Elderflower wine and question

[lampie]

I bought some home made elderflower sirup somewhere on a farmers market last year.. Had to make some wine ofcourse . The recipe i used is down in the post. will dried elderflowers give me a good taste? so use a basic recipe to make the syrup/tea and make wine out of that? Its still a long wait untill I can pick some fresh flowers

2.75 liter elder blossom sirup
600 gr sugar
Yeast
Yeast nutrient
tannine
citric acid

I dont have my notes here so dont know the OG. but this is the result.

[lampie]

just googled a bit and could not find any answers in dutch so tried it in english and got some results .

http://www.brewstore.co.uk/dried-elderflowers-1360-p.asp

[Will_D]

Hi Lampie,

If you are using dried Elderflowers you just make the wine with them. So its basically:

Hot water and sugar and infuse the flowers.To boil or not is up to you. If prepacked then prob. no need

Add nutrients, usually some citrus (lemons) and make up with cold water. Ferment away.

When you pick the fresh flowers is the time to make your own sysrup. This stores nicely in the freezer for ages. Can then be used to make more wine, flavour cider, flavour white wine etc. Its great over ice-cream as well.

[lampie]

Found some dried flowers and hydrating it now. Used 25 grams for 5l and will mix it tonight with some grape juice and the rest of the ingredients.

This summer will try and collect some fresh picked flowers and make a big batch of wine and probably make some mead with the fresh flowers.

At first was not sure if the dried stuff would work

[lampie]

Have started the brew with dried flowers i got from a health shop.

hydrated 25 grams of the dried flowers in 1 liter of boiling water and left this for about 24 hours.

then strained it off and added 1 liter of grape juice, 1 cup of strong tea, 1100 grams sugar and topped it off with water... O.G. 1.110 that will give an abv of 15.5% but will try and get it to 1.010 or just above to get a sweet wine.

when i hydrated the elderflower only it was brown and did not look very nice. A few days have past and its turning yellow now so I hope that i get a nice and clear wine.. Will add some pics later on am at work and dont have acces to my pictures..

[Bzfeale80]

sounds like a good way of making elderflower wine albeit its out of season at the moment. Fresh elderflowers can also be used to make cordial which is then diluted down with water and is better than any lemonade you would buy in a shop!

Im guessing with dried flowers you would not need a large quantity as they would be more concentrated than fresh flowers as they have been dehydrated

Last year i managed to make cordial, champagne and wine from elderflowers. If memory serves me right you would need 12 large elderflower heads plus the other ingredients to make a 4.5 litre batch of wine.

I am interested in finding out how it goes for you. The main thing is to give it plenty of time. Think I bottled my wine about september/october. Haven't tried it since.

Life, alas, is very drear. Up with the glass. Down with the beer! Louis Untermeyer

[lampie]

I looked up different recipies and came up with the following..

for 5 liter:

1l white grape juice
25 gram of dried flower
1l water to soak dried flowers in
1100 gram sugar
2 tsp citric acid
2 tsp yeast nutrient
1 tsp allround wine yeast

the O.G. 1.110 abv 15.5 but planning to let it ferment to 1.010 so get a bit sweater wine good for a summer night .

I made the other batch in May 2013 so it had some months to develop. This batch is a bit of an experimental batch so can get the recipe allright. Smelled the bottle last night and it has a strong sweet smell and its still fermenting .

will update some pics later

Poured in the dried leaves in a pan and poured over about 1l of water and closed the lid and left it to soak for 24hrs. Used a cheese cloth to strain off the leaves and get the lovely elderflower tea and mixed everything in a bottle .