? re: elderflowers adding after start of fermentation

[james]

I’ve read on this forum about adding elderflowers after a few days of primary fermentation to preserve the delicate flavours. I’m going to give this a go in the next few days and have a question:

Should I sulphite wash (then rinse) the elderflower heads prior to adding to the must, or should I just rinse in water, in the knowledge that the fermentation is vigorous and not a lot will survive?

[Duffbeer]

Put them in as they are, no sulphite or rinsing, there is no risk from wild yeast as your fermentation is dominated now by your selected yeast.
Washing and sulphiting will remove a lot of the delicate aroma & flavours.

[lockwood1956]

Yup

what duff said

[shirlthegirl43]

Could someone please point me in the right direction to read more about this. I fancy trying my hand at a batch of elderflower wine this summer.

[james]

Thanks for the clarification, much appreciated.


Shirlthegirl34: In terms of reading about it...it seems to be mostly little passing comments that are made in discussions about elderflower wine. The long & short of it is that if you put elderflowers in right at the start of fermentation, the vigorous early fermentation will strip a lot of flavour and delicate aroma from the final wine. So put the flowers in later and keep all that stuff.

Jack Keller’s elderflower wine recipes are listed here. The second recipe on the page is his own tried & tested recipe. It’s this one that I intend to follow. He doesnt mention later addition of elderflowers.

The recipe below is Jack’s recipe, but I’ve (hopefully correctly...) adjusted the methodology to account for the later addition of elderflowers:

Elderflower Wine

1 pint fresh elderflowers
1 small can white grape juice concentrate
2 lbs granulated sugar
1-1/2 tsp acid blend
yeast & nutrient


Dissolve sugar & grape juice in 6.5 pints hot water, cover and let cool.
Add acid blend & activated yeast.
After 3 days, separate flowers from stalks and add the flowers (in a weighted down straining bag) to the primary fermenter
Ferment in primary fermenter for a further 4 days.
Rack into demijohn, top up to 1 gallon & ferment out as usual.

I've also read a few people saying that wine no.1 makes a fine elderflower wine base, in which case you'd make up the wine as usual but put into fermentation bucket, ferment a few days, add the elderfowers, fermet a few days more, then rack into demijohn.

[lockwood1956]

If you add the elderflowers to wine no1 very late (i.e. under 1.010) you will get a much fresher bouquet, as you are using the alcohol in the wine to extract the aromas, and not blowing them off with vigorous fermentation.

I have added them ( a very small amount...3 tsp) after ferment is finished, and still got great results.

less is more sometimes

Besure also to use only the sweet smelling elderflowers,(some smell a bit cat pee like....that bush will provide good berries) and only ones that shake loose easily (into a brown paper bag, not plastic, so they dont sweat) Because you dont need many, it isnt such an onerous task.

Run the two wines side by side, i'll be very surprised if the wine no1 with less flowers isn't much better than the other one.

hope this helps
regards
Bob

[shirlthegirl43]

Thanks guys. I think I will try the No 1 wine and add some flowers later on. Sounds like a good use for the flowers that fall of the heads when I am preparing my elderflower 'champagne'

[fatbloke]

Could someone please point me in the right direction to read more about this. I fancy trying my hand at a batch of elderflower wine this summer.

Another good place to read up is Luc Volders blog. Yes you'll have to have a bit of a search round but he did a good bit about making elderflower wine and more recently about harvesting the flowers.

Oh and you find the bit you want, but you have to scroll down to get the english translation, unless you speak Dutch of course (he always puts the Dutch bit first, unsurprisingly).

regards

JtFB

[shirlthegirl43]

Thanksfor that link, will take a look at that when I get a chance, just somehow got landed with catering my neighbour's mother's funeral tomorrow!

The Dutch might be readable enough, my dear hubby is half Dutch so I am able to read it to some extent.

[lockwood1956]

Luc nearly always posts an English version too......its always at the very bottom of the page