A tale of 2 infected elderflower champagne batches

Hi all,
I am not a highly experienced brewer. My total brewing background is about a dozen gingerbeer batches in the past 2 years, with a basic champagne yeast + ginger/sugar/lemon syrup process. Of those brews, one went bad with a sulphur-producing bacteria (I threw it out, yuck), the rest have all been dry, delicious & strong enough to get drunk on.
So, this year I decided to try elderflower champagne. 2 batches, so far.
1. The first batch, I added no extra yeast. Soaked the flower heads for 24 hours in sugar/lemon/vinegar mix, strained out, bottled in sterilised plastic soda bottles.
2. The second batch, I mixed it up the same way in the vat, but added a sprinkle of my champagne yeast, and left it for 48 hours.

Now, when I went to bottle out batch#2, I discovered that my 10L vat contained 10 litres of thick, viscous, egg-white consistency slime. It smelled deliciously of elderflowers, but no way was I game to taste it. I panicked and dumped it straight out. When I dumped it out it was apparent that the entire vat consisted of this slime- it was not sitting on the surface, it was a totally uniform polysaccharide slime all the way through. THEN I came online and did my research and learned all about Acetobacter & other slime-producing friends.

Now I have gone & taken a closer look at my 8 bottles of batch#1, which are on day 6 in the bottle, and all of the bottles have snot-like globules hanging around, some near the surface, some at the bottom of the bottles. It doesn't look at all the same as the uniform egg-white slime that batch#1 turned into, but it's still not very appealing. I took one bottle cap off and smelled it, and it smells fine- sweet, elderflowery & a bit yeasty. The carbonation bubbles are just beginning to appear.

So my questions to you all are as follows:
1. Is batch #1 recoverable? Is it possible that if I leave it the floating slime will somehow 'clear'? Or should give up & dump it out?
2. If I want to get another elderflower brew on before the season finished, any tips for how to prevent slime-producing bacteria having a party in my brews? I would plan to step up the sterilisation of all tools (from 'very clean' to 'surgically sterile'), and I am guessing the next step might be to scald the elderflowers to kill off the wild organisms & just rely on the champagne yeast to ferment it?
3. Can anyone recommend an elderflower champagne recipe that relies on added yeast, rather than wild yeast?

Anyway I am not that bothered by this whole experience, learning about polysaccharide slime-producing bacterias has been quite fascinating, and my inner 8 year old is delighting in the grossness of home-brewed snot! I would just like to hope that I will wind up with some delicious elderflower champagne along with the learning experience...

Here's a photo of the globby stuff floating in batch#1, in case this helps to identify what it is

glittertrash said:

Hi all,
I am not a highly experienced brewer. My total brewing background is about a dozen gingerbeer batches in the past 2 years, with a basic champagne yeast + ginger/sugar/lemon syrup process. Of those brews, one went bad with a sulphur-producing bacteria (I threw it out, yuck), the rest have all been dry, delicious & strong enough to get drunk on.
So, this year I decided to try elderflower champagne. 2 batches, so far.
1. The first batch, I added no extra yeast. Soaked the flower heads for 24 hours in sugar/lemon/vinegar mix, strained out, bottled in sterilised plastic soda bottles.
2. The second batch, I mixed it up the same way in the vat, but added a sprinkle of my champagne yeast, and left it for 48 hours.

Now, when I went to bottle out batch#2, I discovered that my 10L vat contained 10 litres of thick, viscous, egg-white consistency slime. It smelled deliciously of elderflowers, but no way was I game to taste it. I panicked and dumped it straight out. When I dumped it out it was apparent that the entire vat consisted of this slime- it was not sitting on the surface, it was a totally uniform polysaccharide slime all the way through. THEN I came online and did my research and learned all about Acetobacter & other slime-producing friends.

Now I have gone & taken a closer look at my 8 bottles of batch#1, which are on day 6 in the bottle, and all of the bottles have snot-like globules hanging around, some near the surface, some at the bottom of the bottles. It doesn't look at all the same as the uniform egg-white slime that batch#1 turned into, but it's still not very appealing. I took one bottle cap off and smelled it, and it smells fine- sweet, elderflowery & a bit yeasty. The carbonation bubbles are just beginning to appear.

So my questions to you all are as follows:
1. Is batch #1 recoverable? Is it possible that if I leave it the floating slime will somehow 'clear'? Or should give up & dump it out?
2. If I want to get another elderflower brew on before the season finished, any tips for how to prevent slime-producing bacteria having a party in my brews? I would plan to step up the sterilisation of all tools (from 'very clean' to 'surgically sterile'), and I am guessing the next step might be to scald the elderflowers to kill off the wild organisms & just rely on the champagne yeast to ferment it?
3. Can anyone recommend an elderflower champagne recipe that relies on added yeast, rather than wild yeast?

Anyway I am not that bothered by this whole experience, learning about polysaccharide slime-producing bacterias has been quite fascinating, and my inner 8 year old is delighting in the grossness of home-brewed snot! I would just like to hope that I will wind up with some delicious elderflower champagne along with the learning experience...

Click to expand...

1. I think it's ruined, and won't get better.
2. Definitely sanitize EVERYTHING- including the must (the unfermented wine) itself with campden tablets (potassium metabisulfite). It's important to not allow any microbes to take hold
3. In my opinion, you should NEVER use wild yeast unless you are very experienced with local wild yeast. No matter what the recipe, use a package of wine yeast. The brand doesn't really matter- Red Star makes some good inexpensive ones, as does Lalvin.

I don't have enough elderflowers to make wine with but I've made wine with other flowers (like dandelions and lilacs). I LOVE Jack Keller's website, and highly recommend it. Start here for good basic winemaking instructions, including sanitizing: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/basics.asp

I don't have a good recipe, though. I've only heard of elderberry wines, not elderflower wine. I have seen recipes for other flowers, though, so if there are similar flavors you could use the same recipe.

I'll be darned, but I went back to Jack Keller's site, to look for something else, and I found this!

ELDERFLOWERS

The American elder (Sambucus canadensis), European black elder (Sambucus nigra), blue elder (Sambucus cerulea or S. coerulea), Mexican elder (Sambucus mexicana), New Mexican elder (Sambucus neomexicana), American black elder (Sambucus melanocarpa), and Eurasian dwarf elder (Sambucus ebulus), are the most common of the elders, also known commonly as elderberries. Usually a shrub, elders can grow into small trees with broad, rounded crowns. The fruit of all varieties are slightly bitter when eaten raw but lose their bitterness when cooked, dried or fermented (see recipes for Elderberry Wines elsewhere on this site). However, the American red (or red-fruited) elder (Sambucus pubens) is somewhat toxic and the Pacific elder (Sambucus callicarpa) and coast elder (Sambucus microbotrys) are very bitter -- even sour -- but not considered poisonous. The European red elder (Sambucus racemosa) is known to be emetic when the berries are eaten raw, but it is thought that the seeds, not the juice, pulp or skins, are the toxic component.

However, the white or whitish-yellow flowers of all species and varieties are pleasantly fragrant and impart a muscat flavor to wines, ciders and vinegars. They are also edible and can be fried in fritter batter, added to pancake or muffin batter, cooked into pies and tarts, and added fresh to salads or many other food dishes. Here, however, our interest in the wines.

Elderflower wine is an acquired taste and not appreciated by everyone. Too many flowers will yield an almost undrinkable wine, so do not exceed the amount in the recipes below. The second recipe yields a fuller-bodied wine and is more drinkable to a wider population than the first because of the addition of the grape juice concentrate.

ELDERFLOWER WINE (1)

1-1/2 pt fresh elderflowers
2 lbs granulated sugar
1-1/2 tsp acid blend
1 crushed Campden tablets
7 pts water
1 tsp yeast nutrient
wine yeast


Put water on to boil. Meanwhile, separate flowers from stalks and wash to remove insects and road dust. Put flowers and sugar in primary and pour boiling water over them. Stir well to dissolve sugar, cover with sterile cloth, and set aside several hours until cool. Add acid blend, crushed Campden and yeast nutrient, stirring briefly. Recover and set aside for 24 hours. Add yeast. Ferment six days, strain off flowers, pour liquor into secondary, and fit airlock. Rack when specific gravity is at 1.005, top up and refit airlock. After additional three months, stabilize, sweeten to taste, wait ten days, and rack into bottles. Age six months before tasting. [Adapted from Steven A. Krause's Wines from the Wild]

ELDERFLOWER WINE (2)

1 pt fresh elderflowers
12 oz can frozen white grape juice concentrate
2 lbs granulated sugar
1-1/2 tsp acid blend
1 crushed Campden tablets
6-1/2 pts water
1 tsp yeast nutrient
wine yeast


Thaw out grape juice concentrate and then put water on to boil. While water rises to a boil, separate flowers from stalks and wash to remove insects and road dust. Put flowers, sugar and grape juice concentrate in primary and pour boiling water over them. Stir well to dissolve sugar, cover with sterile cloth, and set aside several hours until cool. Add acid blend, crushed Campden and yeast nutrient, stirring briefly. Recover and set aside for 24 hours. Add yeast. Ferment six days, strain off flowers, pour liquor into secondary, and fit airlock. Rack when specific gravity is at 1.005, top up and refit airlock. After additional three months, stabilize, sweeten to taste, wait ten days, and rack into bottles. Age six months before tasting. [Author's own recipe]

My thanks to Andrew Gillard of the UK for the request.