need help!! elderberry must turned green

[Bobwhite]

So I made my must from 30lb of elderberry to make 5 gallons all was well and crushed the berries in my primary and had the prettiest deep purple must until I added my campdeb tablets and it turned green instantly !!!

What happend?? Is it gonna b OK?? Did I just mess up a entire weekend of work and Berry's??

 

[Julie]

Wow, wish I could help you out but this is the first time I have heard of this happening!

 

[Bobwhite]

It still smells great but I don't want green wine I hope the color comes back I've proly got 10 hours in those berries

 

[Julie]

I wondering since you just started this if it is the green goo and it just hasn't settled yet.

 

[seth8530]

Odd, could you take a picture? I know onetime I was making some muscadine and I added sulfite and the colour adbruptly changed to a brownish coulour. However, it turned back to normal.

This might be worth doing a bit of reading up on. Are you sure you added sulfite to your wine and not something else?

 

[Bobwhite]

I don't know it may be this is my first try at elderberry wine so I have no experience with them

 

[Bobwhite]

OK so I just looked at it again and the color is returning so I guess its gonna be ok I've just never seen anything like that

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

What is the pH? Did you add any acid blend? I have seen this happen with strawberry but you are definetly using enough elderberries, unless they were not completely ripe? which of course you are going to say they were perfectly ripe so how much camden did you add? Good Luck, WVMJ

 

[pjd]

The metabisulphite in the camden tablets will temporarily bleach out the color. That and the dreaded green goo is what you are seeing. It will be fine.

 

[Bobwhite]

OK thanks I didn't test pH I need to start doing that I'm still learning I did not add any acid blend and I'm sure not every berry was perfect ripe haha as many berries as I picked I no there's some less ripe ones but I used one tablet per gallon like I have all my wines

Oh and tell me more about this green goo? What do I do about that ?

 

[Bobwhite]

And thanks for the help !!

 

[cmason1957]

Not a lot you can do about it. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't. If you do have it, you will know. To clean it use vegetable oil to clean your bucket, then clean normally.

 

[Bobwhite]

OK thank you for all the help its nice to b able to ask people like you all here because I don't personally know anybody and my home brew shop guys are more beer then wine and can't answer odd questions on wine

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

Bob, check out our webpage wvmjack.com for how to sort elders, basically ripe berries have sugar so they sink, unripe berries, even though they may be red float since they dont have a lot of sugar yet, you can take advantage of this buy putting them in a bucket of cold water and the unripe ones float while the ripe ones sink. Also tips on getting rid of the green go with veg oil and then washing that off with liquid dish detergent like Dawn. WVMJ

OK thanks I didn't test pH I need to start doing that I'm still learning I did not add any acid blend and I'm sure not every berry was perfect ripe haha as many berries as I picked I no there's some less ripe ones but I used one tablet per gallon like I have all my wines

Oh and tell me more about this green goo? What do I do about that ?

 

[Bobwhite]

OK thanks so much so dose the green too float and just leave it behind when I rack ?

 

[montanaWineGuy]

OK thanks so much so dose the green too float and just leave it behind when I rack ?

Last year mine floated. Awful smell too.

This year I racked often to minimize the goo. Much better this year.

 

[Bobwhite]

OK thanks its looking a lot better now I've got a yeast starter out of some fresh concord juice I will b putting in tonight !

 

[Julie]

OK thanks its looking a lot better now I've got a yeast starter out of some fresh concord juice I will b putting in tonight !

when it is done fermenting and you rack, it will actually stick to the sides of your fermenter. The majority of it will stay behind in that first racking but you may get a little that carries over but there is no need to worry.

Also, to clean the green goo out of your fermenter rub vegetable oil over the goo and then clean with soap and water.

 

[Bobwhite]

OK thanks its fermenting strong now and so far so good!!

 

[Bobwhite]

Starting to see the too you all warned me about but everything else is going good I had to put my primary in the garage today it was fermenting so hard it was stinking up the house but luckily there is only a high of 78 today so it should b good