elderberry warning

[BobF]

I always do this myself, but here's an observation:

I've been harvesting/preping eldberberries the last few days. I prefer not to freeze them before removing them from the stems.

I strip them into a bucket of fresh, cool water (municipal), allowing the junk and unripre berries to float so I can strain them off.

The berries I strain off go into another bucket with water for a "second chance".

When I got done with a batch yesterday, I left the "second chance" berries in water b/c I didn't feel like dealing with them at the time.

Within 12 hours, the "second chance" bucket was happily fermenting away! No crushing of berries.

ALWAYS sulfite your elderberries if you're not heat processing them prior to fermenting!

I steam juice some and do some of them the standard way - ALWAYS sulfite them if you haven't heat-processed the berries!

Having wild yeast act this quickly could spell disaster.

 

[ffemt128]

That's pretty quick. I clean everything when I get home then immediately freeze them. The one's I've done so far for wine I steamed. I still have 60 lbs of berries in the freezer.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Thanks for the heads up - most of the time i pick, clean, and freeze until i am ready to make.

 

[Jolly_Roger]

The berries I strain off go into another bucket with water for a "second chance".



I am new to elderberries, trying them for the first time and seems like I have trouble with getting a lot of unripe ones, "floaters" that are black, do several of these ripen?
I'm thinking of putting them in a paper sack to ripen, anyone tried this?

 

[Wade E]

If you are getting a lot of unripe ones then let them stay on the plant a little longer as most likely the ones you are using are barely rip then. I dont think the unripe ones will really ripen but have neer tried.

 

[upper]

Make sure you pick the "Elderly" bunches....Upper

 

[BobF]

Make sure you pick the "Elderly" bunches....Upper

Very true! I've gotten very selective about which ones I take. Much better to make multiple trips than to waste a bunch of time stripping/sorting unripe bunches.

Yesterday I 12# of cleaned/bagged berries. I'm only 11# away from my 2010 goal. From there on it will be 'stockpile' berries

 

[Mud]

I recently picked about 4 gallons of screens to be cleaned that evening. Things happened and it sat for about 30 hours before I got started. Most of the berries were already fermenting happily.