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That time of year again. Elderflower champers anyone!


7daysinaweek
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This is an interesting thread. For future searches here's my recipe:

Elderflower Champagne

 

Ingredients

1 gallon / 4.54 litres cold water

1.5lb /700g loaf sugar (granulated is fine)

Juice of 1 lemon, rind cut into 4 pieces

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

2 heads of elderflower

 

Method

Put it all together into an earthenware pan or bowl. Let it stand 24 hours, strain and put into screw-topped bottles. To be kept a fortnight before drinking.

 

I do 25 litres in a brewer's tub. I buy value spring water to fill it up, then have the same bottles to put the champagne into. I've not had a modern plastic bottle explode. There is sediment, but you pour carefully. I did stand the bottles upside down one year and freeze the sediment caps off, but never bothered again, we didn't have the gas any more anyway. The alcohol was measured and it wasn't 2%.

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  • 2 weeks later...

wow!

 

never had a pet bottle go yet, all mine still intact, first time for everything. as said mine have swollen more than i have ever had in a previous batch in the last 6 years or so. i can only put it down to the huge anount of yeast on this years crop up here and the extremely warm weather.

 

atb

7diaw

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hi rimfire as said mine are the same this year. i have had the odd bottle in the past swell to supersize but all of them are huge this year and i can only put it down to the very hot spell and constant warm weather and the huge amount of natural yeasts on the blooms up here this year. the bottles always swell but it is usually much more progressive over a longer period. would be interesting to hear what type of weather have you had. as said i have not lost any but as yours has shown first time for everthing. we are six weeks on, have you had a sneak taste yet, i usually leave mine for at least 10-12 weeks. have just had a sneak taste of one and super fizzy and tastes very nice.

 

atb

7diaw

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hi rimfire as said mine are the same this year. i have had the odd bottle in the past swell to supersize but all of them are huge this year and i can only put it down to the very hot spell and constant warm weather and the huge amount of natural yeasts on the blooms up here this year. the bottles always swell but it is usually much more progressive over a longer period. would be interesting to hear what type of weather have you had. as said i have not lost any but as yours has shown first time for everthing. we are six weeks on, have you had a sneak taste yet, i usually leave mine for at least 10-12 weeks. have just had a sneak taste of one and super fizzy and tastes very nice.

 

atb

7diaw

The weather has been hot / warm for quite a long period of time. I did open one of the other bottles and it is the fizziest thing I have ever opened, I had to crack the lid let it fizz up then close again about ten times before I could get the lid off without it going everywhere. Taste was nice, but would be better very cold. Does anyone measure the volume?

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yes, if you have followed the recipe it will be between 5-7%, i always check the specific gravity.

yes it is always super fizzy and stays bubbly in the glass for ages so as you drink it it does not go flat.

 

atb

7diaw

Great, I am counting downs the days to some great September evenings in the garden with a gallon of the stuff.

 

I also think on a shoot day a glass of this with a shot of sloe gin in will go down very well.

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Just checked my bottles, liquid on the floor and I thought another bottle had gone pop but no, it seems maybe two lids were not on as tight as I could get them and the liquid has fizzed its way out. Just gone through the rest and the lids are as tight as I can do them by hand. I think I have got the fizziest liquid known to man.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So I noticed that the two bottles that I had tried out no longer can stand up properly.

 

They were very swollen, and then I put them in the dishwasher to clean. The bottles had come back to the normal size, however, now the bit on the bottom in the middle has pressed out, so the bottles won't stand up straight anymore.

Is this normal?

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hi ian

i have had the bottles swell out at the bottom before a little, have never put them in the dishwasher so if it has happened after that not sure.

how is it tasting?

 

They've been in the bottles since 16 July. First bottle was very nice, second was a little too alcholly (it was very swollen!) but still very nice.

 

Will give them another few weeks before starting into them proper. Some fizz when they go into the glass!

 

Will try another tonight and wash the bottle by hand - will be interesting to see if it will come back to its normal size.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It would be remiss of me not to do some quality control on this batch

 

Bx7IaRX.jpg

 

there is a lot of pressure in the bottles, even the caps are swollen!

These were filled up to c. an inch of the cap and they had a teaspoon or two of sugar put in the secondary fermentation.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Results? Is it worth cracking into now? Got a party to go to next wekend so might take some along, had another 4 bottles explode so only got 12l of the original 25l brew. Or is everyone dead from the turbo brew!

 

I'm happy with mine. Leaving 12 or so for another couple of months though

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I took some around my brother place last week to have a drop before we went for a meal, we managed a litre fairly quickly. Tasting review: It started off with a very refreshing Elderflower taste with a lot of fizz and ended with a little bit of a yeasty after taste, not unpleasant just not as clean as I thought it would be. All in well worth the work making it and we will enjoy the other 30 ltrs we have left. Not sure how strong it is, I am tempted to get something to measure it.

 

Edit to say thanks for the input from everyone especially 7daysinaweek who started this topic, without it I would never of made this stuff.

Edited by rimfire4969
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  • 1 year later...

Just opened one of the last bottles from this batch (2years old now). 

Very dry, but still lovely!

Brewing some nettle beer this weekend (the snow meant that there were still plenty of fresh nettles) and will be doing 60 ltrs or so of Elderflower in a couple of weeks. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On ‎30‎/‎06‎/‎2016 at 20:58, rovercoupe said:

Kept quiet about this incase it went south but I put a batch on last sat and its gassing like a good un and it smells great! Cannot wait for it to be ready to drink, had to walk out the front door and 10 yards to get the elderflowers and they were stuffed with pollen.

image_zpskgychgb9.jpeg

I see you use a wooden spoon, the wood can carry bacteria and spool the brew, I always use plastic that is sterilised.

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