Alcoholic Elderflower Champagne

[ktibble]

Without meaning to look a bit silly...

I am 90% sure I have elderflowers in part of my hedge, but I am sure I heard something a while back that they can be easily mistaken for a similar flower. Is there anyway of knowing for sure???

Apologies for a silly question but I would really like to give Elderflower champagne a go and wish to avoid poisoning anyone !!! Some are in flower now and others look like they are thinking about it, if that helps (I live in Oxfordshire)

If it's 6 feet up, it's probably elder. I have heard people get confused between rowan and elder, but they're very different. There may be ornamentals that appear similar, but the potential list of ornamentals found in UK gardens is very long.

There's some good identification information here (Woodlands) and here (Natural History Museum) and here (Woodland Trust).

Things to look for:
Leaf-shape - it's compound pinnate (ie. each true leaf is made up of several smaller leaflets), there are an odd number of leaflets (usually 5 or 7) with one on the end and 2 or 3 pairs of leaflets opposite each other along the spine (opposite, they do not alternate). The edges of the leaflets are slightly serrated (toothed).
Flowers - large flattish-topped clusters of creamy white flowers (other colours occur in cultivated varieties) with a distinctive smell on a warm, sunny day. The smell could be described as slightly sweet, slightly vanilla, can be cloying and powerful, sometimes reminiscent of cat pee later in the day. It should be flowering now, and will probably have been flowering for the last couple of weeks (or more).
Stem and branches - older growth is woody, fresh growth is green. The plant is very fast growing, expect a fair amount of new growth to be visible.
General habit - it's a big shrub or a small tree. If undisturbed it's more tree-like, but is very tolerant of pruning. It can grow it's way through a hedge until it pops out the top/sides. We have a couple that grow up through a leylandii hedge.

Thanks "Georgesalt" I am now 99% sure that I have elder flower, Now I just need to look into making elderflower wine/ champange. Will read back through the articles and definitely give this a go. I also "google imaged" the rowan that you referred to and once I got through all of the mister been images I can see that it is not what I have.

Thank you very much for your detailed an informative response. (Also very curious about the cat wee smell will be popping out later just to check!!!)

[GeorgeSalt]

I feel like a proper homebrewer now..

Last night, just before 11pm.. massive bang from the understairs cupboard. Two PET bottles of elderflower champagne had detonated. Clean-up was slightly hampered by two unexploded bottles that had been toppled from the shelf. I'm just glad I was using PET and not glass bottles!

.. and after all that, tasing some of the recovered brew I'm left not entirely convinced that its worth the trouble.

[trinder]

The other one I have to look twice at is a sort of weed rather than a shrub, I think its common name is cow parsley. My horse loves it . The main difference is that its stems are hollow. It can grow quite big which is when I have been confused.

[pigonpointe]

I'm new to all this and completely confused I have been making elderflower cordial for years with success but thought I'd have a go at the champagne this year. There are so many recipes and so much advice about different bottles that I'm on the verge of throwing my mix away! I went for the River Cottage recipe because it sounded so simple and straight forward; after 36 hours there is no sign of fermentation but all the sugar (which had initially dissolved) appears to be sitting at the bottom ...... do I leave it? do I stir?

I have also invested in grolsch style bottles from a homebrew website but am now terrified of explosions (I have young children and a dog) ...... help????????????

[MKG]

Panic not! Just store your bottles in a bomb shelter

There are discussions on elderflower champagne every year all over the net, and they're always the same. Basically, though, all you're trying to do is begin a fermentation in a liquid (in which yeast - wild or added - starts to make alcohol and carbon dioxide from the sugar) and bottle that liquid tightly before the yeast has completely finished the job. The rest of the carbon dioxide goes into solution under its own pressure and you get exactly the same result as opening a bottle of fizzy lemonade.

Sounds simple, but ...

Your stuff has sugar on the bottom. So your water was not hot enough or you didn't stir enough. Do it now - in fact do it with a whisk to add a bit of oxygen at the same time.

You have no apparent fermentation. Hardly surprising if all of your sugar is at the bottom, but more likely a result of adding the flowers while the water was still too hot. It has to cool right down, or you kill any wild yeasts on the flowers. Anyway, the easy solution is to add some yeast of your own (something I would always do, as depending upon wild yeasts is hitty-missy).

Next - the judgement bit. The RC recipe uses 1.5 lbs of sugar in a gallon, which works out to a possible alcohol content of 7.5%. But that will produce A LOT of gas. Bottling it right away is dangerous. Leave it in your primary vessel until you can see that a fermentation has begun. There's no hurry - give it four days THEN bottle it. A lot of the gas will have gone away by then, but still plenty left to make a fizz.

Your Grolsch bottles should be fine - they're designed to take pressure. But open them VERY slowly.

Mike

[lydneyian]

as a follow up on last years champagne - as in previous posts - I made 2 batches - one with dried flowers the first with fresh - the first batch produced 10 Champagne bottles - and were absolutly amazing - very clear very fizzy and very strong - the last one got drunk last friday :-)- the second batch (dried flowers) produced another 10 bottles - stronger in flavour - slightly darker although still clear ... not really any fizz though (maybe a little).
Outside of the dried flowers and fresh flowers - the only differences were - the first batch was left in the bucket for 4 weeks before the demi johns - the second only 2 - this was because the first batch didnt really seem to stop bubbling (as per the recipe - transfer when bubbling stops) and was never really bubbling a lot - the second lot really REALLY bubbled when i added the yeast and stopped after 2 weeks so i transfered it earlier.

This year - I have only just started it (last week) 2 months behind last year - but it has rained so much - i was waiting for a sunny day - and was waiting in vain - so I thought i had better start before the flowers go

I am just going to follow the formula from last wyear - i will probably leave it in the bucket now for 4 weeks and go from there :-)

[pigonpointe]

Panic not! Just store your bottles in a bomb shelter

There are discussions on elderflower champagne every year all over the net, and they're always the same. Basically, though, all you're trying to do is begin a fermentation in a liquid (in which yeast - wild or added - starts to make alcohol and carbon dioxide from the sugar) and bottle that liquid tightly before the yeast has completely finished the job. The rest of the carbon dioxide goes into solution under its own pressure and you get exactly the same result as opening a bottle of fizzy lemonade.

Sounds simple, but ...

Your stuff has sugar on the bottom. So your water was not hot enough or you didn't stir enough. Do it now - in fact do it with a whisk to add a bit of oxygen at the same time.

You have no apparent fermentation. Hardly surprising if all of your sugar is at the bottom, but more likely a result of adding the flowers while the water was still too hot. It has to cool right down, or you kill any wild yeasts on the flowers. Anyway, the easy solution is to add some yeast of your own (something I would always do, as depending upon wild yeasts is hitty-missy).

Next - the judgement bit. The RC recipe uses 1.5 lbs of sugar in a gallon, which works out to a possible alcohol content of 7.5%. But that will produce A LOT of gas. Bottling it right away is dangerous. Leave it in your primary vessel until you can see that a fermentation has begun. There's no hurry - give it four days THEN bottle it. A lot of the gas will have gone away by then, but still plenty left to make a fizz.

Your Grolsch bottles should be fine - they're designed to take pressure. But open them VERY slowly.

Mike

Thanks so much for your very useful advice, sadly I had an accident which prevented me from dealing with my solution and by the time I got back to it there was mould floating on the top! I decided to dump it and try again next year, but will keep your advice for then.

[lydneyian]

There are still some flowers out there pigonpointe :-)

[MKG]

Clarification for pigonpointe ...

That's wait for the fermentation to start and THEN leave it for another four days.

Mike