Elderflower Champagne

[Hockham Admiral]

I mentined this in another topic yesterday and it's so easy to make. We use the River Cottage method and it's perfect as an addition to Gin............ honestly!  

 

https://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/sparkling-elderflower-wine

[MauriceMynah]

What bottles do you use?

How strong is the result? (Roughly)

I think I might start doing this :)

[Hockham Admiral]

Plastic bottles are probably best as you can see/feel them as the pressure builds up.

 

Anything from 3%-11%.. depends if you use yeast as well as the elderflower natural yeast.

 

I would definitely do so!    

[AdnamsGirl]

I've recently got back into wine making after a gap of many years. Last years "Hedgerow Nouveau" is actually quite good, if somewhat higher in alcohol content than commercial wine.

 

I did have a go at elderflower wine/champagne once ... never again! The results were pleasant enough to drink (my grandmother certainly thought so), but the issue was the smell which emanated from the flowers during the making process. It was decidedly cat pee like!

 

 

Carol

[MauriceMynah]

More questions...

If one opens a bottle of fizzy drink, it bubbles. Many of those bubbles come from the bottom of the bottle where the sediment will be lying.  How do you stop that sediment bubbling up and mixing with your nice clear wine?

 

The River cottage recipe refers to the "Florets" of elderflowers. What exactly is the "floret"?  and being thick, I really do mean "Exactly".

 

I'm thinking of making a 5 gallon brew to start with (I'll go bigger if I like it). Do I just scale up all the ingredients, including the yeast ?

[ranworthbreeze]

 

More questions...

If one opens a bottle of fizzy drink, it bubbles. Many of those bubbles come from the bottom of the bottle where the sediment will be lying.  How do you stop that sediment bubbling up and mixing with your nice clear wine?

 

The River cottage recipe refers to the "Florets" of elderflowers. What exactly is the "floret"?  and being thick, I really do mean "Exactly".

 

I'm thinking of making a 5 gallon brew to start with (I'll go bigger if I like it). Do I just scale up all the ingredients, including the yeast ?

 

Hi John,

Elderflowers are similar to broccoli the fower head is made up of several florets.

Going way, way back in my wine making days I did some sparkling wine, that required a bigger trap that went into the demijohn whilst fermenting. You also had to use plastic caps for your bottles that had draw strings on them to release the built up pressure in the bottles. If memory serves me correctly after the wine had fermented fully new finings were added to the wine and left for a couple of days and the wine was syphoned off into the bottles where additional sugar was added to finish the brewing.

Regards

Alan

[BroadScot]

Is home brewing taxable ...yet? 

 

 

Iain

[ranworthbreeze]

Is home brewing taxable ...yet? 

 

 

Iain

 

Hi Iain,

I don't know about taxable, but it is certainly taxing especially when the bottles of your brew start exploding.

Most of the wine we made tasted like sherry, I prefered the beer, which was like rocket fuel, small mouthfulls only. Hic.

 

Regards

Alan

[riyadhcrew]

I'm sitting here at home having a glass of the red wine I bottled the other day and I'm thinking to myself, "if I was given this in a restaurant for something I had ordered, but didn't know the name, I would be happy". It really is quite good and smooth.

 

I make it in a 5 gallon (20 litres) plastic water bottle (the ones you turn upside down in a water cooler). The ingredients are as follows:

 

17 litre bottles of pure red grape juice,

650 grams of sugar,

1 packet (heaped teaspoon) of fine baker's yeast, (can't get wine yeast out here)

 

Stir it all together with a stick and put a condom on the top, at a slight angle.

 

After 1 day, the condom will be blown up and I put 2 or 3 holes in it with a tooth pick,

 

2 or 3 weeks later, the condom will be flat and I leave it for another week or 2.

 

Syphon with a plastic hose into flip top bottles with the rubber seal and that's it.

 

I could probably get 13 or 14 litres out of it, but I stop at 12, so I know I'm clear of the sediment.

 

.

[BroadScot]

I tried the wine malarky in my earlier years, but couldn't be bothered with all that you had to do to WAIT to sample. My mums grog was weyhay, But promised id never try her recipe ever! She brewed it throughout WW2 I believe, and the Pilots who had been shot down and were in the recovery place my mother worked, loved it!

 

 

Iain

[BroadScot]

I'm sitting here at home having a glass of the red wine I bottled the other day and I'm thinking to myself, "if I was given this in a restaurant for something I had ordered, but didn't know the name, I would be happy". It really is quite good and smooth.

 

I make it in a 5 gallon (20 litres) plastic water bottle (the ones you turn upside down in a water cooler). The ingredients are as follows:

 

17 litre bottles of pure red grape juice,

650 grams of sugar,

1 packet (heaped teaspoon) of fine baker's yeast, (can't get wine yeast out here)

 

Stir it all together with a stick and put a condom on the top, at a slight angle.

 

After 1 day, the condom will be blown up and I put 2 or 3 holes in it with a tooth pick,

 

2 or 3 weeks later, the condom will be flat and I leave it for another week or 2.

 

Syphon with a plastic hose into flip top bottles with the rubber seal and that's it.

 

I could probably get 13 or 14 litres out of it, but I stop at 12, so I know I'm clear of the sediment.

 

.

Thanks for the recipe etc Eric.  Now we know what all the members will be doing today. No not brewing...Condom buying!    

 

 

Iain

[Gracie]

Blimey, much easier to go to the shops and buy a bottle, I ain't drinking anything that's been anywhere near a blown up condom lol, I've read of excuses for having condoms in one's possessions in my time but that about tops the lot 

 

Grace

[BroadScot]

Blimey, much easier to go to the shops and buy a bottle, I ain't drinking anything that's been anywhere near a blown up condom lol, I've read of excuses for having condoms in one's possessions in my time but that about tops the lot 

 

Grace

PMSL Brilliant Grace    

 

 

Iain

[riyadhcrew]

Grace,

 

If I could get a bubble air lock out here, it would be better, but I have to use what I can to do the job.

[BroadScot]

Just had a thought Eric!! Yet another invention us Scots have brought to the world. Congratulations!      You can tell Eric is an engineer!

 

 

Iain

[jillR]

ive just finished making elderflower cordial and I was pleased with it.

I had problems finding citric acid till I found a top brew shop ...

http://www.goodlifehomebrew.com/?gclid=CNb5p7L-psYCFUjHtAodEikCsA

Goodlife Homebrew

sweetbriar industrial est

3 Barrow Cl

Norwich, NR3 2AT

tips I picked up for elderflower picking ...

don't wash as you loose flavour from the pollen.

don't pick when wet.

make as soon as you can after picking.

[Hockham Admiral]

More questions...

If one opens a bottle of fizzy drink, it bubbles. Many of those bubbles come from the bottom of the bottle where the sediment will be lying.  How do you stop that sediment bubbling up and mixing with your nice clear wine?

 

The River cottage recipe refers to the "Florets" of elderflowers. What exactly is the "floret"?  and being thick, I really do mean "Exactly".

 

I'm thinking of making a 5 gallon brew to start with (I'll go bigger if I like it). Do I just scale up all the ingredients, including the yeast ?

John, Good Morning, sorry to be so late with the answers.....

 

You filter away just about all of the sediment before you bottle it, or use a syphon tube to only take the clear stuff.

 

I didn't notice that and use whole "heads".

 

I've never made more than five gallons but I would imagine you scale everything up as you do in a breadmaker.

 

Good Luck!  

 

(And please take note of Jill's comments re not washing the heads and not picking after a rain shower).

[SteveO]

We make "elderflower champagne" using a recipe I got from t'internet. We put it into 1 litre PET tonic water bottles, which have the benefit of expanding if the secondary fermentation is too vigorous.

In my home winemaking days, I used to make proper sparkling elderflower wine using the method champenois which was excellent, but very labour intensive.

Happy days!

Steve

[MauriceMynah]

I don't have a pet bottle.

Where does yours sleep? How often do you feed it? and are they difficult to house train?

[Hockham Admiral]

We make "elderflower champagne" using a recipe I got from t'internet. We put it into 1 litre PET tonic water bottles, which have the benefit of expanding if the secondary fermentation is too vigorous.

In my home winemaking days, I used to make proper sparkling elderflower wine using the method champenois which was excellent, but very labour intensive.

Happy days!

Steve

 

They were indeed, Steve! Some scary moments when a cork would unexpectably burst out in an explosion of noise and moisture!

 

We use old Schweppes 1 litre bottles ourselves.

 

(And no comments from you on that, please, John!) 

[MauriceMynah]

No prob John, My lips are sealed ... schhhh eh!