Help! my elder berries taste absolutely bland!

[SproutSprite]

Two years ago, I planted Elderberry trees in my front lawn. These trees look like the Elderberry trees that I remember from my childhood that grew in shaded woodland at the edge of our drive. My trees produced more than a few bunches of berries the year after planting, but the berries tasted watered-down and bland! The berries that I remember from my childhood were dark in color and bursting with flavor. The berries from the trees in my yard are not quite as dark in color. My trees receive a large amount of sun and the soil that they are in is similar to, but undoubtedly not as rich as natural woodland soil.

What might I do to improve the flavor of the berries?

 

[zigs]

Just to be sure we are talking about the sam tree, do you mean Sambucus Nigra?

If so, don't eat them raw, they are a violent purgative

 

[SproutSprite]

I had to look that up. In doing so, I discovered several versions of Elderberry - from bush to tree! It looks like American Black Elderberry is the most common one in my area. Since I ordered mine from a company, I could have also purchased the Blue or the European Black type I guess. (Wish I had kept that order information.)

I am going to do a thorough search this evening.
Thank you for the post, it got me started on the search!

 

[zigs]

Good old Linnaeus Always best to use the latin name on an international forum, so we get the plant right.

I have tasted the English Elderberries, although not swallowed one of course, they are quite bland so you might have one of ours.

We cook them for wines & jams, they are ok then. Port is also flavoured with them.

Made Elderberry Champagne once, it had pink froth & gave you the hangover from hell

 

[Jed]

The elder is one of the few plants you can make wine twice a year.
The flowers in summer and the berries in winter.
I've only made the flower wine which took 4 weeks to ferment and ready to drink.I think the one we have access to is the English variety.The berries are not edible.
Similar to your wine zigs it could knock you over. These days I give the wine a great miss.

 

[SproutSprite]

Linnaeus is going to be a great side study for me today. Very interesting.

I have tasted Elderberry wine and I love Elderberry jam! I think my trees are going to be useful in that respect. I will still seek the variety I remember from childhood. At least now I have a good idea of what I am looking for!

I have never had the pleasure of homemade Champagne of any kind. I will be needing a recipe.

 

[SproutSprite]

The elder is one of the few plants you can make wine twice a year.
The flowers in summer and the berries in winter.
I've only made the flower wine which took 4 weeks to ferment and ready to drink.I think the one we have access to is the English variety.The berries are not edible.
Similar to your wine zigs it could knock you over. These days I give the wine a great miss.

I did not realize that the blossoms were used in Elderberry wine making. I love those beautiful, fragrant blossoms! I will most likely harvest and dry mine for use as tea.

 

[zigs]

1kg Elderberries
1lb Blackberries
1lb Oranges
140gram Sloes
3.5 Litres water
1.5Kg Sugar
Red wine yeast.
Campden tablet.

Boil up the ingredients & add the campden tablet, cover & leave for 24 hours.

Strain into a demijohn & add the yeast and airlock.

To make in into champagne, you'll need special corks with valves on, the final ferment is done in the bottles upside down. the valve is pulled momentarily to eject the sediment that falls in the neck of the bottle.

 

[Jed]

I did not realize that the blossoms were used in Elderberry wine making. I love those beautiful, fragrant blossoms! I will most likely harvest and dry mine for use as tea.

No, flowers are only used in the flower wines and champagnes unless there is a recipe to freeze and keep berries til summer to combine the two.

I've never made the berry wine but that is an interesting recipe zigs. I've never come across sloes but is that a type of plum?

 

[zigs]

I've never made the berry wine but that is an interesting recipe zigs. I've never come across sloes but is that a type of plum?

They are like a small plum Jed, but very sharp, if you eat them raw they will make your face curl up and will take the skin off your teeth.

Archeaologists have found pits full of Sloe pips at Stonehenge & were speculating about our ancestors ability to eat them.

I think it more likely that they used them to clean their teeth, even after brushing, you'd be amazed what a raw Sloe can take off.

 

[Jed]

I've heard of sloe gin. Have you dared to make it zigs?
Clean teeth? Is that true or just how awful they are really like?

 

[SproutSprite]

1kg Elderberries
1lb Blackberries
1lb Oranges
140gram Sloes
3.5 Litres water
1.5Kg Sugar
Red wine yeast.
Campden tablet.

Boil up the ingredients & add the campden tablet, cover & leave for 24 hours.

Strain into a demijohn & add the yeast and airlock.

To make in into champagne, you'll need special corks with valves on, the final ferment is done in the bottles upside down. the valve is pulled momentarily to eject the sediment that falls in the neck of the bottle.

Thank you for the recipe! I have never tried my hand at distillery so I had to do a search for a few of those ingredients!

Have you ever had Elderberry blossom tea? My Grandma used to make it and I plan to as well.

 

[zigs]

My pleasure, the campden tablet is to kill off any wild yeasts that might spoil the brew.

I've made Sloe gin once Jed, had such a headache in the morning i've not tried it again.

Sloes aren't horrible, just take some getting used to. And yes, they do take the plaque off your teeth

 

[SproutSprite]

My pleasure, the campden tablet is to kill off any wild yeasts that might spoil the brew.

I've made Sloe gin once Jed, had such a headache in the morning i've not tried it again.

Sloes aren't horrible, just take some getting used to. And yes, they do take the plaque off your teeth

So we want Red Wine Yeast, but naturally occurring wild yeast from the berries would be 'bad'?
This is like alchemy.

 

[zigs]

So we want Red Wine Yeast, but naturally occurring wild yeast from the berries would be 'bad'?
This is like alchemy.

More hit and miss. You might get a decent wine, but you might not. Yeasts have been isolated and bred on for hundreds of years.

Most breweries/ vineyards use a specific strain to give the best result for the drink they produce. A beer yeast would be no good for wine as it would die off at too low an alcohol content for a wine.

Champagne yeasts used to be the highest alcohol tolerating yeast until the development of Turbo yeasts recently. They will ferment out every last drop of sugar into alcohol. I've got a wine up to 30% with the stuff, which had more in common with Vodka than wine

The exception is our West Country Cider industry, small scale production usually on farms. They just use the wild yeasts on the apples, resulting "Scrumpy" is between 6 & 9%.