Elderflowers

[calumscott]

Don't do forking! The black bag method is what you need - you just won't get it on until tomorrow... :thumb:

 

[Slate Miner]

Started my first attempt at elderflower champagne today :thumb:

Picked about 60 flower heads yesterday evening, surprised how many flowers there were with plenty more to come by the looks of it. Left the flowers in a black bin bag (as suggested on here) over night, some of the petals were starting to fall off this morning but suspect could of done with a bit longer I think.

Not having made anything from elderflowers before I was surprised how many flower heads were needed to produce a'pint' of petals, reckon I used about 40 flower heads! Depends on the size of the flower heads I guess.

I grated the rind of 2 lemons, added to the petals, poured on 8 pints of hot water, added a campden tablet after allowing to cool first, and there it will stay for 3 days with occasional stiring before adding 650 gms sugar, 1 lt of grape juice, the juice from the 2 lemons, 1 teaspoon of tannin a good stir and then the champagne yeast. I'll then leave in a warm place for 4 or 5 days before straining into a demi-johm. My plan is to ferment out before bottling to swing top beer bottles adding 6 or 7 gms of priming sugar to each bottle. :

Well that's the plan anyway :whistle:

We're doing our first elderflower and have 2 different versions in the go....
1 we are fermenting out like a wine then restarting before bottling.
The 2nd should be a bit quicker... transferring to bottles once fermentation slows down enough to think we won't have bottle bombs in our hands!
Both smell fantastic currently. Might even gather some more tomorrow as said above there is such quantity everywhere, and get another batch on the go....

How much sugar did you use? Looked at several recipes for elderflower champagne, the amount of sugar for 1 demi-john appears to vary quite a lot, I've decided to go with 650gms of sugar, however I've seen 350gms to 1.4kg suggested. Seems to me that if I use a large amount of sugar I could end up with bottle bombs :hmm:

 

[Slate Miner]

Well after starting an elderflower champagne yesterday I though I'd have a go at making my first elderflower cordial especially as there appears to be lots of flowers this year. I've gone with:-
1 kg sugar.
1.5 lts water.
4 lemons.
2 teaspoons citric acid.
Pint & half of elderflower petals.

Bring water to boil, stir in sugar, add grated lemon rinds, sliced lemons and citric acid, stir.
Add elderflower petals, stir.
Cover and leave overnight.
Strain through muslin into bottles.

Apparently will ready straight away, dilute with still or carbonated water. :thumb:

 

[peteplus1]

How much sugar did you use? Looked at several recipes for elderflower champagne, the amount of sugar for 1 demi-john appears to vary quite a lot, I've decided to go with 650gms of sugar, however I've seen 350gms to 1.4kg suggested. Seems to me that if I use a large amount of sugar I could end up with bottle bombs 

There are vast differences in recepies yeah. Our 'quick one' suggested 900g and the other 1.3kg so we've gone with those. Going to get a 3rd on the go today which calls for 700g so we'll see...

[quote="Slate Miner":3oh3qrji]Started my first attempt at elderflower champagne today :thumb:

Picked about 60 flower heads yesterday evening, surprised how many flowers there were with plenty more to come by the looks of it. Left the flowers in a black bin bag (as suggested on here) over night, some of the petals were starting to fall off this morning but suspect could of done with a bit longer I think.

Not having made anything from elderflowers before I was surprised how many flower heads were needed to produce a'pint' of petals, reckon I used about 40 flower heads! Depends on the size of the flower heads I guess.

I grated the rind of 2 lemons, added to the petals, poured on 8 pints of hot water, added a campden tablet after allowing to cool first, and there it will stay for 3 days with occasional stiring before adding 650 gms sugar, 1 lt of grape juice, the juice from the 2 lemons, 1 teaspoon of tannin a good stir and then the champagne yeast. I'll then leave in a warm place for 4 or 5 days before straining into a demi-johm. My plan is to ferment out before bottling to swing top beer bottles adding 6 or 7 gms of priming sugar to each bottle. :

Well that's the plan anyway :whistle:

We're doing our first elderflower and have 2 different versions in the go....
1 we are fermenting out like a wine then restarting before bottling.
The 2nd should be a bit quicker... transferring to bottles once fermentation slows down enough to think we won't have bottle bombs in our hands!
Both smell fantastic currently. Might even gather some more tomorrow as said above there is such quantity everywhere, and get another batch on the go....

How much sugar did you use? Looked at several recipes for elderflower champagne, the amount of sugar for 1 demi-john appears to vary quite a lot, I've decided to go with 650gms of sugar, however I've seen 350gms to 1.4kg suggested. Seems to me that if I use a large amount of sugar I could end up with bottle bombs :hmm:[/quote:3oh3qrji]

 

[Egon]

Intruiging subject this! Just read the last 4 pages and still have no idea what to do with the over stuffed set of 6 trees i've just found byvtotal accident....
Black bag idea rocks!
I bought some dried elderflowers and followed the river cottage recipe for elderflower champers and i have to say, its s bit grim. So i'm looking at cordial for the mrs and littles but maybe another batch of champers, just for experimentation sake, you understand!! :)

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

Intruiging subject this! Just read the last 4 pages and still have no idea what to do with the over stuffed set of 6 trees i've just found byvtotal accident....

Here's something you could do with the elderflowers: mead! This one has quite a kick (it'll finish at about 17-18% ABV) so be warned.

5 Lbs honey
1pt to 1.5pt elderflowers
1 mug strong black tea
Rind & juice 2 lemons
1tsp yeast nutrient
1tsp glycerine
High alcohol yeast

Put the elderflowers, grated lemon rind and lemon juice into your primary, and pour over 3 litres (5 pints) of boiling water. Cover and leave overnight.

The next day add the tea, yeast nutrient, glycerine and 3Lbs of the honey, and stir well to mix, then pitch your yeast.

Cover and leave for a week, or until the initial fermentation dies down, then strain into a DJ, add 0.5Lb honey dissolved in a pint of wine, and top up to the neck with cooled boiled water.

Leave until fermentation dies down, then add 0.5Lb honey as before. Repeat until fermentation no longer restarts when you add more honey.

Rack and leave to clear, then rack, top up to the neck, and leave to mature.

 

[John46]

I picked a full bin bag last week, and made 12 bottles of cordial and 4 gallons of wine out of it, and still had two and a half litres of flowers left over to freeze.
Just been out and picked another bin bag full, I'll bin bag shake it and freeze it.

The cordial I made is excellent, been through two bottles of it already.

On a side note I made some elderberry wine in 2011 that i was a bit disappointed in, tried it in January this year and tasted a little bit watery, just tried some again at the weekend and its very nice, just shows that time does improve it.

 

[Titus A Duxass]

I put 8 litres of Elderflower "champagne" on last week, is it a slow burner this one?
This is the first time I've used wine yeast, it's not rapid like ale yeast is it.

I thought it had stuck so I threw some more yeast in, still nothing like I was expecting.
So I put some yeast in a bottle of sugar water and left it over night, it's working but it's slow.

 

[sailaice]

Intruiging subject this! Just read the last 4 pages and still have no idea what to do with the over stuffed set of 6 trees i've just found byvtotal accident....

Here's something you could do with the elderflowers: mead! This one has quite a kick (it'll finish at about 17-18% ABV) so be warned.

5 Lbs honey
1pt to 1.5pt elderflowers
1 mug strong black tea
Rind & juice 2 lemons
1tsp yeast nutrient
1tsp glycerine
High alcohol yeast

Put the elderflowers, grated lemon rind and lemon juice into your primary, and pour over 3 litres (5 pints) of boiling water. Cover and leave overnight.

The next day add the tea, yeast nutrient, glycerine and 3Lbs of the honey, and stir well to mix, then pitch your yeast.

Cover and leave for a week, or until the initial fermentation dies down, then strain into a DJ, add 0.5Lb honey dissolved in a pint of wine, and top up to the neck with cooled boiled water.

Leave until fermentation dies down, then add 0.5Lb honey as before. Repeat until fermentation no longer restarts when you add more honey.

Rack and leave to clear, then rack, top up to the neck, and leave to mature.

Sorry I'm new to all this, would that be a 5 gallon recipe?

 

[MadrikXIV]

Got about 15 litres on the go, waiting to be split Wednesday evening, had to go with forking as knew would be out on Sunday.

Very little greenery went in, went with about 3.5kg sugar, juice and zest of 3 lemons, and water.

Now tempted to get some more, as my Co-Op has a stack of strawberries 800g for £1, may knock up a Strawberry and Elderflower brew....

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

Intruiging subject this! Just read the last 4 pages and still have no idea what to do with the over stuffed set of 6 trees i've just found byvtotal accident....

Here's something you could do with the elderflowers: mead! This one has quite a kick (it'll finish at about 17-18% ABV) so be warned.

5 Lbs honey
1pt to 1.5pt elderflowers
1 mug strong black tea
Rind & juice 2 lemons
1tsp yeast nutrient
1tsp glycerine
High alcohol yeast

Put the elderflowers, grated lemon rind and lemon juice into your primary, and pour over 3 litres (5 pints) of boiling water. Cover and leave overnight.

The next day add the tea, yeast nutrient, glycerine and 3Lbs of the honey, and stir well to mix, then pitch your yeast.

Cover and leave for a week, or until the initial fermentation dies down, then strain into a DJ, add 0.5Lb honey dissolved in a pint of wine, and top up to the neck with cooled boiled water.

Leave until fermentation dies down, then add 0.5Lb honey as before. Repeat until fermentation no longer restarts when you add more honey.

Rack and leave to clear, then rack, top up to the neck, and leave to mature.

Sorry I'm new to all this, would that be a 5 gallon recipe?

No, that's a 5L/1gal recipe. It'll come out very strong, similar to a fortified wine.

 

[awalton007]

Do you have a just a basic recipe for wine for about 15 litres?

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

Intruiging subject this! Just read the last 4 pages and still have no idea what to do with the over stuffed set of 6 trees i've just found byvtotal accident....

Here's something you could do with the elderflowers: mead! This one has quite a kick (it'll finish at about 17-18% ABV) so be warned.

5 Lbs honey
1pt to 1.5pt elderflowers
1 mug strong black tea
Rind & juice 2 lemons
1tsp yeast nutrient
1tsp glycerine
High alcohol yeast

Put the elderflowers, grated lemon rind and lemon juice into your primary, and pour over 3 litres (5 pints) of boiling water. Cover and leave overnight.

The next day add the tea, yeast nutrient, glycerine and 3Lbs of the honey, and stir well to mix, then pitch your yeast.

Cover and leave for a week, or until the initial fermentation dies down, then strain into a DJ, add 0.5Lb honey dissolved in a pint of wine, and top up to the neck with cooled boiled water.

Leave until fermentation dies down, then add 0.5Lb honey as before. Repeat until fermentation no longer restarts when you add more honey.

Rack and leave to clear, then rack, top up to the neck, and leave to mature.

Sorry I'm new to all this, would that be a 5 gallon recipe?

No, that's a 5L/1gal recipe. 5Lbs of honey is equivalent to 4Lbs of sugar, but not all of which will be turned into alcohol since 4Lbs of sugar in 1gal would produce about 20% ABV, and even high-alcohol wine yeasts can rarely reach that high. The end result should be a strong sweet wine you could use as an aperitif.

 

[calumscott]

Do you have a just a basic recipe for wine for about 15 litres?

From the previous page...

viewtopic.php?p=396293#p396293

 

[MadrikXIV]

My mum pointed out her Elderberry plant today, it's only got 5 or 6 clumps of flowers on it, BUT it's a apparently a 'Sambucus nigra black lace'

Has a purple flower to it, I thought it had a kinda aniseed smell to it, hoping to try it next year when it's bigger

 

[RobWalker]

Pink Elderflower, jamie oliver loves it!

 

[peteplus1]

Not sure I quite understand how these quick recipies work like the river cottage one... :hmm:
From my limited experience so far, fermenting wine at an important stage of proceedings stinks until that passes way down the racking line. My dandelion was a right old foul smell but now clearing beautifully and had a sniff the other day... lovely.

Have 3 variant batches of elderflower on the go now...

Has anyone had great success with quick elderflower champagne recipies

 

[Pinchy]

Forr the same reason as many of you guys (tonnes of flowers around!!) I'm going to give this a go too :).

My question is though.. Do you literally just throw it all in an FV? Or do the flowers need to be boiled or anything? Or are the flowers just left in the FV for the whole fermentation?

Cheers,
Pinchy

 

[John46]

I now have 12 litres of Elderflowers in the freezer, all destalked.

I made an adaption to the shaking bin bag method, I used a clear plastic bag, put about 6 big bunches of flowers in there, made it air tight by twisting the open end closed, kept twisting it to make the bag smaller, held the bag by the twisted end with one hand and at the bottom with the other hand, pushed the two ends together and you get like a balloon effect with the air trapped inside, then I shook hell out of it, it had the same effect as if they were in a washer drying machine.
Worked really well, still had to take some flowers off by hand, but overall very good method.

 

[Egon]

River cottage recipe is just nasty.