Adventures in Wine Making - Elderflower Champagne

Recipe

This Recipe is taken from the book "Wild Food" by Roger Phillips (See link on the right)

• 4 Elderflower heads in full bloom.
• 1 gallon cold water
• 1 lemon
• 1 1/2 lb (700gm) loaf sugar
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar

Dissolve sugar in a little warm water and allow to cool. Squeeze the juice from the lemon, cut the rind in four, andput the pieces with the elderflowers in a large jug or basin, add the wine vinegar and pour on the rest of the cold water. Leave to steep for4 days. Strain off and botle in screw-topped bottles. It should be ready to drink in 6-10 days, but test after 6 days anyway to see that it does not get to fizzy. If it fails to work leave it for another week; sometimes the natural yeast of the flowers is very slow to get going and occasionally you will get a batch that fails altogether.

Diary

June 16th 2009

I found two elder trees on route between town and home, no need to even venture out in the countryside for the ingredients. I put in 5 flower heads, rather tan the 4 that the recipe says. I picked the flower heads from two trees mainly as I couldn't reach enough on one tree (I wasn't short enough). The must is now sat in a 1 gallon bucket. I have been giving the bucket a shake every few hours to mix it all up. It will take a few days to start fermenting.

July 2009

Well this is the first of my brews to chalk up as a learning excersise. It seemed this one didn't quite work properly, and by the time it had started to kick off, the flower heads were still in, and had given it abit of a bitter taste. So, down the pan with this one, will try again next year.

This page last modified Saturday, 26-Jun-2010 21:41:16 CEST.