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That time of year again. Elderflower champers anyone!


7daysinaweek
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That was at 11 days and today is day 12 and about to bottle up in plastic pop bottles if you say its good to go!

Lets hope it goes well then, there was a huge amount of pollen on these flowers so dont know if thats made a difference to the fizzynes?

hi rover

yes the pollen has a large amount of natural yeast on and converts the sugar to alcohol. sounds good to bottle, as said in my previous posts if you can wait about 10 weeks it will be great and remember the bottles will swell a bit and when opening let a little gas out at a time as if you try to open quickly you will lose a lot and be covered into the bargain. let me know how it goes! any questions ask away.

atb

7diaw

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some of this years batch, 120 litres when i was fully finished. bottled 2 weeks ago, happy days! The glass bottles at the back in the pick have damson vodka in and not the champers so as said under no circumstances put the elderflower in glass bottles as it will explode, just wanted to clarify.

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hi rover

yes it will look like that you will find after a few weeks it will begin to clear, after 6 months it is virtually crystal clear. i try to open bottles very carefully as this does not stir up the small amount of sediment a great deal. you get a small amount at the bottom of each bottle which is normal from the secondary fermentation within the bottle.

 

atb

7diaw

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hi rimfire

i put a peice of muslim over the end of the syphon tube, it gets most of the sediment and bits out, i have also just strained through a muslim before.

 

atb

7diaw

i knew i forgot to do something when i bottled mine, guess i will just have a bit more sediment when i finally open them.

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don't worry about it paul, even the muslim does not stop all the sediment just filters out any bits but mostly all bits move to the bottom of the vat. you will get some sediment any way from the secondary fermentation in the bottle. as said don't worry, after the first bottle you wont give it a second thought.

atb

7diaw

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hi rimmy

yes just pour slowly through muslim into another container. you can use a weak milton solution for sterilising. on the back of the bottle it give dilution rates and advice about rinsing. i know of a couple of friends who have made this and just rinsed out plastic coke bottles with cold tap water and has not appeared to have contaminated the brew. i prefer to sterilise everthing to be cautious as it takes me some considerible time and effort to make this amount and would be a shame for it to go bad.

 

atb

7diaw

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After it's fermented you'd be unlucky for it to get contaminated as the alcohol is pretty good at killing things off.

However it's better to be safe than sorry so I'd still sterilise it's final resting place.

I've been using this stuff for a few years and it's worked faultlessly http://www.chemistdirect.co.uk/videne-antiseptic-solution/prd-q8g

 

There's lots of info regarding it's use on brewing forums, correctly diluted it's a no rinse sanitiser. Cheap as chips because you only need a very small amount to make up a lot of solution.

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Iano

 

it will taste a hundred times better if you can wait 9-10 weeks before drinking, trust me it is well worth it. lots of the recipes call for it being drank within a few weeks and yes it can be. if left for a little time it is like most brews and this improves the taste, notes and all over quaffability of the champers. 20 litres should last you a bit, well done.

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Iano

 

it will taste a hundred times better if you can wait 9-10 weeks before drinking, trust me it is well worth it. lots of the recipes call for it being drank within a few weeks and yes it can be. if left for a little time it is like most brews and this improves the taste, notes and all over quaffability of the champers. 20 litres should last you a bit, well done.

 

I'm hoping so!

 

had issues getting the siphon going so ended up tasting more than I had expected!

 

have two batches;

 

'weak' batch which seemed to stop fermenting a day or so ago

'strong' batch that was bubbling away (was fizzier when filling)

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So far so good, its started to clear but I had one plastic bottle that was slightly damaged and it blew a pin hole in it but only lost about half a litre, glad it was in a blue barrel or the car would have been coated in sticky booze! Rule from now is check really carefully even plastic bottles are at there limit with this stuff so only good new bottles should be used.

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hi rovercoupe

 

if you get any further explosions you may want to buy some PET plastic bottles which are specifically for secondary fermentation and decant into them leaving a good 1.5 inch airspace, these are what i use and recommend in the previous posts. yes i would be gassing every night if you dont want to buy some of the pet bottles. with the extreme hot weather i have found my whole batch has swollen quite significantly over the last few days, more than i have ever had in such a short period before.

 

atb

7diaw

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just had a look at mine and they are well expanded, i put them back in the box they came in when i bought them and now they are jammed in the box, taking one out the level in the bottle has dropped a fair bit due to the expansion of the bottle, on some bottles the necks are slightly on an angle where the bottle has stretched, and these are PET bottles, just hope they hold!

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just had a look at mine and they are well expanded, i put them back in the box they came in when i bought them and now they are jammed in the box, taking one out the level in the bottle has dropped a fair bit due to the expansion of the bottle, on some bottles the necks are slightly on an angle where the bottle has stretched, and these are PET bottles, just hope they hold!

hi paul as said the expansion and droping of level is normal and i have yet to have a pet bottle explode ( i say yet very carefully!) in the pics you can see how much my bottles have expanded and have had them go beyond this also. some in each batch hardly swell and the bottles just go hard, however dont be fooled as on opening they are usually as fizzy and volatile as the swollen bottles.

 

atb 7diaw

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