Elderflower Champagne anyone?

[Mikey]

Well I wouldn't say no, but you'd have to tell me how to make it first.

Let start with the essentials. How much elderflower do I need and which bits do I pick?

Depends how much you want to make MDE, I made about 30 bottles and picked approximately 120 heads.

I need to make some portable tool that I can assemble when out and about to cut the heads off up high!

I find a broom is pretty good for bending the branches down within my reach.

OH is racking our first batch as I type.
How long before it's drinkable????

2 weeks Nicos.

Unfortunately I don't have any of those things at all!

I think I'll just pop to the shop and get some wwv and pick some fresh elderflowers on my way home from work again!

WWV is fine Vikki, its the rustic approach which suits this drink.

Re, 26#,27#,28#, if you can go to the shop for "wwv" you can go to another shop for the right ingredients, all you need is the right recipe, Mrs C any chance of the recipes for Elderberry Jelly and spiced cordial?

At a very simple level you can make a very enjoyable drink without all the necessary paraphernalia. This year I bought myself a hydrometer so I could determine how alcoholic the drink gets.

[veggiechicken]

I'm hopeless at this stuff. I found some fermenting bins, bought sterilising tables and made up the solution, saved some wine bottles ready (that required effort to empty them ), realised that I have at least 6 elder trees in the garden all covered in blossom, and all I've done is sniff and admire them! Now the flowers are falling off or turning yellow and its probably too late

[Mikey]

Well VC, next time I'm passing I'll drop off a bottle or 2 for you.

[veggiechicken]

You'll have to prime me ready for elderberry time perhaps I should start now

[vikkib]

*snip*

WWV is fine Vikki, its the rustic approach which suits this drink.

Well... as it had been raining and not very warm for a few days before I picked the elderflowers I also added 2 teaspoons of brewers yeast to the mixture...

... we opened a couple of bottles on Saturday (a week after bottling) and wow, the stuff hit the ceiling!

We were left with a tiny amount in each bottle, a very sticky kitchen floor and a conspicuously clean patch on the kitchen ceiling!

The little taste we had wasn't great, I think I need more eldeflowers for a stronger elderflowery flavour (personal taste!).

At the moment it's cloudy and tastes like baking powder / baking soda. I am wondering if this is because of the yeast? Maybe it hadn't finished fermenting? This is all guess work on my part!

I'm hoping to get the last of the flower heads and try another batch without the yeast this time... only thing is I need the rest of the bottles and I don't think the kitchen is the best place to open them so the garden is going to get a good dousing of elderflower fizz!

[scarey55]

Just sampled my first glass and it was bleddy delish! I used VVG's recipe to the letter and it worked really well so, thank you VVG

[scarey55]

... we opened a couple of bottles on Saturday (a week after bottling) and wow, the stuff hit the ceiling!

That was my fear too so I was very particular about opening the bottles every day to release the pressure to the point of instructing OH what to do whilst I was away cat sitting.

[vikkib]

That was my fear too so I was very particular about opening the bottles every day to release the pressure to the point of instructing OH what to do whilst I was away cat sitting.

Aaaaaaaah! I didn't realise this was necessary, as I'm using glass, swing top bottles I thought I'd lose all the fix if I opened them before they were ready!

[rustylady]

Aaaaaaaah! I didn't realise this was necessary, as I'm using glass, swing top bottles I thought I'd lose all the fix if I opened them before they were ready!

Don't ever use glass bottles for fizzy drinks. The pressure that builds up can be enormous.

I use plastic pop bottles.

[ohbeary]

Thanks Mrs C, just need to wait for the berries now

[MrsCordial]

I agree that you don't necessarily have to have all the kit to make something perfectly nice. I used standard kitchen utensils and off-the-shelf ingredients. I'd love to get into home wine-making but I haven't started yet so don't have anything. The one change I'll make next year is to get proper champagne yeast. I used - okay, I'm embarrassed - breadmaker yeast, yes, I know, but it was all I had, and the fizz is smelling quite yeasty. It's been festering just a week though, so I'm hoping that will have passed off by the time the stuff is drinkable.

[Mikey]

You can use bottles for fizzy drinks, but you have to be careful which ones. Standard wine bottles are no use, but champagne bottles are ok. I bought a load of swing top bottles last year from wares of knutsford and they are great.

[vikkib]

Don't ever use glass bottles for fizzy drinks. The pressure that builds up can be enormous.

I use plastic pop bottles.

Another 'aaaaaaaaaahhh!' from me.

I thought I'd read in several places the only bottles you should use for this stuff was the glass bottles with the swing tops...

[Mikey]

Just avoid white and red non-sparkling bottles Vikki, the glass is much thinner than champagne bottles. Through experience I gave a bottle of this in a standard wine bottle to a friend and it exploded in the kitchen cupboard.

I'm not sure what they wanted me to say.....I told them they should have drunk it not stored it...

[Creemteez]

Ok, here's the the thing. (I'm pretty sure someone will have covered this before but I'm such a lazy moo I can't be doing with trolling through all the previous posts - sorry!)
Had a first stab at Elder Flower Champagne on Sunday and it is now Wednesday with no sign of it "beginning to bubble a bit" as per recipe instructions. (It said it would take one to four days for this to happen.
I followed the recipe (I believe it was from one of last years Sunday mags), but think I may have got overenthusiastic and put my flowers in BEFORE adding the cold water to cool the dissolved sugar etc.
Have I b*&&erd it up? Effectively killed the yeast?
If so, is it salvageable? Was thinking of warming it up a bit, then adding some more flowers. Don't really want to waste all that sugar! I suppose at a pinch I could turn this lot into cordial and start again? Experts advice please!!! Ta! xx