Elderflowers

[Slate Miner]

Well after starting an elderflower champagne yesterday I though I'd have a go at making my first elderflower cordial especially as there appears to be lots of flowers this year. I've gone with:-
1 kg sugar.
1.5 lts water.
4 lemons.
2 teaspoons citric acid.
Pint & half of elderflower petals.

Bring water to boil, stir in sugar, add grated lemon rinds, sliced lemons and citric acid, stir.
Add elderflower petals, stir.
Cover and leave overnight.
Strain through muslin into bottles.

Apparently will ready straight away, dilute with still or carbonated water. :thumb:

Well I made up elderflower cordial to the above recipe and it's turned out really well, you certainly don't need much of the cordial before diulting with water otherwise it can taste a little too sweet, the flavour is a nice balance between the elders and the lemon, think I'll make up another batch as this has worked out so well and perhaps this time go with slightly less sugar & lemon.

Thumbs up from me. :thumb:

 

[dolcevita]

I started off some elderflower fizz last weekend (nothing scientific, just in a sterilized bucket) that I'm hoping to get into bottles this weekend. Once my bucket is free again, I'll make some cordial - we seem to get through it very quickly and at at least £2 for a modest bottle in the supermarket, it's well worth making my own. One thing I've done in the past when I didn't have enough bottles was pour it into those blue ice cube bags, then just add a couple of lumps to a tall glass of either still or sparkling water. Easy to store in the freezer, and no need for bottles or ice in the drinks.

Incidentally, what do people use to preserve their elderflower cordial? Are campden tablets appropriate for this or are there better methods around? The last time I bottled the cordial it only lasted a couple of months, so I never came up against it.

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

I heat-sterilise the bottles and pour the cordial in while boiling hot, then cap immediately. That kills off all but the most hardy bacteria. The recipe I use is quite high in acid, and any bacteria that survive the heat are unlikely to thrive in such acidic conditions. Once open I store in the fridge.

 

[Cheshire muzz]

What's the deal with leaving it 4 days before pitching the yeast. Would it be ok to pitch the yeast straight away?

 

[John46]

Made some elderflower cordial about 10 days ago, amazed to find that all the plastic caps have blown off the bottles after they have sat for about 9 days. It would have taken some force because those caps are bloody hard to take off by hand.
Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[dolcevita]

My elderflower fizz has been happily (but slowly) bubbling away to itself for the last week - I didn't add any yeast, opting for the 'let nature take its course' route. Perhaps your elderflowers were carrying quite a bit of wild yeast on them?

I started some cordial yesterday evening and added a campden tablet, but will also think about the other preservative chemical that I can't remember the name of right now, as I don't fancy cleaning up exploded cordial.

 

[John46]

I had them stored in the shed, the recent good spell of weather put paid to them I reckon, they need to be in a cool place, just checked and the shed is actually 28c.
Holding the bottles up to the light I can see loads of tiny bubbles rising to the surface, it looks like a bottle of pop thats been shaken, whereas before they were quite still, and its all spoiled as well, had to throw it all away.

 

[dolcevita]

Devastating - I'm definitely putting mine in the air raid shelter, then, newts or no newts.

 

[wino2012]

If one lives in the city, can one substitute the fresh elderflowers with dried ones? What what

 

[calumscott]

Finally getting round to this.

6l of water brought to the boil, frozen elderflowers added, brought back to the boil and tucked up to steep until tomorrow.

The frozen flowers do oxidise - I had to chip off a few lumps from the blocks...

 

[RobWalker]

If one lives in the city, can one substitute the fresh elderflowers with dried ones? What what

you can, but make sure they're good. i've had dried from the LHBS before and they were a year old, albeit in date, but nowhere near as good as the ones I'd had a few years back during the actual season. give 'em a sniff. if they're ****, leave them. if they smell good, use 'em!

Anyway, as this topic is going well, thought I'd poke my pear and elderflower wine in...started July 2nd.

3x Tins "Tesco" Pear Halves in Pear Juice
1x Carton "Welch's" White Grape, Pear & Apple Juice
750g White Sugar
1 Pint Elderflowers

1/2tsp Citric Acid
1/2tsp Tannin
2tsp Pectolase
1tsp Yeast Nutrient

Method;

Sterilise everything. Add pear halves to bucket and mash up using potato masher. Add all other ingredients and make up to just below 1 gallon with boiling water. Leave to cool, pitch yeast, ferment on the pulp for 3 days and strain off into a fresh DJ. Top up and allow to ferment, clear, then sweeten and bottle.

4 weeks on, mostly fermented.

 

[calumscott]

Right, all done and pitched...

1.072 @ 30 degrees is 1.075

Colour's good.

Waiting time now.

 

[calumscott]

A trio of lava lamps!!

...which I just don't trust... :lol:

 

[MadrikXIV]

Made some elderflower cordial about 10 days ago, amazed to find that all the plastic caps have blown off the bottles after they have sat for about 9 days. It would have taken some force because those caps are bloody hard to take off by hand.
Has anyone else experienced this?

Thankfully I had my cordial in plastic pets, a bottle had been left on the work top, went rock solid, opened it, and very highly carbonated, the other half liked it.

So got the remaining 3litres out, split into some smaller bottles, left in warmth, solid and fizzy within days

 

[calumscott]

Wine in all three demis down to 0.992. drrrrrrrrrryyyy!!!

Perfect for an Extra Brut champoo. I'm going to do a gallon of still, one bottle will stay extra brut for topping up post disgorging if I need to and the rest will be taken back up to just dry...

 

[calumscott]

So with the apple top up and another month we're back down to 0.994ish.

So I've bottled two gallons with 57g dextrose to get it nice and fizzy.

The third gallon is getting stabilised and bottled as still wine.

 

[RobWalker]

Bottled mine yesterday at 0.992. It's awesome, if not maybe a little too intense on the elderflower. This wouldn't usually be a problem, but it does beg a slight situation...

1) It's good dry, the only dry wine i've ever made that I enjoyed in fact - but the intense flavour means you don't want to drink a lot of it. Coupled with 3 tins of pears in juice and some white grape juice, it's not shy!

2) I can sweeten some, but sweeter wine is also somewhat sickly to drink a bottle or so of :lol:

So for future, probably use 3/4 pint elderflowers instead of a pint. For now I'll just get on with it.

does anybody know if elderflowers lose their aroma over time in the bottle?