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How do I make this, any clues please?

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

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

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

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

Thanks Trevor

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

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

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

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!

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!

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.

 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.

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