I did a wine from syrup i bought a year ago and tasted a few weeks ago and I was realy amazed about the tase of the elderflower. I had never tasted it before but I love it now.. So used my friend google to find a recipe and took some bit and pieces and came up with the folowing:
25 gram dried elderflower
1300 gr sugar
2 tsp citric acid
2 tsp yeast nutrient
a cup of strong tea.
first hydrate the dried flowers. I could not fill my pet bottle with boiling water. So got 25 grams of dried flowers and chucked this in a pan and poured over 1 liter of cooking water. Its now cooling down with the lid on it so i can put it in a plastic bottle for a few days.
Measured 25 grams of flowers and added 1 liter of boiling water
(http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx52/duvellover/brewing/2014-02-10193326.jpg)
covered it with tinfoil to keep in the nice flavors and keep out the nasties
(http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx52/duvellover/brewing/2014-02-10193958.jpg)
2 hour wait and this is my tea
(http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx52/duvellover/brewing/2014-02-10215551.jpg)
poured it all in a bottle
(http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx52/duvellover/brewing/2014-02-11065858.jpg)
Left the bottle for about 24 hours and stained the tea trough a cheese cloth. Dissovled sugar in some water let it cool and poured it into the bottle. Added the GJ and a cup of strong tea. Got in the acid and nutrient and gave it a shake. Uploaded some pictures and type a little story to let it all cool.
it looks realy like brown sewer water but it still needs some months so hope it will improve a bit
(http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx52/duvellover/brewing/2014-02-11183535-2.jpg)
mixed it all
(http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx52/duvellover/brewing/2014-02-11185747.jpg)
and almost O.G. 1.110 (15.5%)
(http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx52/duvellover/brewing/2014-02-11185149.jpg)
Looks good lampie & i'm sure that given the required time it will clear out magnificently.
What country are you in? Thems European sockets.
Right Ted.
Where did you get the dried elderflower?
I make a few liters of concentrate each year, but it would be nice to have a bag of flowers in the freezer ;)
As bzfeale says, that'll clear itself up nicely.
You probably won't even need finings for it and can keep it all natural :)
LOL
They probably have sockets like that on Craggy Island
I will leave it for some months and see how it turns out.. Made one last year and did not use enough elderflower so the elderflower did not come trough enough.. But it realy cleared up..
this is a bit of a testrun to tweak the recipe a bit and will then go for a bigger batch :)
also planning a elderflower liqueur and still thinking about the recipe so will post that one when i figured that out :).
@lordeoin I got de dried elderflower at a health shop and it was €4.25 for 80 grams.. This summer i will try and find some fesh flowers and make some wine with it.. But for now the easy way and use dried flowers :)
I racked it a few days ago and filled up the headspace with the batch i made last year and will leave it alone for a few months.
This is the batch i started in may 2013 and bottled 3 weeks ago but it could have done with some more elderflowers to get a better taste :).
(http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx52/duvellover/brewing/2014-02-09142644.jpg)
looks like water :)
it has the fruity elderflower taste to it.. But its a bit like heineken it tastes a bit like beer :P
@LordEoin you can get dried elderflowers in health food shops like lampie mantioned and I saw them for sale in the Quay coop. You might also be able to get them from some home brew supply shops
Actually I think I saw them in HBC the other day.
Another tip picked up from Cider judges, processed elderflower has too much citric acid in it as an adjunct for cider