Anticipation .... Again, Elderflower Recipe

So I've got elderflower fever, getting weather forecast updates regularly, sniffing elderflowers and recording their locations at every opportunity, counting days etc. finally took the plunge and trusted the forecast would give a few hours of good continuous sunshine sometime over the weekend.

All of which means I started a base brew for 4 gallons of elderflower wine. Details below

Recipe (for 4 gallons)

4 Litres Apple Juice
4 Litres White grape Juice
Sugar Solution to 4 Gallons
4 Teaspoons Tartaric Acid
4 Teaspoons Pectolase
Yeast Nutrient
Yeast: Gervin D, white label, Germanic

OG was 1078 @ 25.5 degrees C (2.5kg sugar)

Method

Stick everything in a fermenting bin, stir to dissolve, pitch yeast, cover, simple!
In a few days I'll collect the flowers, and a day later I'll get it going properly when I transfer the base brew to the secondary fermenter, add elderflowers in a muslin bag, fit an airlock, wait a month +, rack, bottle and enjoy. I'm hoping for crisp, dry, bouquet loaded elderflower wine uniqueness.

Notes and Thoughts

This won't be the only Elderflower wine I'll make this year. I'll also be making a repeat of last years wine. Adding flowers at the start of the ferment, using grape juice (or concentrate only), citric acid not tartaric and sauternes yeast. It needs longer, uses way more flowers, but it ain't broke so at this point I'm not trying to fix it, just trying something different - very different - alongside.

Results

Only 9 weeks later and I'm drinking it. FG is 995 so ABV comes in around 11.5%. Light, delicate, bit fruity, bit of elderflower flavour. Absolutely ready to drink, nothing wrong with it but it's main purpose is be something yummy to drink while the good stuff ages. And with 5 gallons of it I reckon it'll fulfill it's purpose.