Need elderflower beer recipe

[Monkhouse]

Hi guys, I’m off foraging this weekend in the hope of making an elderflower ale. I’m softer a good solid elderflower beer recipe, I do t want to dry hop though (or dry elderflower?!)
So must be put into the boil.
Preferably abv around 6-7%, with a good strong elderflower flavour, balanced though of course. I’ve looked at Greg hughes elderflower beer recipe and it only calls for 15g of dried elderflower, doesn’t seem like much and tbh I can’t be bothered drying the elderflower.
Anyway let me know any recipes.
Cheers

 

[RoomWithABrew]

I've made this a couple of times and also had a commercial version in a brewery tap room in Dunedin.
Reassuringly mine was similar to theirs in taste.

I based my recipe off this

https://beerandbrewing.com/recipe-elderflower-saison/
Read the breweries web page as well

https://brasseriedecazeau.be/en/saison-cazeau/
you will see they list their hops as Northern Brewer, Fuggles and Sterling.

I've used Brewers gold in one variant and the beer and brewing hops in my first attempt.

First time I made it I put the umbels in my hop rocket and recirculated through that from boiling down to pitching. Worked well.

Second time I just lobbed the elderflower in the kettle at the end of boil, big big mistake with an all in one. Almost instantly blocked the pump and no end of headaches. So it's bag or hop spider if you don't have the missile.

On the north Island NZ elderflower is quite hard to find. On the south island it's everywhere so I have my foraging sites here near home but hope to pick up some if timing good on my monthly visits to Dunedin.

First year I froze and vacuum sealed the spare elderflowers and they oxidise quickly and go brown. They do still work.
However last year I put them in a tupperware and then filled it with previously boiled and rapidly cooled water with 2g of ascorbic acid stirred in when water near cooled temp then froze it all. They still look the same as the moment I put them in the water.

I serve my saison at 3.5 vols on tap and aim a little higher when bottling. Hope you enjoy.


Other saison info here
https://beerandbrewing.com/make-your-best-saison/https://byo.com/article/saison/https://bisonbrew.com/saison/
I used WLP590 yeast both times.

 

[Monkhouse]

Thanks for the info!

 

[Monkhouse]

Are there any elderflower recipes that arnt saisons? Was thinking just a pale ale with elderflowers added at the end of the boil?

 

[Agentgonzo]

Are there any elderflower recipes that arnt saisons? Was thinking just a pale ale with elderflowers added at the end of the boil?

I would pick any golden ale recipe (they tend to be floral) and add elderflower at whatever point the saison recipe says to add the elderflower.

 

[Rugby Fan.]

Are there any elderflower recipes that arnt saisons? Was thinking just a pale ale with elderflowers added at the end of the boil?

I did one recently 50/50 pale ale wheat with a liter of fresh flowers for 20 mins at 80C. It's currently fermenting with us-05

 

[Monkhouse]

I did one recently 50/50 pale ale wheat with a liter of fresh flowers for 20 mins at 80C. It's currently fermenting with us-05

When you say a litre of fresh flowers how did you measure that? I was thinking of just picking a certain amount of floret heads?

 

[Rugby Fan.]

When you say a litre of fresh flowers how did you measure that? I was thinking of just picking a certain amount of floret heads?

Very roughly eyeballed a liter of floret heads minus as much green stuff as possible.

 

[Monkhouse]

I've made this a couple of times and also had a commercial version in a brewery tap room in Dunedin.
Reassuringly mine was similar to theirs in taste.

I based my recipe off this

https://beerandbrewing.com/recipe-elderflower-saison/
Read the breweries web page as well

https://brasseriedecazeau.be/en/saison-cazeau/
you will see they list their hops as Northern Brewer, Fuggles and Sterling.

I've used Brewers gold in one variant and the beer and brewing hops in my first attempt.

First time I made it I put the umbels in my hop rocket and recirculated through that from boiling down to pitching. Worked well.

Second time I just lobbed the elderflower in the kettle at the end of boil, big big mistake with an all in one. Almost instantly blocked the pump and no end of headaches. So it's bag or hop spider if you don't have the missile.

On the north Island NZ elderflower is quite hard to find. On the south island it's everywhere so I have my foraging sites here near home but hope to pick up some if timing good on my monthly visits to Dunedin.

First year I froze and vacuum sealed the spare elderflowers and they oxidise quickly and go brown. They do still work.
However last year I put them in a tupperware and then filled it with previously boiled and rapidly cooled water with 2g of ascorbic acid stirred in when water near cooled temp then froze it all. They still look the same as the moment I put them in the water.

I serve my saison at 3.5 vols on tap and aim a little higher when bottling. Hope you enjoy.


Other saison info here
https://beerandbrewing.com/make-your-best-saison/https://byo.com/article/saison/https://bisonbrew.com/saison/
I used WLP590 yeast both times.

I wonder how this recipe would taste substituting the wlp590 for just plain old Nottingham yeast, what do you think?

 

[Nucbrewer]

I just made a batch of elderflower cordial, one litre of flowers will be 15-20 flower ‘heads’. Best to pick them fresh early in the morning.

 

[Rugby Fan.]

Are black aphids an issue in the UK? Every second elder tree has them here. Pain in the hole and they're ruining my sunflowers

 

[benludo]

Made an elderflower IPA that worked, a word of caution, make sure it’s Flores only, I was in a hurry and put whole florets in and brewed through taste was good and drinkable. I was in bed for a week as the green in the elder produced cyanide that gives you gripping pain and diarrhoea.

 

[Monkhouse]

Made an elderflower IPA that worked, a word of caution, make sure it’s Flores only, I was in a hurry and put whole florets in and brewed through taste was good and drinkable. I was in bed for a week as the green in the elder produced cyanide that gives you gripping pain and diarrhoea.

Holy crap! Errr I think you may have just turned me off the idea entirely!!

 

[benludo]

Holy crap! Errr I think you may have just turned me off the idea entirely!!

Yes, the next year tried again but getting the flower petals only was really difficult.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Just trim them into container with a pair of scissors.

 

[Rugby Fan.]

Just trim them into container with a pair of scissors.

I found a graduated filter did the trick. The start was me tearing at them, then gradually weeding out more and more green bits.

 

[prog99]

Made an elderflower IPA that worked, a word of caution, make sure it’s Flores only, I was in a hurry and put whole florets in and brewed through taste was good and drinkable. I was in bed for a week as the green in the elder produced cyanide that gives you gripping pain and diarrhoea.

Which green bits exactly? We've made multiple batches of cordial and beer without issue.

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

Just cut the flowers off with scissors. And pick them from waist height upwards for obvious reasons

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Just cut the flowers off with scissors. And pick them from waist height upwards for obvious reasons

Unless you live near giraffes!!

It's very quick to snip off the flowers and the flower head green bits not really a problem. Most recipes just say use the florets and don't mention snipping the flowers off.

 

[Monkhouse]

I’ve decided to go for it, I went foraging yesterday and collected 80g worth of pretty much just the flowers plus the very fine green stems that attach directly to the flowers- these are about half an inch long. We’ve done cordial in the past and never worried about chucking the green stems in tbh! I’ve put them in the freezer in a ziplock ready for brewday possibly on Monday.
I’ll be doing a golden ale and adding the 80g elderflower probably at flameout. I’ve done a hop addition at 80c before in tbh e past and it took ages for the wort to drop 20c!