RoomWithABrew
Landlord.
The recipe I used for Elderflower champagne
Harvest the flowers in am ideally.
Snip the flowers off the end of the bunches so there's not much stalk.
I filled pint glass with lightly pressed in flowers.
1.25 kg white sugar,
zest of two lemons and the juice of two lemons.
All into bottom of 25 litre ferment bucket and then poured over 4 pints or so of boiling water.
Liquid from a stewed tea bag and squeezed bag into fermenter as well.
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar.
added wine nutrient and another 4 pints of water.
I scaled the recipe up for triple the quatity. OG was 1.072
I put champagne yeast on it at the right temp.
Stirred it once or twice a day during ferment.
Then near end I racked it off into fermentasaurus to build pressure to 30psi.
Once it had cleared, I didn't use any sod met or finings I then counter pressure filled the champagne bottles with clear elderflower sparkling.
A few bottles I added some sugar to as I thought might not have high enough vols and they have carbed a bit more, but not much.
It is dry.
Your only options for less dry are tricky. If you can counter pressure fill bottles before end of ferment then you will be putting fizzy in, but then you would need to pasteurise the bottles to kill the yeast and stop activity.
Or you would need to back sweeten the bottles at the time of bottling with a non fermentable sugar, I've heard that erythritol is quite good in mead, I've not tried it myself. You tube channel called doin the most they are keen on it and could give idea re dosing.
I've used monk fruit extract for back sweetening a brut lo calorie Hazy ipa and that worked very well but it does have a faint colour, might give your elderflower a tinge of colour.
It's still drinking well 2 years later so must have been a good process. Wife not that keen on it but every one I've given a bottle to raves about it.
My elderflowers I picked didn't have the incredible aroma that I've sometimes smelled on some UK bushes. But even though as some say slight cats pee smell the taste and aroma is right.
Will be kegging the elderflower saison imminently and can't wait to see how it comes out.
Harvest the flowers in am ideally.
Snip the flowers off the end of the bunches so there's not much stalk.
I filled pint glass with lightly pressed in flowers.
1.25 kg white sugar,
zest of two lemons and the juice of two lemons.
All into bottom of 25 litre ferment bucket and then poured over 4 pints or so of boiling water.
Liquid from a stewed tea bag and squeezed bag into fermenter as well.
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar.
added wine nutrient and another 4 pints of water.
I scaled the recipe up for triple the quatity. OG was 1.072
I put champagne yeast on it at the right temp.
Stirred it once or twice a day during ferment.
Then near end I racked it off into fermentasaurus to build pressure to 30psi.
Once it had cleared, I didn't use any sod met or finings I then counter pressure filled the champagne bottles with clear elderflower sparkling.
A few bottles I added some sugar to as I thought might not have high enough vols and they have carbed a bit more, but not much.
It is dry.
Your only options for less dry are tricky. If you can counter pressure fill bottles before end of ferment then you will be putting fizzy in, but then you would need to pasteurise the bottles to kill the yeast and stop activity.
Or you would need to back sweeten the bottles at the time of bottling with a non fermentable sugar, I've heard that erythritol is quite good in mead, I've not tried it myself. You tube channel called doin the most they are keen on it and could give idea re dosing.
I've used monk fruit extract for back sweetening a brut lo calorie Hazy ipa and that worked very well but it does have a faint colour, might give your elderflower a tinge of colour.
It's still drinking well 2 years later so must have been a good process. Wife not that keen on it but every one I've given a bottle to raves about it.
My elderflowers I picked didn't have the incredible aroma that I've sometimes smelled on some UK bushes. But even though as some say slight cats pee smell the taste and aroma is right.
Will be kegging the elderflower saison imminently and can't wait to see how it comes out.
