Thanks, I've found several sites from looking. This helps, though none
mention specifically dried elderberries, i guess it would apply.
Yes, my goodness, the Elderberry Port is a success, though it is still
needing a few months in the bottle. After doing this, I started the
Cherry Port (mentioned in another thread) which is also good, but not as
good as the initial Elderberry Port!
DAve
spud wrote:
> Dave:
>
> There are several poisonous plant databases administered by
> universities, gov't angencies and Canadian sources available on the
> net. You can do the research yourself for the species you've used.
>
> Comments on the port? Would you recommend elderberry port?
>
> Steve
> Oregon
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, 05 Aug 2007 20:36:41 -0400, Dave Allison
> > wrote:
>
>> Wow, didn't know about sambunigrin acid. I'm about 1/2 done with a
>> Elderberry port - and used dried elderberries. Did I need to boil them
>> as well? oops.
>>
>> DAve
>>
>> Luc Volders wrote:
>>> The elderberries are just starting to ripen over here.
>>> And I already picked about 4 kilo !!
>>>
>>> Now you can make an excellent wine from elderberries (even a port-like wine)
>>> but you have to take care of some things:
>>>
>>> a) Elderberries HAVE TO BE COOKED as there is sambunigrin acid in them
>>> which may be poisonous to some of us. By cooking the elderberries for 15
>>> minutes the sambunigrin acid will decompose and the berries are perfectly
>>> safe to sonsume (or make wine).
>>>
>>> b) You have to separate the ripe berries from the unripe. Now you can do
>>> that by hanpicking (a tedious work) as you will know the difference from
>>> color: greens are unripe black and deep purple are ripe.
>>>
>>> But the easiest way to seperate ripe from unripe berries I learned from an
>>> old winemaker.
>>>
>>> Pour a bottom of berries in a bucket and pour cold water over them. Now
>>> stir well and the unripe berries will float atop. Ripe berries have a
>>> higher sugar content and therefore will submerge. Unripe berries have a
>>> lower sugar content and therefore a lower SG and will float.
>>>
>>> For a photo session, floating berries and my recipes visit please my
>>> web-log because it is to much to publish here.
>>>
>>> http://wijnmaker.web-log.nl/
>>>
>>> Luc Volders
>