I have an elderberry tincture method written up, and before elderberry season I would rather have it picked apart by people who make one every year than find out later where it was thin.
What I have written down, in short. A fill line rather than a weight: one-third to one-half of the jar for dried berries, closer to two-thirds for fresh, with 100 proof for fresh to account for the water in the fruit, otherwise 80 proof vodka or brandy. Fresh berries steamed or briefly cooked and cooled before they go in. Only fully ripe fruit, uniformly dark purple-black and slightly soft, nothing green or red-tinged, and no leaves, bark or green stem in the jar. Four to six weeks in a dark cupboard. Top up with alcohol if the berries swell above the liquid line, since fruit sitting in air can eventually mold.
Three things I am least sure of.
The ratio is eyeballed. The sources I leaned on all give a fill line rather than a weight, though I may have been reading the wrong shelf, since I know weight-to-volume ratios exist. I cannot tell whether people who do this every year end up weighing anyway to keep batches consistent.
The four to six week window. Longer is said to give a darker, stronger result. I do not know whether that is real extraction after week four or mostly colour.
Topping up. If alcohol goes in at week two to cover risen berries, does that dilute the finished tincture in a way that matters, or is it noise?
On raw berry safety I am not reopening anything. The long toxicity and tinctures thread here covers that better than I could, and the tinctures from the homestead thread covers the general method. One thing I already think is wrong in my own write-up: it puts the steaming of fresh berries in the FAQ rather than in the method steps, which is the wrong place for it.
The write-up is on my own site, so read it as the thing being checked rather than as a source:
https://growforageheal.com/elderberry-tincture/
How do you decide a batch is finished, other than counting weeks on a calendar?
