Elderflowers

[graysalchemy]

I hope no-one picks the flowers because I have noted the location and would prefer the berries later in the year.

I agree elderberry port and elderberry stout for me, though I must say I haven't seen the trees so full. In fact I have seen trees that i have never seen before, found two on the industrial estate I work on, never seen them before either.

Youngest son is also moving to a new footy club and the lane it is on is heaving with elders so I think I will be sneaking off with the non footballing elder son on Saturday mornings in September :whistle: :whistle:

 

[narmour]

I'm moving house in a month so I had made the decision to not brew anything until after.. although all this talk of elderflower champagne has got me abuzz with ideas and I really want to try making some!!! I find I am a bit of a danger on the roads as I am paying more attention to the trees than to the road. perhaps I should just pick a load of flowers and freeze them til after the move. Seems a shame to waste such a bumper year!!!

:hat:

 

[graysalchemy]

Wait for the berries

 

[calumscott]

It really does seem to be a bumper year. Certainly round here anyway.

I'm just back from tesco with grape and grapefruit juice and I'm off to order some yeast... :thumb:

Can't wait for the berries to come too. Elderberry is just lovely lovely stuff.

Then there's Alistair's Elderberry imperial stout to make...

...then sloes I guess. :)

 

[calumscott]

Recipe for 15l ploughed into Beersmith...

Recipe: Elderflower Champagne
Style: Wine

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size (fermenter): 15.00 l   
Estimated OG: 1.071 SG
Estimated FG: 0.984 SG (Yeah, right!)
Estimated ABV: 11.5%

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
3.00 l                Rio D'Oro White Grape Juice (1.0 EBC)    Sugar         1        45.5 %        
2.10 kg               Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (2.0 EBC)         Sugar         2        31.8 %        
1.50 l                Grapefruit Juice (1.0 EBC)               Sugar         3        22.7 %        
1.0 pkg               Lalvin EC-1118 (Lallemand - Lalvin #EC-1 Yeast         4        -             
3.00 pt               Elderflowers (Primary 60.0 mins)         Spice         5        -             
3.00 tsp              Yeast Nutrient (Primary 3.0 days)        Other         6        -             
3.00 tsp              Pectolase (Primary 0.0 mins)             Fining        7        -

If I hit 0.995 FG I'll get 10% which will be ideal. If 1118 turns out to be a monster and it goes right out to 0.985 well so what! :lol:

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

Wait for the berries

I will. I just don't see the point in wasting the flowers. With the sheer quantity of them on the trees in my area, I could easily pick enough flowers for the next decade, and still have more berries than I could possibly hope to turn into port or wine.

 

[calumscott]

Wait for the berries

I will. I just don't see the point in wasting the flowers. With the sheer quantity of them on the trees in my area, I could easily pick enough flowers for the next decade, and still have more berries than I could possibly hope to turn into port or wine.

It is looking like a VERY good year for Elder.

Now does anyone know if that also bodes well for other stuff like sloe for example?

 

[nick789uk]

Just put two demijohns of elder flower on made from fresh flowers, can not use more or will not have enough for elderberry wine later in the year.

 

[RobWalker]

does anyone know where I can buy pear juice? 2L pear juice, 700g sugar and elderflower heads would make a wonderful wine...

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

Rob: I suspect that fresh pears would be the cheapest/least complicated option, assuming you have access to a juicer. If you can get hold of perry pears, so much the better.

Wait for the berries

I will. I just don't see the point in wasting the flowers. With the sheer quantity of them on the trees in my area, I could easily pick enough flowers for the next decade, and still have more berries than I could possibly hope to turn into port or wine.

It is looking like a VERY good year for Elder.

Now does anyone know if that also bodes well for other stuff like sloe for example?

It really depends on the plant. A good year for one can be a bad year for another, and there are loads of other factors like what the weather was like when they flowered, the amount of sun & rain during fruit formation, and even whether or not the plant had a good year the previous year. Last year was virtually non-existent for my parents' bramley tree - for the first time in 25 years they didn't get a single apple off it, when ordinarily they give away up to 3/4 of what they pick - purely because the blossom was hit (literally) by an unusually heavy hail-storm in May last year. However having had a fallow year both their tree and my much smaller two are so heavy we're having to pick half the fruit now to stop the branches from breaking (something which previously I've only ever had to do for gooseberries - sadly not needed this year as my three plants have barely half a dozen fruits between them).

I don't know whether or not the blackthorn flowered before/during or after the late snows this Spring, but I suspect it would have been after. They'll be several weeks later again since the rest of Spring was so abysmal, so will probably ripen late. This increases the chances of them getting hit by any early frosts in September/October, and as any sloe lover knows, that is a good thing. We might not get more sloes, but we well get better ones.

By contrast, blackberries flower late and flower long, with the last flowers opening after the first fruits have ripened, so a good crop of them is mostly down to the weather between July and October. Oddly I've seen a few plants that are in flower already, despite the late spring, so we could get an earlier (and therefore bigger) crop of them. This isn't necessarily good news though. Assuming the summer continues as it has done so far - i.e. switching between hot/dry/sunny and warm/humid/rainy, the blackberries should be big and juicy. I don't know the effect that will have on wines made from blackberries, but it's the opposite of what you want for bramble jelly (small, sweet & tart). However it is ideal weather for most other flowers, fruits & vegetables, such as roses, nasturtiums, strawberries, beans, courgettes, currants, beetroot, spinach, parsnips and (of course) elderberries.

As far as non-edibles are concerned, it looks like being the best year I have ever seen for conkers. Admittedly that's only from a third of a century of experience, but there do seem to be an exceptionally large number of conkers on the trees at the moment.

You win some, you lose some. I think it's best to be pragmatic and appreciate what you have rather than grumbling about what might have been.

 

[RobWalker]

Tim - cheers. it could be worth it, its nice to make wines fresh sometimes I think! I'll have a look around for tinned pears, it would certainly take the skinning part out and make mashing them up easier.

as a professional gardener (not one that knows a lot of about flowers, but one that mows lawns and shovels a lot gravel around) there is certainly logic in different plants having better and worse years - particularly the buttercups are doing well this year, i'm filling bins and bags with them constantly :lol:

 

[Grand gris]

does anyone know where I can buy pear juice? 2L pear juice, 700g sugar and elderflower heads would make a wonderful wine...

I've had problems finding this as well. With direction from someone on this site I bought a 2.5kg tin of pears in WGJ from Band M. I've just tried it(just finishing brewing so not matured) and it appears to be on a good track and I imagine some elderflower might enhance it.

This is not as pear like as I imagine pure pear juice would be though so it'll be good to know if you find some :

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

Tinned foods are heat-treated in the can, which will have changed the flavour.

That said, the juicers I've seen/used can cope perfectly fine with whole apples & pears, so there shouldn't be any need to skin them.

Have your thought about trying an elderflower perry? I'm intending to save a pint of elderflowers for when I make my ciders this autumn. I'm doing 5 gallons if I get enough apples: plain, spiced, oaked, elderflower, and blackberry & elderberry.

 

[RobWalker]

Tesco have it! Pear halves in pear juice. Could be good! maybe 3 tins to a gallon...

but yes, heat treating is an issue. i hope I don't get a cooked flavour. as for perry, it would be good, but I find the yield on these things quite low for the amount of work as I'm not really set up for juicing. The problem is it's relatively low ABV compared to wine which needs less fruit juice overall, and I'm a whizz at brewing beer, so cider etc I would rather just do from juice...

Now if I had a fruit press or pulpmaster, that would be different...

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

I went out on a foraging expedition, and returned with about 2.5 gallons of elderflowers, having barely made a dent in the actual number of flowers out there. I think I will make another such excursion tomorrow.

On some of the elders out there the flowers are so prolific you can barely see the leaves. They looks like vast off-white snowdrifts.

 

[calumscott]

Crazy isn't it! Basically I took the equivalent of 4 or five pints of just flowers (a big, well packed carrier bagful) from 4 trees and I never had to reach up once!

And the sheer amount of unopened heads there too...

Driving to work now is hilarious - there are simply big white bushes in the hedgerows! Like you say, no leaves, just flowers!

I might go and get another bagful for the freezer, maybe do an elderflowery ultra-pale ale... Maybe a sort of Yang to Alistairs' Elizium Yin! :) :hmm:

 

[RobWalker]

our tree is looking very late, having driven past some wild ones a few miles up the road which seem to be in full bloom. hope ours come out okay, they don't smell great and they're a little brown compared to usual!

 

[Slate Miner]

Started my first attempt at elderflower champagne today :thumb:

Picked about 60 flower heads yesterday evening, surprised how many flowers there were with plenty more to come by the looks of it. Left the flowers in a black bin bag (as suggested on here) over night, some of the petals were starting to fall off this morning but suspect could of done with a bit longer I think.

Not having made anything from elderflowers before I was surprised how many flower heads were needed to produce a'pint' of petals, reckon I used about 40 flower heads! Depends on the size of the flower heads I guess.

I grated the rind of 2 lemons, added to the petals, poured on 8 pints of hot water, added a campden tablet after allowing to cool first, and there it will stay for 3 days with occasional stiring before adding 650 gms sugar, 1 lt of grape juice, the juice from the 2 lemons, 1 teaspoon of tannin a good stir and then the champagne yeast. I'll then leave in a warm place for 4 or 5 days before straining into a demi-johm. My plan is to ferment out before bottling to swing top beer bottles adding 6 or 7 gms of priming sugar to each bottle. :

Well that's the plan anyway :whistle:

 

[peteplus1]

Started my first attempt at elderflower champagne today :thumb:

Picked about 60 flower heads yesterday evening, surprised how many flowers there were with plenty more to come by the looks of it. Left the flowers in a black bin bag (as suggested on here) over night, some of the petals were starting to fall off this morning but suspect could of done with a bit longer I think.

Not having made anything from elderflowers before I was surprised how many flower heads were needed to produce a'pint' of petals, reckon I used about 40 flower heads! Depends on the size of the flower heads I guess.

I grated the rind of 2 lemons, added to the petals, poured on 8 pints of hot water, added a campden tablet after allowing to cool first, and there it will stay for 3 days with occasional stiring before adding 650 gms sugar, 1 lt of grape juice, the juice from the 2 lemons, 1 teaspoon of tannin a good stir and then the champagne yeast. I'll then leave in a warm place for 4 or 5 days before straining into a demi-johm. My plan is to ferment out before bottling to swing top beer bottles adding 6 or 7 gms of priming sugar to each bottle. :

Well that's the plan anyway :whistle:

We're doing our first elderflower and have 2 different versions in the go....
1 we are fermenting out like a wine then restarting before bottling.
The 2nd should be a bit quicker... transferring to bottles once fermentation slows down enough to think we won't have bottle bombs in our hands!
Both smell fantastic currently. Might even gather some more tomorrow as said above there is such quantity everywhere, and get another batch on the go....

 

[MadrikXIV]

Came back with almost a carrier bag full from 2 trees, which I hardly dented!!!

Just as I started to pick them, someone else popped up, carrier bag in hand, and said, he had just spotted the tree as well, we agreed there was plenty to go around :party:

Going to put them in the bucket, planning on going with the 'Booze for Free' Elderflower Wine recipe, triple it, and split it on day 4 into wine, cordial and Champagne

1 Pint Elderflowers
1.3kg Sugar
3.5 litres water
grated Rind 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
Gervin yeast

Put them in a fermentation bin, mix in lemon and sugar, pour over boiling water, add the Campden tablet (if using), allow to stand for 4 days, stirring occasionally.

After 4 days, strain through muslin cloth or fine sieve, stir in lemon juice and yeast, ferment at room temperature.

When bubbling has ceased, stir and allow to settle for 3 days, stran and allow to ferment fully, then siphon into bottle.

So day 4, I will split it all into 3. Will bottle some into some plastic bottles, then 2 Demijohns one with Champagne yeast, one with standard yeast.

Time to get forking