Elderflower help please

[Moley]

to make elderflower cordial
pick about 10 heads of flowers per litre
strip the flowers off the stems
put flowers into dj and add water to the top
leave to soak for 2/3 days and shake a couple of times each day
strain flowers out of dj
to each litre of flower water add 1kg of sugar and boil it up
cool and add to bottles (wine/p.e.t.)

the cordial can be used to make wine (1.6ltrs/gallon), as a mixer, or just as a cordial

I've picked a first batch of elderflowers. Quite a few elderflowers.

I don't have the faintest idea of how many heads but after trying the black bag method for the first time (and being quite surprised that it actually works) I ended up with 2.5 litres of flowers with no greenery.

I've covered them with 6L of boiling water and thrown in 2 tbsps of citric.

This is probably going to make a super-strong cordial, has anyone got any idea of the ‘exchange rate’?

 

[user 1290]

I think I might have the info you're after but everytime I try and post it as text I get this error message:

So I'm posting it as a pic instead (this has ben edited so that one pound has been replaced with one kilo for 100 flowers as corrected in following post):

 

[Cussword]

I can't find the thread that it was in. Could you go over the "black bag method" again Ade. :)

 

[Moley]

Black bag method's in this topic, 3rd post, scroll down for the English translation.

I think I might have the info you're after but (snip) I'm posting it as a pic:

So if I've got 2.5 litres of florets (gently pressed down) that's 4.375 pints
If a pint weighs 4oz then I've got 17.5 oz
If 100 average heads yields 2/3 lb of florets that's 10.666 oz
That means I've got about 160 heads' worth? :wha:

Never. I'm going to have to go through the compost bucket and count the buggers, although when I was pulling the stripped heads out of the bag and shaking them they did seem never-ending.

 

[user 1290]

How big is an elderflower head may be rather subjective. I'll go and pick one (only a few mins away, measure and weigh it), to save you having to sort through your compo.

They weighed an average of 10g each, so that's 100 to the KILO - Whoops, not the pound. So I'll edit my post above, and then can you edit your quote beneath? (I'll change the pic name so anybody who's already viewed it won't be seeing it the same from cache) The other figures should be OK.

Thanks for picking that one up.

So does your 160 flowers ÷ 2.2046 = 73 sound more reasonable?

 

[Cussword]

Got it! Thanks Ade :thumb:

 

[Moley]

They weighed an average of 10g each, so that's 100 to the KILO - Whoops

So does your 160 flowers ÷ 2.2046 = 73 sound more reasonable?

I just counted them out of the bucket and into the compost bin.

80 :thumb:

So I'll stick with the 6 litres I've already added and make a slightly stronger cordial than granda's recipe.

Thanks David :

 

[user 1290]

Thanks David :

More like thanks Moley for picking up on that error.

Can you edit your quote above so it shows the pic with correct info?

That means changing the img ref to http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w264 ... erinfo.jpg

 

[Moley]

More like thanks Moley for picking up on that error.

Can you edit your quote above so it shows the pic with correct info?

If I do that we'll have to re-write half of the topic or it's going to sound like utter cobblers, and I'm in no fit state to start re-working the maths right now.

Top marks for OB's pinot grigio :drunk:

 

[dizidave]

I was attempting some elderflower champagne a couple of weeks ago.

After painstakingly picking and destalmking teh elder flowers i ended up with about 3 litres of flowers.

I put in a fermenting bin with water and CTs. Not sure if i left it too long or something (4 days) but when i returned it stunk rotten, proper bad eggs.

Binned the lot.

Quite dissappointed.

 

[HLA91]

I put in a fermenting bin with water and CTs. Not sure if i left it too long or something (4 days) but when i returned it stunk rotten, proper bad eggs.

That doesnt sound good, first thing that sprung to mind is did you use boiling water? IIRC CT's only stun the yeast, maybe they came back with a vengence, boiling water would kill wild yeast.