to bottle. However, I'm not sure about the taste. I made two batches more or less per this recipe. It uses a 3 day cold soak, then 3 days of fermentation before removing the skins/seeds. I made one 3 gal batch with straight tartaric, one 3 gal batch with acid blend.

The color is great, deep, bordering on purple-blue; it is perfectly clear. But it has just a tiny trace of bitterness and a green peppery sort of taste. It is not that smooth. I did use oak cubes for a while and 1g tannin riche/3 gal, and while it is reasonably tannic, the oak doesn't really come through that much.

Is it just young? Or are more tweaks warranted? We're coming up on a year and I could use the carboy...

I will add that I made a rose as a second run and that tastes great. I also did a persimmon/elderberry based on this recipe less the plum juice and the chitosan, and it is pretty darn good as well.

 

[spunk]

I have 2 and 1/2 oz of dried elderberries im ready to use. I have rhubarb juice i canned and frozen pie cheeries. Any of these sound like a good mix for the elderberries. As its not enough to be by themselves. Was thinking about getting blk berries if none of what i have sounds good. I have some hops in freezer too.
.

 

[spunk]

I wonder if tpu grounded up some of these elderberries included it in with ground coffee and brewed it. I bet it would be tasty.

 

[spunk]

Does this sound like a good recipe

 

[spunk]

Started a recipe from mvmountaineer jack site. For the dried elderberry wine. Making one gal only had 3.5 oz so i also added half a container of frozen Welch's purple grape juice to it. Smell good will pitch the yeast tomorrow. I dont have oakmor i have oak chips not sure what kind. Will add some of those hope it turns out good. Plan to make second run adding canned pears i did with my last year batch and it was really good and gone.

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

Our absolute favorite elderberry is our dried elderberry meads, the fresh ones are great to but there is something that happens when you dry the berries that improves the flavors somehow.

As for dried elderberries and cooking, you dont have to grind them up, just drop a few into your tea, put them in cookies, fruit type cakes and muffins, just substitute them for blueberries. that is just scratching the surface of what you can use them for!

WVMJ

Started a recipe from mvmountaineer jack site. For the dried elderberry wine. Making one gal only had 3.5 oz so i also added half a container of frozen Welch's purple grape juice to it. Smell good will pitch the yeast tomorrow. I dont have oakmor i have oak chips not sure what kind. Will add some of those hope it turns out good. Plan to make second run adding canned pears i did with my last year batch and it was really good and gone.

 

[spunk]

Our absolute favorite elderberry is our dried elderberry meads, the fresh ones are great to but there is something that happens when you dry the berries that improves the flavors somehow.

As for dried elderberries and cooking, you dont have to grind them up, just drop a few into your tea, put them in cookies, fruit type cakes and muffins, just substitute them for blueberries. that is just scratching the surface of what you can use them for!

WVMJ

I really like mead. Next I am going to make the mead. I have small bushes. I think im going to scope out areas this spring looking for blooms that I may be able to pick from later this year. I would like to try some with cooking too.

 

[spunk]

Our absolute favorite elderberry is our dried elderberry meads, the fresh ones are great to but there is something that happens when you dry the berries that improves the flavors somehow.

As for dried elderberries and cooking, you dont have to grind them up, just drop a few into your tea, put them in cookies, fruit type cakes and muffins, just substitute them for blueberries. that is just scratching the surface of what you can use them for!

WVMJ

I really like mead. Next I am going to make the mead later this year I have small bushes. I think im going to scope out areas this spring looking for blooms that I may be able to pick from later this year. I would like to try some with cooking too.

 

[spunk]

Hey i found elderberrys out and about. But one bush different than any i have picked before berry larger and more oval than round. Is it still an elderberry and what kind.

 

[Stressbaby]

They look like elderberries to me. No idea what kind.

The genetic variation in elderberries is amazing. I have only about 14 bushes, but I have a couple with huge berries and one with berries so small when ripe they are barely worth picking. Most are black when ripe but there is one whose berries never turn black, just an iridescent purple. Some stems turn purple when the berries mature, others stay green forever. Some bushes more susceptible than others to Japanese beetles. Some plants have berries that are easy to strip, others have "weak" stems and are tough to strip.

 

[Julie]

I wont be making wine with those! I have a berry around here and that looks like it that looks like a larger elderberry. They grow in a smaller cluster. The birds will not touch them! And if the birds don't eat them, neither will it.

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

[BR]Link to Harvesting Elderberries and elderberry pics

 

[spunk]

I love you site. This,is the 1st year for me to pick wild elderberries interesting along the same close areas I found different berries one was tiny round berries not much left of them tells me the best. Another slightly oval a bit larger a lot on it another a mile away round again and bigger. Now I did the water method and froze what sank for wine or mead but I have quite a lot that didn't sink but looks pretty good. Can I use for something else like jelly or syrup? If yes I would probably go through it again some are not purple

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

They sink because the sugar in them is heavier than water, the ripest ones sink all the way, others sort of sink but can be floating off the bottom but not on top, we stir and let them settle a little, the ones that wont settle and are near the top are the ones we take out with a strainer, kind of like netting fish in a tank, its also hard to take elderberry pictures, they can look ripe and then yout ake a picture and see more red than purple! Have fun, if you get enough dry some and make a mead with them, its well worth the effort. WVMJ

 

[spunk]

OK thanks I'm going out again this week. See if I can get more. So should I pitch the ones that did not sink. I read a lot saying unripe berries are poison or am I being too paranoid. Thank you. I am having fun doing this a lot of work though.

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

The riper the better quality your wine will be, would you put unripe green raspberries or blackberries in your wine? WVMJ