The elderflowers are on there way!!

[beechwood]

I'm thinking of adding some fresh elderflowers to my next brew, hopefully this fri. I'm going to make a golden ale, a 10 lts batch. How many heads do you reckon? Plus at what time of the boil do u add.
I've got EKG and galexy lined up for the brew. Any ideas :)

 

[Robin54]

This is a tough question, since fresh elderflowers are extremely pungent..
i would say for 10L not much...a handful and then only as a 'dry hop addition'. Ive just made 40lL of "Summer Glory" (kit) and the elderflower heads provided was not massive but by 'eck you can taste them....
I also added 1ml of concentrated peach essence to each bottle at bottling time. Its made a very tasty drink especially when served cold on a hot day...just like Golden Glory!

 

[Sbond10]

I used 30g dried in a beer works well

 

[GlentoranMark]

Is this what I should be looking for?

 

[beechwood]

Is this what I should be looking for?

Yes... and they make lovely wine too!:thumb:

 

[brumbrew]

I've used dried flowers before never fresh as I like the pain of stripping the berries for wine ;-)

If dried I only add about 28g scaled up to 10 litres. 14g for a demi so not quite right. So I suppose 30g is fine if sbond has doneit to.

Maybe dry hop as suggested until it fits what your looking for.

 

[brumbrew]

That's quite a tree too!

 

[GlentoranMark]

I took that pic yesterday with the intention of asking about Elderflower Champagne on the forum. I tried making it last year but binned it, will give it another go this year (probably Saturday now I know I was using the right stuff last year!)

Since this thread title doesn't mention Beer or Champagne, has anyone got a recipe that works?

 

[AdrianTrace]

I did a 23litre kit a few years ago - I "dry hopped" by adding a half pint glass of elderflowers (stripped the flowers off the heads with a fork as the stems are not wanted, lightly pressed into the glass) to the FV in a hop sock. Opening each bottle was like a blast of spring with the aroma bursting out. Loved it, and I'll be trying to replicate it next week :thumb:

 

[BrannBrew]

yeah in 10l batch I used 30g dried elderflowers (and put them in with 5 mins left to go) in my Spring Ale and had a good hit. I was going to chuck the whole 50g bag in but thought against it after some last minute talk with Mr Google. If/when I did this again I would probably 50/50 or 30/70 split of the amount in the boil and dry hop, just so there's abit more depth of elderflowers rather than just a hit first thing on the taste.

 

[Crawfordid]

How do people sterilise the fresh elderflowers as was thinking of something similar

 

[Notlaw]

I love the flavour of anything with elderflower. We often treat ourselves to a bottle of St Germain and neck it over a weekend. I tried making something similar with elderflower infused vodka, sweetened with a sugar syrup, also infused with elderflower... it was OK, but not quite there. I want to make some elderflower champagne this year.