Topic: Elderflower wine

[Zoglet]

How do I make this, any clues please?

[manicscousers]

no idea, zoglet, sorry..someone'll know..you've reminded me though, I've got 5 lbs of elderberries in the freezer, just waiting to be made into wine

[okra]

Every year I say I will have a go - so I to would appreciate advice - this could be the year to have a go :o :o

[Trevor_D]

My recipe is basically an elderflower "tea" (but alcoholic, of course!).

Pick several large heads of elderflowers. Strip the flowers off the stallks until you have filled a pint jug. Empty into your fermenting tub, just cover with boiling water & leave to infuse for 3 or 4 days. (Add a crushed Campden Tablet on day 2 to kill off any wild yeast.)

Dissolve a 1 kg bag of sugar in boiling water & leave to cool. Strain the elderflower liquor, mix the two, pour into a gallon demi-john, top up to nearly a gallon & add wine yeast.

Ferment till done (gravity down to single figures), then rack. Best left for a couple more months before drinking, but basically it's a "young" wine.

I normally make 6 gallons at a time. It takes more or less the same amount of time to make and nearly as long to drink!

Trevor

[Zoglet]

Thanks Trevor, I think I will give that a go later in the year! :)

[okra]

Thanks Trevor

[cleo]

Just to add-If you can find

Recipes for Prizewinning Wines-Bryan Acton-SBN 900 841 16 8

I would recommend it-it`s been around for years and is probably out of print but the recipes work and the advice on winemaking in general is excellent

[davee52uk]

How do you make Elderflower cordial. Had some of this at a reception and liked it. Also growing an elderberry tree on my allotment.

[Barnowl]

Mum used to make Elderflower champagne - very tasty but inclined to explode.

[grawrc]

As usual A4A saves the day - in this case Trevor to whom much thanks! Out walking the dogs this morning I cam across some flowering elders and took the opportunity to collect some heads. Once home I googled for recipes. All the recipes for elderflower wine either included stuff I didn't have or required a pint or a litre of flowers. Being a simple soul I thought a pint was a liquid measure. Thanks for the explanation Trevor! Elderflower wine will be started once I've made the lettuce soup and raspberry jam!

[Trevor_D]

Glad to be of help. (I'd forgotten this thread!)

Don't push the flowers down hard into the jug; just shake it a bit so that they can settle.

And don't drink too much of it in one go!

[grawrc]

Well it's started now. I was amazed at the number of little black bugs per square centimetre. Also amazed that my paltry late season cull managed to amply fill a pint jug. There may be one or two little black bugs in there but I reckon between the boiling water and tomorrow's Camden tablet that I've got them covered! ;D ;D

The fragrance of the flowers when I poured on the boiling water reminded me of why I was doing this in the first place!! Sort of a Proustian petite Madeleine moment.

[adrianhumph]

 Hi all,
          Without wishing to knock the recipe ::) may I suggest that the resulting wine will taste a little thin , as it will be lacking in body (technical term  ::)) I would add a litre of apple juice & a litre of grape juice & reduce the water content accordingly. This will give a more complex & fuller bodied wine, for a minimal extra layout of approximately £1.50p.
                                    Adrian.

[grawrc]

There's plenty of body Adrian!! All those little black bugs! ;D ;D