Elderflower Wine and Champagne Experiment

Soggy flowers with no pollen on them doesn't make for good wine, so this year with all this glorious sunshine, I jumped into action when the elderflower came into bloom at the end of June.

The Elder tree only really flowers for a week and it is best to pick them before midday, before all the pollen has been stolen.

This year I've had a go at both a fizzy short fermentation and the full wine, which is about 3mnths fermentation and then another 3mnths in the bottles. I thought it would be good to share the recipes I used and my experiences during the fermentation, especially as I used demi johns for both methods, this is not usual practice (at least not with other recipes on the internet) for sparkling.

The ingredients for both are nearly identical, however I will list them separately to avoid confusion. Don't forget to sterilise all of your equipment really well, it is the most frustrating thing to see all your work go mouldy...

Sparkling Elder Flower Wine

• 700 g granulated sugar
• 8 large heads of elderflower
• 2 lemons, rind and juice
• 4.5 litres (8 pints) of boiled water
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• and you might need a pinch of dried yeast, depends on where you live

Elder Flower Wine

• 1.3kg (3 lbs) sugar
• 12 large heads elder flower
• 2 lemons, rind and juice
• 4.5 litres (8 pints) of boiled water
• 25g (Half an ounce) yeast

When you have picked your elder flowers place them on a plate, or newspaper to allow any creepy crawlies to move away. Only shake the flowers as a last resort as the loss of pollen will mean a loss of flavour.

 

To start add the boiled water to your fermenting bin, this can be bought for a brewing supplier or you could use a large household bucket. Dissolve the sugar, stirring the water with a plastic spoon not metal or wood. While this is cooling start preparing you elder flowers.

 

Carefully remove the flowers from the stalks, I attempted this with a fork and combing the stalks but it was very slow going. If you are impatient like me then use a pair of scissors to carefully remove flowers and leaving the minimal amount of stalk left.

 

 Add the elder flowers, lemon juice and rind to the sugar water in the fermenting bin. I added extra lemon to the sparkling wine (pictured left) for good measure. For the sparkling wine add the vinegar at this point, for the normal wine add the yeast (if it is necessary to add yeast to the sparkling this can be done later on).

 Give the musk a good stir and cover with a piece of muslin cloth or a clean tea towel.

 

The Wine musk must now stand for three or four days, the sparkling wine however only needs 24 hours. After allowing to stand for the recommended amount of time, stain the mixture through a large jelly bag or similar, making sure to squeeze out every last bit of flavour at this point! Add the liquid to a sterilised demi john, do not fill much above the shoulder of the demi john and add air lock. Leave the sparkling wine 2wks or so, leave the wine 3mnths before bottling, racking once, maybe twice during this period.

I made three lots of sparkling (picture right) and one of wine, this is a fair bit to handle so make your decision carefully about how much you make. 

If you have additional sparkling wine mixture is okay to use sterilised bottles, in fact most internet recipes will advise this with claims you need to seal in the fermentation. I can assure you, you won't loss the fizziness if you use a demi john, it is the fermentation that provides the fizz and this continues. Keep a close eye on your sparkling wine when brewing in plastic bottles, release the pressure daily if you don't want them to explode.

I had no explosions however there are some observations that I think will help. The sparkling wine develops floating sediment, it looks rather odd (see picture left) but will be minimal by the end of the brewing period. When you bottle up the sparkling wine, siphon out the wine using

sterilised plastic tubing to avoid picking any sediment up.

If after a couple of days there is no action in the sparkling wine demi jonhs, remove the bung and sprinkling in a few grains of yeast, no more. Usually you can rely on the natural yeast but it may not be prevalent where you live.

The elderflower wine will be a much darker colour yellow than the sparkling and will bubble like mad once the yeast has got going, it does start to clear slowly to a colour more associated with a white wine.

The elderflower wine will be a much darker colour yellow than the sparkling and will bubble like mad once the yeast has got going, it does start to clear slowly to a colour more associated with a white wine.

So here is the finished sparkling wine, the normal wine is still fermenting but is clearing more every day. It is a most delicious and delicate drink but be a little careful, it doesn't taste to alcoholic but I can assure you that yeast has definitely done something!

Please please ask me any questions or let me know if you think I have left anything out.


I have realised while writing this blog that I neglected to blog my ginger beer recipe last year, which is incredibly similar brew. Will try and write one soon especially as my brother has just started his own ginger beer plant.