Elderflower wine/champagne

[machine cat]

Anyone ever made this?

I haven't before but they are out in force atm and thought it'd be rude not to try. Day two and it's fermenting nicely and my kitchen smells of elderflower

Any tips/advice or old threads (pogofish ) welcome.

 

[scalyboy]

Anyone ever made this?

I haven't before but they are out in force atm and thought it'd be rude not to try. Day two and it's fermenting nicely and my kitchen smells of elderflower

Any tips/advice or old threads (pogofish ) welcome.

I made some last year and - whilst it was quite easy and made for a refreshing drink - didn't get me pissed. I must have got the sugar fermentation wrong. I meant to try again this year, but found I didn't have any glass bottles handy... and now the flowers round my way are on the turn, so I may have missed my chance.

Let us know how yours turns out.

 

[machine cat]

Yeah, sourcing free bottles is a bit of a pain as most wine bottles are screw cap and corks don't fit

It'll spend a few weeks in a demijohn anyway so plenty of time to find some.

 

[pogofish]

Not even old threads - The last one was just ten days ago!

http://www.urban75.net/forums/threa...champagne-the-making-of-advice-please.311869/

And, two recipes here:

http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/elderflower-champagne.8526/

Let us know how it goes - This is something I've fancied trying on occasion but I understand it doesn't keep very long?

 

[nogojones]

Made it once and it was lovely. If I had the time....

 

[mr steev]

Yeah, sourcing free bottles is a bit of a pain as most wine bottles are screw cap and corks don't fit

You can cork a lot of screw top wine bottles. In the past we've just took a quick stroll around the street when the recycling is out, or more recently put a call out to mates to save them. I'd say 80-90% of them are corkable and you soon learn which brands aren't so it gets quite quick to sort them.

I've not bothered making elderflower champagne as it's not that strong and I'd rather wait for the elderberries and make some decent wine. Does it get much pressure? If it does and you have a beer bottle capper then champagne bottles and larger sized caps (which you can get off the net for pence) is the way forward. You won't have to keep releasing the gas, the bottle is made so it won't explode and you will always get a lively drink

 

[editor]

I had some home made elderflower champagne recently, and by gum it was ruddy delicious.

 

[Elvis Parsley]

we've got two batches on the go, first one bottled and stored, second still fermenting. made some cordial as well, but the taste isn't what we expected, until we diluted it with a 50/50 mix of lemonade and fizzy water instead of tap water and now it's lovely.

first time we've tried all this, it's a bit confusing with so many different recipes around, so we chose a simple mix it all in bucket, leave for 6 days, bottle it one. can't be doing with two stage fermentation.

the longer you leave it the higher the alcohol content and the less fizz, we were told 6 months is good. It only goes off if you use unsterilised equipment apparently, so it's worth making sure you've done that properly.

edit: machine cat, wine bottles are no good unless you can release the pressure every now and again, we were told either to use 2L plastic bottles and let some of the gas out every few days, or use champagne bottles. we've got a mate who works on the ferries so she got us a couple of dozen champagne bottles. elderflower has the reputation of being "a little explody"

 

[machine cat]

When I first checked the bucket I was a bit disappointed - it wasn't fermenting like I expected so not very confident when straining to a demijohn. It's been in there four hours and starting to bubble

 

[machine cat]

edit: machine cat, wine bottles are no good unless you can release the pressure every now and again, we were told either to use 2L plastic bottles and let some of the gas out every few days, or use champagne bottles. we've got a mate who works on the ferries so she got us a couple of dozen champagne bottles. elderflower has the reputation of being "a little explody"

Well I have plenty of 2L plastic bottles lying around. How long is 'a few days'?

Maybe it's worth asking flash bars/restaurants/hotels for empty champagne bottles?

 

[Elvis Parsley]

Well I have plenty of 2L plastic bottles lying around. How long is 'a few days'?

Maybe it's worth asking flash bars/restaurants/hotels for empty champagne bottles?

i spoke with a couple of homebrew shop owners and they both said to check the plastic bottles every couple of days to feel how tight they feel, then just gently let the gas out by unscrewing the lids a little. i thing it depends on the recipe and yeast to sugar content, as to how much gas is produced.

if you use champagne bottles, make sure you some plastic corks, which you'll need to hammer in, and some of those wire cage thingies that go over the top, which need forcing down as you screw them into place, otherwise they'll just pop out as the gas builds up.

 

[Elvis Parsley]

machine cat, we had our first explosion today, we'd been clever though and stuck them all in a cardboard box covered with plenty of heavy, absorbent blankets, so no mess

so much for using proper champagne bottles

now it's just a waiting game to see how many we're left with