Elderflowers

[BorderTerroir]

You need to remember that elderflowers come in lots of varieties, some of which smell like cat pee.

Have good sniff before you pick any otherwise you will end up with cat pee wine.

[ms67]

all our flowers smelled wonderful, sweet, fragrant, fruity (i never paid attention to the smell before but they are well worth sticking your nose in!) - We picked on a dry sunny day while the sun was out. we never found a rank smelling flower tho i am aware they exist - i read that the rank smelling flowers produce good berries tho so i may have problems with the berry wine later in the year. the same can't be said for our hawthorn blossoms, none of which smelled great.

the good ship elderflower wine has launched, fermentation on the go, and the smell is still divine when you lift the FV lid

[ms67]

looking through all the elderflower recipes i'm struck by how many say to add flowers on the 7th day and remove on the 10th. Could someone tell me why this is? i mean why not get them in straight away? i had to use them straight away out of necessity, given a choice i would have followed the recipes others had laid down before me.

and onto the next question, as i have added them straight away should i still leave them in for only 3 days, or longer/shorter time? do they go off if left longer? the brew still smells great and strongly of the flowers (not surprising with the amount i used i guess)

[Zebedee]

looking through all the elderflower recipes i'm struck by how many say to add flowers on the 7th day and remove on the 10th. Could someone tell me why this is?

As I understand it.....
the flowers are mainly for bouquet.So the smell will be lost through the airlock during the vigorous first days of fermentation

[ms67]

thanks Zeb, so in effect the extra flowers i used will likely do no more than compensate for their early addition?

[james]

one of the few accurate pieces of information I took from my grandmas wine making book ("Peggy Hutchinson's Secrets of Home Wine making") was how to tell the difference between cat-**** elderflowers and sweet elderflowers.

Never use the very large flower heads- these are the cat-**** ones.
The smaller heads are the ones to use: they usually have a more delicate 'muscat' flavour.
Keep the large heads for berries.

(later note: I've also read that the ones that have a creamy colour are also to be avoided in prefference to the white heads. The pollen is the part that has the flavour, so look for heads in full bloom with lots of pollen)

[ms67]

little update and some ramblings on my wine

we just racked it, 4 gallons.not clear yet but a hefty enough sediment and all but finished fermenting. oh my oh my the taste is just divine and i'm so glad that i have waited years before trying this as i get a delayed satisfaction thingumajig outta it

assuming all continues to go in such a positive direction we have a winner here. if, like me, you have delayed trying this wine then go for it before the flowers stop. We used the good smelling flowers and noticed a 'dust' falling from the flower sprays from time to time, must be the pollen the previous post mentioned. Also noticed that some parts of the demijohn were covered (on the inside obviously) with small specks which i reckoned were probably pollen as pollen has a charge and so will stick to stuff, probably even glass. It has some way to go yet of course, but i heartily recommend anyone to have a go. i reckon that there are plenty of good recipes out there, the most important thing for me is the flavour that the flowers give, so what are you waiting for!