Elder flower champagne - batch guidance required

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Out of interest how many elderflower heads do people use per gallon of Champagne?

There's a recipe on the home brew hop shop website that states don't be tempted to use any more than 3!?

Then I've seen other recipes that state to use 24.

I have the river cottage book which states 8, however on the guardian homebrew hedgerow column there's a recipe by the same guy which states to use 20.

I guess it's all personal taste but will using too many spoil it?

Also do people use boiling water first or a campden tablet?

I'm thinking if boiling water is used maybe less heads are required as this will extract some flavour.

I made some earlier this year using dried Elderflowers which turned out very bitter.

Also do people rinse them to remove the bugs and stuff? I read that getting rid of the pollen reduces the flavour but mine are full of tiny tiny little bugs...
 
Hi, Depends on the size of the heads . Three large for 1 gallon is OK that's 8 small ones. Don't use boiling water under any circumstances. Have some acid in the sugar solution Citric will do as that aids extraction.
 
Hi, Depends on the size of the heads . Three large for 1 gallon is OK that's 8 small ones. Don't use boiling water under any circumstances. Have some acid in the sugar solution Citric will do as that aids extraction.

Thanks, I rehydrated the dried elders I used earlier this year with boiling water so I wonder if that's what extracted the bitter flavour...
 
I'm going with two batches, one which I'll just let run dry and enjoy along the way, and for the second I'll try a sweetner.


Although after the sugar tax was introduced good luck finding lemonade without added sweetener and reduced sugar.

I know right?! It's a joke. Genuinely haven't seen lemonade with JUST sugar since.
 
I'm going with two batches, one which I'll just let run dry and enjoy along the way, and for the second I'll try a sweetner.




I know right?! It's a joke. Genuinely haven't seen lemonade with JUST sugar since.


Ye I'm going to do most of mine dry and some with a sweetener.

I actually found some classic lemonade without sweetener in Sainsbury's, for £1 a litre. All of the kind of artisan cloudy lemonade are just sugar but I reckon they will be too strong and take away from the elderflower bubbly.
 

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