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Well I took the plunge and have used the recipe on here for Elderflower Champagne and also making cordial.
The champagne is the non alcholic one.
Went to my local wine making supplies place and they were really helpful.
Have experimented with both normal lemonade bottles and champagne bottles,see how it goes.
We tried the raw stuff from the champs and it was really really fab!!!!
Its a really good year for elder so its worth a go you don't need much to do this and I'm now hooked on making this stuff.
Going to try to do an alcholic one next-wish me luck.

mrsdudd wrote:Well I took the plunge and have used the recipe on here for Elderflower Champagne and also making cordial.
The champagne is the non alcholic one.
Went to my local wine making supplies place and they were really helpful.
Have experimented with both normal lemonade bottles and champagne bottles,see how it goes.
We tried the raw stuff from the champs and it was really really fab!!!!
Its a really good year for elder so its worth a go you don't need much to do this and I'm now hooked on making this stuff.
Going to try to do an alcholic one next-wish me luck.

Can somebody post a recipe for an alcoholic one please.

yeh the elderflowers are at their peak for us too now... had made 4 batches of cordial, countless of champagne, started some wine, and ate fritters... lovely

Received a bottle of delicious cordial made using the recipe on this site, so had a look at it. A warning! The method includes instructions to put the mixture into 'a bowl OR SMALL BUCKET' and leave for 5 days. General-purpose plastic buckets are probably NOT FOOD-QUALITY PLASTIC! Plasticisers (look it up) are likely to leach into the mixture, and these can cause serious illness, not necessarily immediately.
This info should be added to the recipe, if possible with a link to suppliers of food-quality plastic buckets or largish plastic containers suitable for storing liquids. (No, I'm not a chemist, but many years ago my husband did a course in environmental toxicology and shared some gory details).

I think most of us would use our common sense and use a beer making bucket or large mixing bowl. I don't think any of us would use something painted or varnished or that had something dire in it before would we?

All plastics contaminate whatever they come in contact with, even the pvc bags in which blood is stored. The powers that be have concluded that shrink wrap for example, has saved many lives by keeping food clean and fresh and that these miniscule amounts of material transfer do us no harm. If you are going to force feed rats with pvc of course they're going to be ill.

There is an awful lot of legistration about but it boils down to food quality plastics are better quality, isn't that all?

Paula wrote:General-purpose plastic buckets are probably NOT FOOD-QUALITY PLASTIC!

sorry but d'uh.