Elderflower Champagne

One eye · Jul 10, 2013

JonnyD said:
Thanks for all your input. I have cut some more today and put them into a plastic bag overnight. The other tastes woody hence all the stalks. Shame to waste those heads but its spoilt. So starting again with all your tips and hoping to finally get a brew going! Wish me luck.

Good luck

I followed, well sort of, a CJ Berry recipe,(1975
edition)
1/2 pint petals, removed by hand, soaked in boiling water for 24 hours then strained and then boiled again and added to
1/4 pint strong tea,
1.25kg sugar,
1tsp Citric acid,
5g packet EC118 yeast
1 tsp yeast nutrient

SG 1.090,

Egon · Jul 11, 2013

How much water are you using, one eye?

alanywiseman. · Jul 11, 2013

JonnyD said:
Thanks for all your input. I have cut some more today and put them into a plastic bag overnight. The other tastes woody hence all the stalks. Shame to waste those heads but its spoilt. So starting again with all your tips and hoping to finally get a brew going! Wish me luck.

Good Luck with it, I am sure you will be fine this time.

One eye · Jul 11, 2013

Egon said:
How much water are you using, one eye?

1 imperial gallon total volume
19 hrs since I pitched the yeast EC1118,
glugging a good un, no cap as yet,

there's a lot of sugar in there so will wait and see if the EC1118 will tolerate all the expexted alcohol, should be ok

simkin · Jul 11, 2013

Just started my first experiment.

About 15 heads of elderflower flowers, removed from stalks with a fork, and left in 1100 grams of sugar for 3 hours( apparently it extracts the flavour ). Then lemon zest, juice and halves, boiling water to dissolve, and kill off wild yeasts, coupla tablespoons white wine vinegar, nutrient, 3 litres WGJ and lalvin all-purpose yeast [ ICV K1V-1116 ] and topped up to about 7 litres.

The kitchen smelled lovely and floral for a while. Seemed like the sugar did take on lots of flavour from them.

Time will tell :)

Tim_Crowhurst · Jul 11, 2013

One eye said:
there's a lot of sugar in there so will wait and see if the EC1118 will tolerate all the expexted alcohol, should be ok

EC-1118 is a champagne yeast, so it should ferment very high.

One eye · Jul 11, 2013

Tim_Crowhurst said:
[quote="One eye"t3bhpu8]there's a lot of sugar in there so will wait and see if the EC1118 will tolerate all the expexted alcohol, should be ok

EC-1118 is a champagne yeast, so it should ferment very high.[/quote

t3bhpu8]

cheers, my thought also

JonnyD · Jul 12, 2013

Good afternoon,

So I woke up this morning and to my dismay looked at my infused elderflower solution and the same result, this:

I was thinking surly not again? I have done everything right, meticulously cleaned and sterilised and rinsed everything. Didn't know where I was going wrong. I gave it a stir and all the petals came to the surface and looked normal i.e. not burned.

Something is clearly not right had a look at his website/forum and a few other people were having the same issue. However just before I threw the solution out I thought I would check it with a measuring tube just to get a small sample. here is what I found:

A perfectly normal looking elderflower solution. It smells fine so after another 3 days I'm going to start the sugar and yeast. I am just using wilko's wine yeast. I think this will be ok. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Regards

John

ohbeary · Jul 12, 2013

John, looking through large amounts of liquid can be deceptive, I had a similar scare with a Golden Syrup and Hop Ale that I nearly ditched due to the 'orrible colour but being lazy left it a couple of days and the colour had changed radically for the better, it is drinking nicely now. :drink:
PS, I normally add yeast and nutrient etc as soon as the infusion is cool enough.

JonnyD · Jul 15, 2013

couple of days after adding the sugar nearly 3kg to 8L of Elderflower solution and the yeast (wine yeast), i let it settle for a day then shook all 3 DJ's to give the yeast and sugar one last mix togeather. after waiting an hour or two there seemes to be hardly any action (bubling every 1minute 20secconds). at a SG reading of 1.900, i thought it would be bubling away furiously in about 22 degree heat. Anyone any thoughts or am i just not being patient enough?

John

Tim_Crowhurst · Jul 15, 2013

I find that it will frequently take 6 hours or more for fermentation to take hold, and can sometimes take even longer, so don't ever worry until about two days have gone past.

ohbeary · Jul 15, 2013

Jonny, flowers only, that's why it's called Elderflower Wine........

JonnyD · Jul 15, 2013

ohbeary said:
Jonny, flowers only, that's why it's called Elderflower Wine........

Don't understand this comment?

simkin · Jul 15, 2013

The yeast will be multiplying at first so it will take a while to colonize the fluid before making booze. I never worry unless it goes over 24 hours with no activity, and even then if there is none its usually a bad seal on the FV. . . .

Edit: Sorry, didn't read the post properly. I bet its a bad seal. Hope you have bubbles soon :)

awl23 · Jul 18, 2013

i followed the same reciepe but used dried elderflowers. Two months later and its still fermenting in the demijohn

anthonyUK · Jul 18, 2013

simkin said:
I bet its a bad seal.

How did THAT get in there?

One eye · Jul 18, 2013

1 week since pitching EC1118 yeast and airlock is plopping every 7 secounds, (SG 1.090)

the DJ is in the amall chest freezer at 24C, I switch freezer on for approx 4 minutse only once a day,

should get the stc 1000 delivered by the weekend ( no more babysitting the freezer then )

JohnyD, may i ask if you are the JohnyD radio presenter I am listening to on Radio Cambridshire :) :lol:

JonnyD · Jul 18, 2013

One eye said:
JohnyD, may i ask if you are the JohnyD radio presenter I am listening to on Radio Cambridshire :) :lol:

I wish! just an engineer :|

I just checked my SG after 4 days of brewing, thinking it will be at least a third of the way there now, not at all as the case seems. At the start SG was 1.900, its is now 1.850. Cant understand why as all three are bubbling away every 7-20 secconds. Please tell me im just being impatient. really dont want to bugger this up as it smells delicious and all the elderflowers are nearly gone this year :nah:

John

Tim_Crowhurst · Jul 18, 2013

The higher temperatures will increase evaporation, especially if you keep the wine/cider/whatever in a fermentation bin during the initial fermentation.

I started a batch of elderflower turbocider last week using 4L of apple juice, plus elderflowers (prepared by pouring boiling apple juice on them, leaving them overnight and then straining the juice off) and all the usual bits and bobs like black tea and yeast nutrient.

When I measured the must before pitching the yeast it was about 4.1L, which makes sense since some was lost by boiling the juice, and I added about 200ml of tea. I expected to need at most a full carton of juice for topping up when I racked into a 5L PET bottle yesterday, but in fact I needed an extra third of a litre. Over two-fifths of a litre had evaporated in eight days.

It's now under airlock so evaporation shouldn't be an issue from now onwards :pray:

simkin · Jul 18, 2013

anthonyUK said:
simkin said:

I bet its a bad seal.

Click to expand...

How did THAT get in there?

If that was in my booze it could have it while I fire up the BBQ

Bottled and tester my elderflower fizz. Very, very hopeful. Was lovely. The WGJ, citrus flavours and floral blooms give a lovely balance. Bottles already nice and carbonated and getting clearer at the top : cheers:

Elderflower Champagne

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