I have been a bit busy lately, and nearly managed to completely miss the elderflower season. At the weekend I set out to rectify this. The flowers were out very early this year, but there are still a few around that are useable if you look.
I was very proud once when a freind told me she thought the wine I had made was “not completely awfull”. Bearing in mind that this is where the bar is set I always feel much happier serving people some elderflower champagne, I think it tastes really nice. If you get it right it tastes like summer in a bottle, and chilled on a sunny evening with friends it goes down a treat.
There are loads of recipes out there, a quick search on the internet will throw up a whole load which are all broadly similar. The best advice I can give is to actually smell the flowers as you are picking them. The weather, the time of day and the ages of the flowers all seem to make a big difference to how nice (or otherwise) the flowers smell, and this comes across in the finished article.
Here’s what I do. Gather 35 or so nice big elderflower heads. Make sure you leave plenty behind for the local insects on each bush.
You will need a vessel in which to ferment the champagne, a sterilised clean bucket will do if nothing else is available.
Boil 10-12 litres of water and allow to cool in the bucket. Add 2.5 kg granulated white sugar and stir until dissolved. Add the juice and zest from 5 lemons and 1 lime. Add 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar. Give the elderflowers a good shake in the garden to remove the small insects that have hitched a ride and then add these as well. Cover with a clean cloth.
Leave for a couple of days, then check to see if the natural yeasts on the flowers have started a fermentation (you should see bubbles and froth on the surface of the liquid). If for some reason the natural yeast isn’t working add a sachet of general purpose white wine yeast. Leave for 4-5 days to ferment. Then once the fermentation has slightly slowed strain and bottle. Don’t worry about the fact it will be a bit cloudy.
The idea is that the fermentation will finish in the bottle, this gives you the fizz. But, elderflower champagne comes with a warning, ignored at your peril! Depending on the point when you bottle it can be very, very fizzy. I have exploded a number of glass bottles over the years and would recomend caution. By far the safest is a plastic fizzy drink bottle, when the pressure builds up too much you can crack the lid open a bit to release pressure before it splits. If you do choose to use glass bottles make sure they are strong ones and keep one bottled in plastic alongside so you can see when to release the pressure.
It doesn’t keep for more than 3 or 4 months, so wait 5 or 6 weeks for a nice sunny day, chill and then enjoy!
Can I just underline the fact that it’s best to use a couple of layers of muslin to strain the champers before bottling it – a sieve is not fine enough as some of the bugs are very tiny and you really don’t want them floating around in the bubbles, it spoils the effect!
Just waiting now for a sunny day…!
Good Point Deptford Dame, there are always lots of tiny bugs that make it through the insect shaking off stage and muslin is the best way of straining them out. Hope the sun shines for you soon.
An alternative way to bottling so early would be to use a champagne yeast and let the main fermentation run through in a demijohn (with a buble device in the cork). Once the fermentation has occurred you can bottle and add a teaspoon of sugar per bottle before corking. This also gives the bubbles like champagne and is less likely to explode wine botles.
Keep up the blog – very much appreciated.
Chris L, Pulborough
An interesting idea Chris, sounds worth a try, I wonder how that would affect how dry it turned out? If you have done it that way before you might know the answer to that question.
Cheers
Dave
Using the demijohn approach allows the yeast to run through a full cycle and so turns as many of the sugars available into alcohol, up to the level the yeast can tollerate, before being effectively killed by the alcohol – usually 13% to 14% alcohol. Provided there is not too much sugar in the first place it will effectively create a very dry wine. If too much sugar is used the yeast will do its thing but there will be sugar left over creating a sweet wine. Some experimenting will enable you to create a wine that suits your taste but make sure you keep a record of how much sugar you have added each time so you can repeat the recipe!!.
One small point, if you have made a very sweet wine the champagne yeast will not do its thing when you add a teaspoon of sugar to a bottle of it. The way to overcome this is to add an egg cup full of boiled water (effectively reducing the alcohol content slightly). The yeast can them do its stuff and create the required bubbles – it will need a week of so to do it!
Enjoy.
Chris
Thanks chris, I think next year I will try a batch each way and check out the results.
Cheers
Dave
I am so pleased that the elderflower champagne is on the menu again this year, it is definately my favourite of your brews! Closely followed by Birch Sap wine. We have a batch of elderflower cordial in the bucket – not quite as exciting, but better for the children!
I am working up to casting on those socks!
x
Nice one, the sheep have been shorn this week, will post some pictures soon. Am hoping the elderflower will be ready for the summer party!