The taste of Elderflower wine

[Premium Dave]

Hi All,

I recently made my first batch of Elderflower wine (first batch of wine ever to be truthful) but I am a little unsure what it is supposed to taste like (other than Elderflower :grin: ) the reason I ask is that it has been fermenting now for nearly 1.5 months and appears to have stopped, it has been in a demijohn for just over a month but when I tested it OMG you could degrease an engine block with the stuff, I was decorating my house last week and very nearly used it to strip the gloss paint off of the skirting boards. It didn't taste vinegary (well not to me) but it is seriously strong, is this right or do you suspect I have gone wrong somewhere and managed to make a new agent for chenical warfare??

Thanks for your help

Mike

 

[Moley]

What recipe did you use, and how much sugar to the gallon?

Elderflower is meant to be fairly delicate, I wouldn't usually try to take it much above 12% abv. I wouldn't expect fermentation to take much more than a fortnight.

Do you have a hydrometer, and if so, what were your readings?

 

[Premium Dave]

Hi Mate,

Thank you for the superfast response :thumb:

The recipe I used for 1 gallon was..
1pt Elderflowers
3 large lemons (rind in with the Elderflowers, Juice in when Elderflower and rind removed)
1.1kg Sugar
1tsp tannin
1tsp Yeast
1tsp Yeast Nutrient

I do have a hydrometer but at the moment I do not have a trial jar so to use it would mean I either loose the hydrometer in the demijohn until I transfer it to bottles or filling a 1 litre jug which may be a little excessive lol.

If you say that fermentation should only take about 2 weeks then I am tempted to bottle it and check it again in a few months. (at least it only cost me about £3 for the ingredients if it has gone wrong!) When I bottle it I will check the hydrometer readings and post them back here.

Again thanks for the help and reply

Regards
Mike

 

[wurzel]

Hello Dave,

Could have done with something to give it vinosity and keep the yeast happy.

A tin of concentrated grape juice, some chopped sultanas even a litre of supermarket grape juice.

 

[Moley]

Ok, if you had 1100g sugar in 1 gallon (4.5 litres) that's 244g/litre which would give an OG of 1.088

I would expect that to go to dryness at around 0.990 giving 13.3% alcohol, so it shouldn't strip paint.

The flowers should probably have been strained out around day 3.

Have you racked it off the sediment yet?

I wouldn't have thought that it could possibly have cleared and be ready for bottling yet.

 

[Premium Dave]

Hi Moley,

I did strain out the flowers and lemon rinds at day 3 (so I got that bit right yippee) and I have racked off the sediment once and to be honest it looks like it could do with it again (I'll do it today / tomorrow) whilst doing this I will test with my Hydrometer and add the readings.

Thanks again for the help

Hi Wurzel,

Some of the recipes I read mentioned sultanas but this one didn't lol, I will try this next time and see what happens.

I'll keep you all posted

Regards

Mike

 

[Premium Dave]

Hey all,

OK I just racked off my wine into another dj and whilst at it I did a reading from my hydrometer which sat nicely at 1004 right in the middle of the yellow stripe that says "bottle now" (obviously it needs to clear somewhat) I will keep up the racking unitl it clears and then bottle it.

A couple of questions:

How often do I need to keep changing dj's?
Should I add a crushed campden each time?

Thanks guys and I am damn glad to be here with you all

Regards

Mike

 

[Moley]

Ignore any coloured bands on your hydrometer, it doesn't know what you're making.

Bottling range for wine can be anywhere between 1.010 (sweet) to 0.988 (bone dry).

1.004 is medium-sweet but it's NOT safe to bottle at that unless you have stabilised with CT + potassium sorbate.

If you've racked now, top it up to the base of the neck with cooled, boiled water and leave the DJ somewhere cool for at least another month before you even think about racking again.