elderberry juice

[andy123]

Here in Central Florida elderberrys grow wild everywhere.Its difficult to be in the country here and not see elders.Some places they run along roadsides for miles.I was contemplating a large harvest ,then squeeze juicing the heads and bottling pure juice + K-meta without pasteurizing the juice. Later being made into wine. Does anyone feel this plan has merit? And how much k-meta would be appropriate?

 

[Boyd]

Don't know about the Kmeta but pressing the juice works fine.

After the first press I add water, slosh around and then press again. Lots of extra flavor there.

Rather than kmeta I would store the juice in clean milk bottles and freeze until ready to use. Worked fine in the past. Leave some space in the bottles for expansion.

Also freeze the berries for a couple days before pressing.

 

[Waldo]

I really can't answer your question andy as I have only steam juiced mine and used immediately. I did freeze them first and then seperated the berries from the stems. Maybe CrackedCork will jump in here wiith an answer as he is our resident Elderberry guru

 

[Wade E]

You could do it that way and if so Id probably say to do it as if you were doing wine with the 1/4 tsp per gallon. Personally Id just freeze the berries and crush when ready to ferment and fer,ment with the skins to get better extraction.

 

[grapeman]

Wade, elderberries don't need any help with color extraction, it will turn everything an inky blue to black color without even trying. Just juicing them will get all the goodies out of them. You might be surprised how little juice you get out of a bucket of elderberries. It takes a lot of berry clusters to get a quart of cleaned ones. Good luck with the project and let us know how it works out.

 

[Wade E]

Rich, I have made it before and like other fruits the skins also give up some tannins but also like grapes dont leave them on too long or the wine can get to astringent. They are very messy and keeping your fingers wet while plucking them off the branches works very well to not stain your fingers. Im also read p freeze them first and then take them off the branches as they come right off that way. I tried a few methods last year like using a fork to debranch them and it just kept pulling the little twigs with them. I liked the wet fingers and just rolling them off as it took just the berries and made the least amount of mess. Another trick is to pick them and put them in a bowl of water as the ripe 1's will sink and the unripe ones will float so you can just grab them off with a small strainer. It is one of the best wines Ive made so it was worth all the work. Very strong flavor profile.

 

[andy123]

Thanks to all for speaking up.I had this thought of a comb like device for a higher volume debranching but it sounds like Wade is already ahead of me on that.My other idea was to hinge 2 pieces of 2 X 10 with a slot chiseled between the hinges for the neck of the berry cluster and just juice the whole heads.

 

[Wade E]

Cracked cork has a method on here and he is the pro with these berries. I cant find it at the minute.

 

[Cracked Cork]

Miles and miles of elderberries, must drive you crazy knowing you cant pick them all!! I have never pressed the whole heads, I think that if you did you would get too much stuff from the stems coming out, and doing it this way there isnt much of a way to pick out the unripe, the not ripe but looks ripe from the ripe berries. You will soon be posting a new thread, "how do I clean this green gunk out of my primary". I got a webpage with some different ways to harvest them, my favorite right now is to clip the heads off, then shake and knock them against the sides of a 5 gallon bucket, when its got a lot of berries in it we run some cold tap water over them and gently stir and the bugs and most of t he green and underipe berries float up and out of the bucket, we strain them and stick them in the freezer until we are ready to make wine. I have no idea on the safety of just using KMeta, but I have a feeling that doing it that way wont kill everything and while you are waiting to get enough to make wine something will start to grow, maybe.

Crackedcork

 

[Wade E]

Thats the pro on elderberries and his link is on the bottom, I suggest you check it out.

 

[Cracked Cork]

Not a pro Waldo, I just have a lot of bushes to play in. I have to admit one of my elderberry wines wasnt liked by the judges to much while one was loved so it got a gold. Crackedcork

 

[Wade E]

I believe you to be the authority here on these and youll always find someone who doesnt like your wine.