Elderflower wine

[vassili]

Anyone started any this year yet?
My wife picked a barrow full today. I got home from shooting and found the kitchen in complete devastation.
She was only going to make elderflower cordial but then decided she fancied a medium to sweet wine. She couldn't wait till I got back so googled a recipe off BBC good guide??? Why? We have an extensive collection of brewing books.
Anyway the recipe she was using was absolute nonsense.
We now have a couple of gallons of what will hopefully be a decent white on the go.

 

[Hagrid]

I’ve just transferred mine to the DJ. It’s going at about 65 bubbles/min at the moment. I got a little taste whilst syphoning and it taste gorgeous at the moment.

How long do you normally leave yours in secondary fermentation?

 

[vassili]

Till there's literally not a bubble.
Hers will stay in the bucket for a week, then if it's calmed down a bit it will get taken off the solids and into a demijohn where it will be left till bottling.

 

[parpot]

Elderflower Champagne recipe

30 heads Elderflowers.
2kg Sugar.
Zest & Juice of 5 lemons.
250ml White Grape Con.
Water to 3 gallons (15 ltr)
Yeast & Nutrient

OG between 1.062 &1.070, fermented out to between 0.986 & 0.992,

If bottling in glass you MUST use proper Champagne/Cava/Sekt bottles, or you can use plastic pop bottles with screwtops.

Put them in a sterilised FV and thoroughly mix in the dissolved sugar. Leave for about an hour to extract the flavour. Add the water and stir. Add the grape concentrate, yeast and yeast nutrient. Halve and squeeze the lemons, then throw in the peel as well. Stir.

Lid the FV with bubble trap and leave for a week, shaking occasionally for the first three or four days
Remove the bubble-trap and carefully drop in a sterilised hydrometer. It should read around 0.990-0.986. If not, then replace the trap and leave your brew a bit longer.

Once the magic number has been achieved, siphon off into PET bottles, I add a TS of brewing sugar per bottle.
Leave for several weeks to allow the fermentation to add fizz to the wine and clear. Keep the bottle in the fridge then decant carefully into a chilled jug just before serving.

 

[vassili]

She has done a similar champagne version but totally got it wrong at the bottling stage! Same as her "apple juice" bottles exploding everywhere.

 

[TheMancWinemaker]

Just put my wine into demi-johns this morning...

I leave my must for 4-7 days until it lowers to 1.020 (only took four days this time as it has been warm) This time I made 2 gallons of Elderflower and 3 gallons of Strawberry & Elderflower. "Smells amazing!"

My Elderflower Wine Recipe (1 gallon)

I pint of Elderflower petals
8 pints of water
3lb of Sugar
The juice and rind of 2 lemons
1/2 lb of raisins or Sultarnas
1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient
5g sachet of yeast which does 5L-23L
(I use Gervin GV9)
Concentrated wine tanins (I use 1/4 teaspoon)

***I crush 1 Campden tablet then leave must 12-24 hours before I add yeast nutrient and yeast***

If I want to add any fruit flavours to the Elderflower wine then I add 1kg of fruit per gallon.

 

[Drunkula]

She has done a similar champagne version but totally got it wrong at the bottling stage! Same as her "apple juice" bottles exploding everywhere.

It drives me nuts when I see recipes - even new ones - where they say bottle after 3 days then release the gas periodically. FFS, it's like the 17th century never went away.

I bottle in beer bottles and go for 3.5 vols of carbonation. Even the crappy Koppaberg bottles has no trouble with it if you're priming to the right level.

 

[BrewBandit]

I've just set a gallon going. It's only my third wine so far and my first elderflower so I liked the minimalism of this Lyme Bay Winery recipe I stumbled across (I ike and have drunk plenty of their wines in the past too!)
https://www.lymebaywinery.co.uk/blog/how-to-make-elderflower-wine/
Time will tell.