Elderflower champagne with a bitter aftertaste anyone?

For a first go at brewing, I have recently made this following the riverhill cottage recipe using elderflowers from my garden. All seemed to be going well. It's in bottles now still fizzing away, I refrigerated some to try after the recommended time... it smells lovely and even tastes lovely right up to an incredibly bitter after-taste which is enough to not enjoy it.

Does anyone have an idea what may have caused this? and if it can possibly be rectified? I'd hate to throw the lot away.. but it's undrinkable

Sounds like the ph is out of wack. You could try adding acids to it and see if that helps. You could also try back sweetening it. If that doesn't work I don't know what to tell you. I have dumped a batch or two in my time so don't feel too bad about it.

Honda88 said:

Sounds like the ph is out of wack. You could try adding acids to it and see if that helps. You could also try back sweetening it. If that doesn't work I don't know what to tell you. I have dumped a batch or two in my time so don't feel too bad about it.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I'll have a look into that and give it a go. Quite prepared to dump it all it if it still doesn't work, just as long as I can understand why before trying next time. Cheers