The first Elderflower... phew! Thats some strong stuff!!

Well here it is - the first bottle of elderflower no.1 un-corked and dangerous!! Wow it kicks a punch and after one glass I feel a bit squiffy!! Just the right amount of fizz the bottles weren't half as lively as the pink stuff and opened with a good pop, a bit of smoke screen and some rising bubbles but no fountains this time I'm glad to say!

Tasting notes:

Gorgeous!! It tastes very wine like and this ones definitely alcoholic!! If I was being picky I'd say maybe the elderflower is a tad over powering but still pretty yummy and very drinkable. Good thing we like elderflower - we may go for less flowers next time for a more subtle flavour! Its quite sweet still - perhaps a demi sec - but actually about right for the flavour we've got. Guy has described it as loopy juice... whatever is in it certainly goes straight to the drunk buttons!!

Testing the SG was a tad difficult as the bubbles stick to the hydrometer and make it more boyant, however we still came out with a reading of just below 1.000 - thats an alcohol volume of at least 13%.... hic!!

It is a bit cloudy, but only a tad and the best news is that the sediment has stayed but on the bottom too! Thats champagne yeast for you apparently, cheers!!

Bottling the eldercham!

I tested the gravity last night it was at 1.004 I thought it may be  a little low to achieve the carbonation we are after, as it is still fermenting slowly I decided to add a little sugar (1tsp per litre) to make sure the fizz arrives!

After sterilizing and swilling all the equipment and bottles (my least favourite part) bottling began.

I bought a 'Little Bottler' which I fitted to the end of the syphon (I'll fit the whole thing to the FV at some point) this made things much easier, quicker and more controllable (is that a word?!)..

The wine hasn't cleared but after a cheeky slurp or two I don't think its to its detriment, a lovely elderfowery taste and not to sweet, when the secondary fermentation has occurred it should be great.

Phew, we have fermentation again!

For a wee while we thought we'd thrown the baby out with the bathwater as elderflower no. 1 stopped fermenting when we racked the flowers off on Monday. We feared we might end up with weak sugary wine but luckily its off again! Specific gravity tonight = 1.038 so sugar content still on its way down - just over 7%.

No need to look at marketing a new elderflower alcopop. Phew!

Redcurrant and elderflower still needs to be bottled asap - that'll  still be Saturday, not ideal but hey, Gooseberry and elderflower will be racked off the fruit on Sunday and will be left to continue fermenting a bit more.

Meanwhile Guy's drinking his first pint of his lager - or 'lale' as we've nicknamed it as it's turned out a flavoursome brew almost like a real ale. Most importantly it doesn't taste like homebrew so definitely a result!!

Monster brew session!!

Tonight was the night for setting off our new brew experiments before the elderflower season is over for another year - as well as tending to no. 1 which has been brewing now for a week.

Elderflower Champagne no. 1 measured Specific Gravity 1.055, higher than we were expecting to be honest but it was still bubbling away so obviously still fermenting, and smelled fab! We decided to take it off the elferflowers etc. but leave it to ferment out a little more. A cheeky taste was strongly elderflower, quite sweet but very drinkable :o) Piccy above

We also put to brew our version of an Elderflower and gooseberry sparkling recipe adapted from a Truman recipe, details below, 1 gallon split between two demi johns as we're out of fermenting tubs.

After yesterdays pink champagne we also brewed up 24 litres of elder and summer fruit with mixed summer fruits of raspberry, blackberry, black and redcurrant substituting the pure blackcurrant the recipe called for. Its racked off and bottled real soon with no added yeast to hopefully become a low alcohol but very drinkable summer brew ready in 3 weeks!

All that brewing and its got very late... phew! We must be committed to the cause ;o)

Elderflower ponderings in Cheltenham

Spent a day at Cheltenham Food & Drink festival today sampling some yummy delights including some very drinkable elderflower and gooseberry presse - not alcoholic but a great flavour! Definitely set the creative ponderings going and we had a great chat with the v friendly sellers about the whys and wherefores of commercial elderflower picking. The season is short and intense by all accounts and everyone involved spends the few weeks out scouring the local hedgerows and picking 5-6kgs per day of elderflowers!!

Because of the way the flowers sweat once picked each batch is dealt with on a daily basis; they really are quite delicate things. Smelly cars and 'pickers finger' seem the biggest hazards of the job - then by the end of June when the season ends they have a big piss up to celebrate. Sounds awful ;o)

They pick all over Bredon hill wherever they can get the flowers, being careful not to strip each tree so as to leave enough to turn to elder berries and also enough to pollinate and make new trees. 

We also quaffed some pink elderflower champagne, made from a pink garden variety of elder - didn't even know there was such a thing but it sure made tasty juice. This was a very low alcohol drink at between 1-2% made with just the natural yeasts present and probably very different to the stuff we have fermenting away in our spare room! Something else to try?! This trial and error lark is getting a bit out of hand and still not enough bottles...

The bottling plan

We've been doing some investigation into this 'ere bottling so as to get a wine with fizz. Reading Jim's homebrew here there is some great advice that goes into a bit more detail than our starting recipe about getting the right finish and desired alcohol content.

Our OG seems quite high compared to other people's on this site. We've decided to rack off the mixture after 5 days to lift it off the dead yeast and then bottle in stages and experiment to get the right level of fizz. When the gravity gets down to 1.000 we'll bottle some then let the rest ferment out to 0.98 and then do a mix of no prime and slight prime (1/2 tsp of sugar to each 75cl bottle).

Until then we're full steam ahead collecting as many champagne bottles as possible. Drink up folks!

No fermentation yet

Well everything smells lovely but still no sign of any fermentation so we've added some yeast to the mix. Fingers crossed that'll speed things along!

The making of the Elderflower Champagne

The elderflowers were remarkably easy to  pick; 10 mins and we had filled our bags with the 70 heads of flowers needed for the recipe  - double quantities hear we come!! Elderflower bushes are everywhere at the moment and laden with flowers, someone had obviously been at our tree before us but there still rich pickings for everyone.

Back home and Guy got sudden onset hayfever with all the pollen so it was up to me to prep the flowers - snipping off the bigger stems and checking for stray insects, while he got the job of zesting the lemons and limes, oh and the steralising!

After everything was mixed Guy measured the specific gravity so we'll be able to calulate the alcohol volume when the wine is finished. 

Elderflower SG = 1.092

Guy reckons it should ferment down to about 1.006 as a bit of an educated guess, so using the calculator here, we could be about 12% - pretty strong stuff when its finished. 

Elderflower Champagne Recipe

We looked at lots of different recipes but finally settled on this one which seemed to have the right balance of science and annecdote, plus if 4 generations have successfully quaffed these results it can't be bad! Thanks to Hedging Your Bets for the following:

You will need (to make 10-12 litres): 

• a really clean container big enough for the mix (large bucker, bin, brewing tub etc)
• a clean cloth (muslin is best) to cover said container
• strong bottles which will need to be sterilised at bottling time (the ones with spring closures are best, but screw capped fizzy drinks bottles work well)
• syphon tube (one with a clip or tap on the end is preferable)
  

Ingredients

• 35 elderflower heads - pick the ones with the strongest scent
• 2.5kg granulated sugar
• 2 proper tablespoons of white wine vinegar
• 5 litres boiling water & some cold water
• Juice and grated skin (zest) of 5 lemons - unwaxed if possible
• Juice and grated skin (zest) of 1 lime - also unwaxed

Instructions:

1. Dissolve the sugar in the boiling water then put in the large container and add cold water to make a total volume of between 7 and 8 litres.

2. Mix in the elderflowers, the white wine vinegar, the lemon and lime juice and their zests and stir the brew.

3. Cover the whole thing with the clean cloth (or use an airlock if you are a brewer) and put it in a cool place to ferment for two days. If, after a couple of days it has not started fermenting (easy to tell as there will be a foamy sort of scum on top) then add a pinch of dried yeast to get it going. Generally you will find that enough wild yeasts came in with the elderflowers for this not to be necessary.

4. Keep the container covered/airlocked and let the champagne carry on fermenting for another 4-5 days.

5. Using a winemakers sieve or the muslin you covered it with, strain the champagne into another container, let it settle for a couple of hours and siphon it into the sterilised bottles. Do make sure they can take a LOT of pressure. Seal the bottles tightly. N.B. If you are using plastic drinks bottles keep an eye out for ones that start bulging - if they do, loosen the cap to let some carbon dioxide out and then tighten again.

6. Leave it to ferment for at least another week after which it is delicious although it gets better with age. In nearly a hundred years the family has never found out how long it keeps - however much was made never lasted more than a year…

Enjoy ice cold