1911user
Veteran Member
I'm documenting this in case someone else is interested or I made a mistake.
I started with dried berries. 1 cup of berries (clean with no stems) was roughly 25% of the 1 pound bag. Following summer's recipe, I put the cup of berries in a jar, added 2 cups boiling water, sealed the jar and put it in the refrigerator. After a day, I mashed/stirred the berries, resealed the jar, then back in the fridge. 20 hours later, I had almost 14 ounces of berry juice and didn't make a mess. The first 12 ounces of juice was easy, but I squeezed 2 more ounces from the reconstituted berries. A proper way to squeeze and catch the juice makes this easier, maybe next time.
Breaking from the recipe that called for 2:1 honey:juice ratio, I used a 1.5 pound commercial bottle of raw honey. I poured the honey into a small pan and set the gas heat to lowest (simmer). For a volume/weight comparison, I poured the berry juice into the honey container. 14 ounces of juice almost filled the 1.5 pound honey jar. Once the honey heated just enough to stir a little easier, I stirred in the juice, turned the heat off, and kept stirring for another 1-2 minutes. A bonus was the berry juice also mixed with the last of the honey in the bottle helping clean it out.
I poured the elderberry sryup into two 16oz amber glass medicine bottles using a funnel. It almost filled both bottles.
edit: bottles like this - (12 Pack) 16 oz. Amber Boston Round with Black Poly Cone Cap: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific
I didn't use any vodka, and not enough honey to allow for room temperature storage especially long-term.
As planned, these 2 bottles will stay in the refrigerator and be used daily until gone.
I'm not sure how I'll do the next batch except it'll have no less than 1:1 honey.
The taste is OK; elderberry with no real honey taste, but not too strong overall. The berry juice by itself was not pleasant.
The syrup is thin and pours into a spoon easily at room temperature. Into the fridge it goes....
edit: It's cold now and still pours into a spoon easily.
I took a tablespoon worth to start the twice daily dosing.
It seems to give a light buzz feeling and really, no vodka involved.
It was about $4 worth of berries and $7 worth of honey plus some effort to make almost 2 pints.
For comparison, the same amount of commercial sambucal would be about $40.
edit: did the math, at 1 Tablespoon of syrup 2 times per day, a full pint should last 16 days for 1 person or roughly 2 pints per month per person.
I started with dried berries. 1 cup of berries (clean with no stems) was roughly 25% of the 1 pound bag. Following summer's recipe, I put the cup of berries in a jar, added 2 cups boiling water, sealed the jar and put it in the refrigerator. After a day, I mashed/stirred the berries, resealed the jar, then back in the fridge. 20 hours later, I had almost 14 ounces of berry juice and didn't make a mess. The first 12 ounces of juice was easy, but I squeezed 2 more ounces from the reconstituted berries. A proper way to squeeze and catch the juice makes this easier, maybe next time.
Breaking from the recipe that called for 2:1 honey:juice ratio, I used a 1.5 pound commercial bottle of raw honey. I poured the honey into a small pan and set the gas heat to lowest (simmer). For a volume/weight comparison, I poured the berry juice into the honey container. 14 ounces of juice almost filled the 1.5 pound honey jar. Once the honey heated just enough to stir a little easier, I stirred in the juice, turned the heat off, and kept stirring for another 1-2 minutes. A bonus was the berry juice also mixed with the last of the honey in the bottle helping clean it out.
I poured the elderberry sryup into two 16oz amber glass medicine bottles using a funnel. It almost filled both bottles.
edit: bottles like this - (12 Pack) 16 oz. Amber Boston Round with Black Poly Cone Cap: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific
I didn't use any vodka, and not enough honey to allow for room temperature storage especially long-term.
As planned, these 2 bottles will stay in the refrigerator and be used daily until gone.
I'm not sure how I'll do the next batch except it'll have no less than 1:1 honey.
The taste is OK; elderberry with no real honey taste, but not too strong overall. The berry juice by itself was not pleasant.
The syrup is thin and pours into a spoon easily at room temperature. Into the fridge it goes....
edit: It's cold now and still pours into a spoon easily.
I took a tablespoon worth to start the twice daily dosing.
It seems to give a light buzz feeling and really, no vodka involved.
It was about $4 worth of berries and $7 worth of honey plus some effort to make almost 2 pints.
For comparison, the same amount of commercial sambucal would be about $40.
edit: did the math, at 1 Tablespoon of syrup 2 times per day, a full pint should last 16 days for 1 person or roughly 2 pints per month per person.
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