First Wine Attempt Question

[Scientific hippie]

I am inching towards retirement. I have been veggie gardening seriously for a few years; I have been trying a little permaculture, and this book really inspired me to start growing berries. Right now, I have started brewing kombucha. As far as the berries, I have planted two goumi shrubs (They fix nitrogen; who knew? The also have berries) and two black elderberry bushes around my property. I am waiting for the arrival of American spicebush and more elderberries. Has anybody seen Marie Viljoen's new book, Forage, Harvest, Feast ? She dedicates a lot of pages to elderberries and spicebush (aromatic and tasty berries and leaves; bark can be used to scent sugar), and has recipes for elderflower cordial and fermented elderberry syrup. She doesn't have recipes for elderberry wine, but after experimenting with elderflowers (probably in cordial and in kombucha), I may want to graduate to elderflower wine and elderberry wine. I see a lot of posts about the goo that forms on equipment used to crush elderberries; she has her own method of cleaning. Thoughts?

 

[Yooper]

I do some elderberry wines, but haven't experienced any unusual "goo", so that's something I can't answer. I have chokecherries, chokeberries, black currants, black elderberries, blackberries and raspberries in my yard so I do make a ton of fruit wines each year.

I love that you're into foraging and things- that's my "thing" and I ferment anything I can from wine/mead/cider/beer to food like sauerkraut, hot sauce, pickles, kimchee, even gochujang!