Elderflower Champagne Infected??

[hazzeryoda]

Hi there,
Wondering if you can knowledgeable folk can help, I'm new to making elderflower champers and am wondering whether I have ballsed it up. The photo below shows one of my five bottles of the stuff. It has always been cloudy from the start, not sure if that is acceptable or not, but I have just returned from a weekend away and three of them have developed this chalky white film or scum on the top...
I presume this is some sort of mould growth and fear that it is bad news for the brew?

I kept the lemon, water, sugar, elderflowers mixture in a covered pot for four days before straining it through clean muslin into the bottles. The bottles had been filled with boiling water but this could obviously not have been enough. They were then left for about a week (so not finished brewing, still v sweet but quite fizzy) before this happened.

Any hope of saving the brew or it is curtains?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated...

H

 

[liampenn]

I have no Idea what you have done, personally it looks like hasn't finished its primary fermentation.
How much sugar did you use?
Did you put it into a demijohn or has it only been sat in a fermentation bucket for 4 days?

 

[Moley]

Any hope of saving the brew or it is curtains?

I think it's curtains, sorry.

Did you pour boiling water over the flowers and then add your own yeast after it had cooled, or did you rely on Mother Nature?

One of you has screwed up.

 

[gemmacide]

I'm hoping my post won't be frowned upon - it's on-topic yet digressing slightly from the specific problem. I'm just looking at some Elderflower champagne recipes for my next brew and the one I want to use advocates the use of a demi john, and yet others I am finding call for the fermented juice just to be strained straight into the bottles.

Can anyone tell me why you would skip the DJ stage? And could having skipped it pertain to the results that hazzeryoda is finding?

 

[hazzeryoda]

How much sugar did you use?
Did you put it into a demijohn or has it only been sat in a fermentation bucket for 4 days?

700g sugar to 6 litres of water.
It was in a bucket for four days then transferred to bottles with loose tops, this then appeared after two-three days. To be honest it hasnt really gotten any worse...

Did you pour boiling water over the flowers and then add your own yeast after it had cooled, or did you rely on Mother Nature?

Nope. Water was warm. Not too hot. No added yeast.

I am wondering whether I should strain the lot through two sheets of muslin into a sterilised container, sterilise the bottles again, and add a campden tablet to kill off whatever this might be. I know this will kill off the natural yeast as well, but I hear different advice on how long elderflower champagne needs to be left for ranging from between one week and over a month. It has had over two now...

Thanks!

H