Elder Flower Champagne

[Kepis]

Just finished a couple of bottles of Elderflower Champagne, made it about 10 days ago and today it was ready to be drunk, so having a small family do, we opened a couple of bottles up and served it with ice cubes with some mint leaves in them - delicious and refreshing and perfect for the kids and non drinkers as it's non alcoholic

 

[Samon]

ah was gona say that's a fast brew! looks tastey!

ginger beers simple too, my ginger beer brew is ready in 2 days (alchoholic too)! costs about £1.50 for like 4 litres and is better than that crabbies 'adult ginger beer'.

did you find a pistol fro your kids in the end?

 

[Kepis]

ah was gona say that's a fast brew! looks tastey!

ginger beers simple too, my ginger beer brew is ready in 2 days (alchoholic too)! costs about £1.50 for like 4 litres and is better than that crabbies 'adult ginger beer'.

did you find a pistol fro your kids in the end?

Cheers mate, wouldn't mind seeing that Ginger Beer recipe if you dont mind?

Still looking for a suitable pistol for the boys though, all three of us are still argueing over my Webley

 

[joe.ford]

Time for me to try again then, It seems to be a little hit and miss with my batches.

Any ideas how I can avoid making more rocket fuel this year? No one would touch it, but it smelt rather alcoholic. Be nice to be able to make a non alcoholic version this year

 

[Kepis]

this is the recipe we use

* 4 litres of water
* 625g of sugar
* 8-10 large elder flower heads
* 2 lemons (one sliced & one juiced)
* 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar


Remove the flowers from the stalks, try to keep as many of the green stalks out of the mix as you can.

Place the sugar in a large bowl or clean bucket and add enough hot water to dissolve the sugar (1 litre is usually more than enough), make up balance of the 4 litres needed with cold water once the sugar has been dissolved. When the water is cool add the elder flowers, juice of one lemon and the slices of the other lemon, add the vinegar, cover the brew with a cloth and leave for 24 hours.

Once 24 hours has passed strain the liquid through a fine sieve or muslin cloth, squeeze the flowers as you go to extract the last possible bit of flavour and goodness from them, once this has been done, store the brew in sterilised screw top bottles for about 10-14 days, the Champers should be drunk within a month, oh yes, it will develop a fizz so you may need to release the pressure in the bottles now and again.

 

[Samon]

the recipe and walkthrough for 2 litres of the ginger beer is pretty much this:

grate up a lemon sized piece of root ginger and add into the empty sterilised bottle.
squeeze half a lemons juice into the bottle.
1 cup of sugar boiled into enough water to make a syrup and add to the bottle (cold).
1 table spoon of honey into the bottle.
half a teaspoon of champagne yeast.
fill the rest of the bottle with water, leaving a few inches from the cap!

(add a handfull of raisins if you like the caramelised flavour)

Give a good shake and leave it somewhere warm and safe..

Only thing with this brew is you leave the cap on and tight! so make sure to release gas from the bottles a few times a day or they will go boom! (like my bed side brew did)

After the 2 days brewing you'll need to filter it, get muslin sheet and filter it through into a fresh bottle to get all the ginger and yeast gunk out.

It's drinkable straight away and remains fizzy as little bits of yeast still remain..drink within a week or it'll keep breweing and taste like vodka. I think it's about 4% when complete too.



If you do it, let me know what you think!

 

[Kepis]

magic thanks, will let you know how we get on

 

[Samon]

no worries mate, I hope you like it. it's the easiest fasted and most satisfying brew I've made. brewed loads of stuff in the past and this one is by far the winner!

 

[Nova & Pinky]

Mmm love elderflower... Looks amazing!

 

[garethw]

Sorry mate, Official complaint here: You can't call it Champagne....
I live in the Champagne region and if it isn't grown, produced and made here by the traditional method .. it can't be called champagne..;-)

BUT I bet it tastes great... so you'll have to send us some here to France to compare.. LOL!
Cheers
Gareth

 

[Kepis]

Ah well, guess you will have to write to Mrs Beaton - lol, oh yes we pronounce it "sham-pag-knee" -lol, none left to send over im afraid, well not for another ten days or so, starting another batch tomorrow

 

[Runestone]

Sorry to show my ignorance but how does it develop its fizz and remain non-alcoholic?

I've been hombrewing for about a year now and only really just begun to move away from the kits etc. Ive made two batches of mead which was lovely and a batch of nettle beer which went down the sink But I thought that the fizz came from fermentation after it was bottled...

Or is it just really, really, really low alcohol?

Chris

 

[Grendel]

I've tried home brewing with Cider kits and wine kits and most of the time it's only worth cooking with or tipping down the sink. The Ginger Beer and Elderflower recipes look fairly easy to do.

Could you use Dried Elderflowers from a brew shop to make it?

 

[Kepis]

Could you use Dried Elderflowers from a brew shop to make it?

Ya know that's something we are trying this very afternoon after we have bottled up the 8 litres we have on the go currently, we have never tried it and having an excess of flowers, we put them in the dehydrator with a view to trying to make the Champ-pag-knee with dried flowers, if it works, then im off out to get as many as i can before the flowering season is done.

TBH, i cant see why it wouldn't work?

 

[Stanleythecat]

Ya know that's something we are trying this very afternoon after we have bottled up the 8 litres we have on the go currently, we have never tried it and having an excess of flowers, we put them in the dehydrator with a view to trying to make the Champ-pag-knee with dried flowers, if it works, then im off out to get as many as i can before the flowering season is done.

TBH, i cant see why it wouldn't work?

Hi

Elder flower champagne is mildly alcoholic as it is the fermentation of the sugar and the natural yeasts from the flower heads that creates the bubbles... and probably why the water is allowed to cool before adding the flowers to the mix. Interestingly the alcohol is what ultimately kills off the yeast; the natural yeasts in the elder flowers are not very tolerant to high alcohol levels thus leaving you with a low alcohol drink.

Lovely stuff.

I used plastic mineral water bottles because they with stretch before they explode... last year I did a batch and another a week later, when I put one of the new bottles next to the previous batch it was about 3" shorter and 2" thinner than its week old counterpart!!!!!

 

[Partickpebbles]

We had some last year, great until we had an explosion!! Its the stickiest thing in the world! Tastes nice though!

 

[Samon]

I've tried home brewing with Cider kits and wine kits and most of the time it's only worth cooking with or tipping down the sink. The Ginger Beer and Elderflower recipes look fairly easy to do.

Could you use Dried Elderflowers from a brew shop to make it?

Dried flowers are fine, might have a different taste overall taste than fresh but the brewing shops sell them for a reason. I'm done with wine these days, waiting like 5 weeks for it to ferment then the maturing process is just too long for me. Beers and other sparkling beer strength brews are my favourite.


Anyone make rice wine? (not sake) my dad used to brew loads of it and it brews really fast compared to normal wine and is drinkable shortly after the filtering process..I'll dig out the recipe for us all!

 

[Grendel]

Well just come back from brewing shop with 50g dried Elderflowers and champagne yeast due to the elderflowers being dried. Then got the rest of the ingredients so will attempt the Elderflower brew later today.

 

[British Red]

Sorry mate, Official complaint here: You can't call it Champagne....
I live in the Champagne region and if it isn't grown, produced and made here by the traditional method .. it can't be called champagne..;-)

I beg to differ...it can't be sold as Champagne.

We can call it whatever we like though

 

[Nonsuch]

Our elderflowers aren't out yet - nowhere near!