Alcoholic Elderflower Champagne

[Andy Hamilton]

Wrote this for the Guardian all about how to make alcoholic elderflower chamagne. Essentially, if you follow the second half of the recipe its about turning any wine into a sparkling wine.

[Wombat]

Woo Hoo! Well done, mate! I made some from our elderflowers years ago but found I didn't like the stuff. My father, on the other hand, received and consumed it gratefully!

Nev

[malcolmfraser]

Will give this a go - thanks.

Quick question though - is there a reason why you add the sugar after the brew has been sitting for a few days? Most recipes I've seen just add it at the start.

Cheers

[MKG]

Now that is probably the best EC recipe I've seen - none of this shilly-shallying around making something without a decent amount of alcohol

Malcolm - Andy may have his own reasons for doing it that way, but I can tell you that his way is cleaner and doesn't muck the yeast about by reintroducing oxygen into an already-fermenting must when you don't really want it in there.

Mike

[Mr and Mrs luvpie]

really silly question but where is the best plACE for bottles and corks, i really don't want this exploding on me :D

[MKG]

Well, Andy was writing for the Guarniad (as you can tell by the way they printed his name). Those readers may have a ready supply of empty champagne bottles . If I were you, I'd use PET bottles - they can take an awful lot of pressure. If you really do want glass, they MUST be proper champagne bottles with proper champagne stoppers. You can certainly find those at most homebrew suppliers on the net, and any decent local homebrew shop should have them. But PET is what I'd use for any fizzy wine.

Mike

[Mr and Mrs luvpie]

pet another stupid ? is that just normal pop bottles? would you leave some space at the top? sorry mrluvpie is out so want to see wht we need to get itgoing :D

[123sologne]

I don't know what PET bottles are either...
Ha, now I know they are the bottles you get with bubbly soft drink. Good old google!
I have re-used some of these for our elderflower champagne and it worked okay.
If you want champagne bottles just ask for some empty ones on your local freecycle. We did that asking if anybody had a party etc, we were interested in the bottles and in a couple of trips we had some 2 dozen bottles. After some clean up we were ready to bottle our lovely bubbles

[Andy Hamilton]

Cheers Mike for anwsering Malcolms question, quite right too.

Publishers always seem to have a glut of champagne bottles! Also I bet Newmarket racecourse gets through a few. I find if you go out the day before recycling day in your area you can all the bottles you need. Eventually you will find who drinks what and can quickly have a "foraging" spot for all various bottles.

[oldjerry]

Any ideas how you can mask the smell of cat pee that I've always got from EF champers? I've grown to like it,but some find it a bit iffy.
Does the fullness of the blossom effect the smell/taste? Thanks.

[Mr and Mrs luvpie]

Publishers always seem to have a glut of champagne bottles! Also I bet Newmarket racecourse gets through a few. I find if you go out the day before recycling day in your area you can all the bottles you need. Eventually you will find who drinks what and can quickly have a "foraging" spot for all various bottles.

they sure do andy, but they also have opportunities for local groups to go and help clean up so they can raise money from the recycling of things, cans definately, surprisingly enough for a council that prides itself on its recycling schemes they only have bottle banks rather than collections and they are emptied weekly!

but having a house full of kids we have squash bottles (yep i got off my arse and read the bottom of them ) so it may not look classey on our camping trip this year but if it goes down well we will go hunting for bottles for next year

[MKG]

Any ideas how you can mask the smell of cat pee that I've always got from EF champers? I've grown to like it,but some find it a bit iffy.
Does the fullness of the blossom effect the smell/taste? Thanks.

I've been told that creamy flowers produce cat's pee and pure white flowers don't. It doesn't work for me, hence the reason I never make anything from elderflowers. The best thing, as far as I'm concerned, is to let them turn into elderberries. No cat's pee problem at all then.

Mike

[Mr and Mrs luvpie]

how much yeast does it need? ive put in 5g but nothing has happened...

[lydneyian]

Andy - There are loads of recipes for this on line - but yours seemed the best option - I have already started it and am 2 days in but wondered - every recipe bar this one has white wine vinegar in it - why doesnt this one have it added? I have made twice as much and just doubled up on everything however I removed all the flowers from the stalks and made 1 pint of little flowers - I presume it will just make it less flavour? can I just transfer the liquid/wine/champagne from fermentation bin to fermentation bin rather than demijohns? how long does it take generally for the bubbles to stop before straining to a demijohn to allow full fermentation (which is apparently about 3 months ish)? It looks very dark in the bucket after 2 days - is that normal?

Thanks

Lydneyian

[Andy Hamilton]

Ok to try and respond to you all..

yeast can have a couple of days lag phase sometimes. If it still hasn't done anything then I'm afraid your yeast might be dead. Try moving it to a warmer place and see if that helps. Otherwise get some more yeast. The first thing yeast does is multiply so 5g should be enough.

This recipe is not the same as every other elderlower champagne recipe as it makes a wine first, which you then re-ferment to make it bubble. Hence no need to add vinegar. Elderflowers can be pretty strong in flavour so I wouldn't worry too much about it not being the most flavoursome. You can always infuse some in the bottle before serving if you so desire. The reason for using demijohns is one of keeping at bay infection. The initial violent fermentation inoculates the top of the fermentation bin with CO2 so other yeasts and bacteria can't infect the wine. The last quater of so of fermentation takes much longer and less Co2 is made. This means bacteria can more easily infect. Hence a demijohn is used. I'm not saying you can't use a fermentation bin it probally will work but you stand a higher chance of getting it infected. 4-10 days is the normal amount of time for inital fermentation.

Dark doesn't sound great, but dark is subjective so if you mean just not very wine like I wouldn't worry too much.

Cat wee - some say collect in the morning rather then evening and they smell less. I find after rainfall a good time too, something rather difficult at the moment it seems!