Elderflower champagne

[Stigmond13]

A tip to anyone out there who enjoys making elderflower champagne. I made a 5 gallon batch this year and used 100 florets of elderflower. The tip is to use about half of that, way too powerful a taste so it will have to be used in long drinks. However, despite the ridiculous amount of elderflower, the rest of the recipe seems sound. If anyone is interested I will share what I can. Ariva Derchie

 

[bernardsmith]

I make elderflower wine several times a year but I have only ever used dried flowers and not fresh and find that about 1.5 - 2 oz per gallon gives me a rich floral flavor. I am interested in your recipe although I tend to work with principles rather than recipes (recipes deal in inputs (what you put in)- principles are about outcomes - that is, what are you trying to achieve.

 

[Stigmond13]

Sorry for delay, recipe included 100 florets of elderflower, 3kg of brewing sugar, zest and juice of 8 lemons and 6 limes and 25 litres of water. Killed off wild year with 5 crushed Camden tablets, dissolved sugar in boiling water before adding and added 5 teaspoons of pectalose. Added gervain universal wine yeast the next day.


Starting gravity was 1.09. Bottled at 1.005 about 2 weeks later. I then added some priming sugar to some bottles but not all but in did not need to as the bottles without priming were well carbonated. I just wish I used about half the florets as as much as I like elderflower, the taste is too strong. However, the principles behind this recipe are sound, just use less elderflower!

 

[bernardsmith]

A possible solution is to make a second batch of elderflower wine and use 1/4 of the amount of florets and blend the two batches... but I wonder if part of the problem is the amount of acid you are adding. I find that there is a low enough pH with the elderflowers to allow a solid fermentation so I assume that the addition of all those lemons and limes is for flavor... but I wonder whether the zest and the juice may be compromising the flavor from the elderflowers.
And then there is another point. I assume that you are harvesting those flowers. But not every variety of elderflower tree results in a great tasting wine. Are you certain that the trees from which you are harvesting those flowers are trees that make good flower wine?

 

[Stigmond13]

Sorry for delay, I have no idea what variety of elderflower I used but all florets were picked fresh from West Yorkshire. Also, the flavour of the elderflower has mellowed out after a couple of months in the bottle so I think I may have used the correct amount. I agree that the acidity is slightly too high though so will learn for next year!!