TOPIC:

Just saw a load of Elderflowers coming up in my folks back garden. Has anyone hade success with making there own Elderflower champagne? Or should I say Elderflower sparkling wine. Would love to give it a go in a few weeks when they are a bit bigger.

Nigel

Hi Nigel,

I made Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's recipe last year (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/hug...wer-champagne-recipe">www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/c ... gne-recipe). It was very easy and worked out very good, I did however ramp up the alcohol a bit. Was thinking this year maybe trying replacing some or all of the sugar with grape juice.

Also if you bottle in plactic bottles with screw tops (e.g. tonic bottles) you can release pressure and hopefully reduce the likelyhood of an explosion. The carbonation level will be higher than with a beer. Also if you stand the bottles inverted and let the yeast settle into the neck and release some pressure with the lid under water it will blow the yeast out and help clear it.

Damien

&amp;quot;DamienC&amp;quot;:2d3s0m99 wrote: Hi Nigel,

Also if you stand the bottles inverted and let the yeast settle into the neck and release some pressure with the lid [u:2d3s0m99]under water[/u:2d3s0m99] it will blow the yeast out and help clear it.

Damien[/quote:2d3s0m99]

The under water bit is a great suggestion <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D --> - in the past when I used to degorge champagne ( aka me own fizzy wines ) using the special champagne degorging plastic things fizz would spray everywhere. <!-- s:oops: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_redface.gif" alt="" title="Embarassed" /><!-- s:oops: -->

Cheers for that

Will

Are you sure it's Elderflower? Around our way, the Elderflowers have been and gone over a month ago and now the Hawthorn is in full bloom.
But I tried the Hugh Farnley recipe last year and it works out quite well. Be sure and remove all stalks as they leave an awful flavour!

&amp;quot;ColMc&amp;quot;:285644wu wrote: Are you sure it's Elderflower? Around our way, the Elderflowers have been and gone over a month ago and now the Hawthorn is in full bloom.
[/quote:285644wu]

Elderflowers are just budding down my way at the moment. No petals visible at all yet. Hawthorn is flying though.

As for recipes, I've done a few and they all turn out very similar. You get a hot dry brew that feels very much like a jailhouse-gin. It will have a dominant elderflower flavour for sure but, for my money, I find it, like almost all country wines, are very lacking in any real character. This is down to the use of sucrose as a brewing sugar. This sugar ferments down to alcohol and CO2 and leaves nothing behind. A more complex sugar, like maltose, would not completely ferment away and would leave something to add mouth feel and body, or at least some interest.

The earlier suggestion of adding grape juice would make a big difference, I think.

I'd not planned on bothering with elderflower champagne again this year. I might be tempted to try again using malt extract or the grape juice idea. Not sure how grape juice, lemons and elderflowers would play together though.

/J

Hi,

I have a few bottles of an experimental elderflower lambic beer made by Cantillon in Brussels. I must say that it's probably the finest beer I have ever tried! They are now 3 years old but they keep on getting better! If you make an elderflower champagne then I would be very interested in trying it!

Alan