Finally It's Elderflower Wine Brewing.

Today the brew I got going last week finally became Elderflower; having collected the flowers, bagged them and left them overnight.

I shook the bag for a few minutes and most of the petals dropped off. The picture is a kind of before and after shot. The spray on the right is fairly typical of what you can expect. Most sprays are stripped of their flowers but a few hang on. Probably 'cos they only just opened or perhaps hadn't opened at all. That's ok tho because those ones don't have the great scent that we want.

Next I put 2 litres of the flowers into a nylon net bag and tied it up. There were 5 litres of flowers all together but 2 litres is enough for this brew. In fact I probably don't need as much as 2 litres but I don't want a subtle elderflower flavour ... I want plenty!

Then I greased up the lid, o-ring and bung on the airlock (just be be sure) for my new 5 gallon fermenting bin and threw in the bagged flowers. Then transferred the 4 gallons of base brew from my primary bin into the new one. This is important cos the new one has a cap and airlock which means it'll keep the air out. I then Added another litre of white grape juice, and another litre of apple juice, 600 grams of sugar and made the volume up to 5 gallons with water. All these additions were made to match the original gravity of the brew (to save on doing the maths). Then screwed the lid on and shortly after heard the welcome sounds of bubbles coming through the airlock.

Hoefully we'll be drinking this brew in about 6 weeks, maybe less.