Elderflower Quickie 2013. Recipe etc.

After returning from our travels it took me time to start brewing. Yet again I missed the small window of opportunity for having my first crack at Silver Birch wine. A wine I have wanted to make since first reading a homebrew book. And yet again I didn't make dandelion wine. Worse still I didn't even make a quickie wine. So, when Elderflower season approached, and the year was into middle age, there was only one thing to do. Commit to my biggest Elderflower wine brewing ever. The plan is 20 gallons, in four different 5 gallon batches, this is the first batch. It should set me on course for making 50 gallons this year.

Elderflower Quickie. Grape juice only.

Recipe (5 gallons)

10 Litres White Grape Juice (Rio D'Oro)
3 Kg Sugar
5 Teaspoons Pectolase
3 Teaspoons Tartaric Acid
3 Teaspoons Citric Acid
3 Teaspoons Yeast Nutrient (Tronozymol)
3 Camden Tablets (crushed)
Water to 5 gallons.
Yeast, Gervin 5 (GV5).
2 carrier bags, loosely packed elderflower sprays.

OG 1077

Method

As per usual really. Got all my kit sterilised and rinsed, especially important after a long break. After that i dissolved the sugar in water as it boiled. Added that to the fermenting bin, put the lid on, and let the heat and steam ensure the sterilisation was full and complete. Then added all the other ingredients starting with grape juice, then water, then the dry stuff excepting the yeast and flowers.

Ha! Gratuitous piccie time!

I gave the whole lot a long stir to ensure it was well mixed. This is important because there is a chance that the super dense and sweet sugary solution will sit at the bottom of the fermenting bin if it's not done. You can't get an accurate OG reading when that happens. (Also, if yeast was added to a layered brew then it probably wouldn't be able to do anything with that sweet dense layer). Then I measured the gravity, and then put the lid on. I waited with adding the yeast because of adding crushed campden tablets. Just ensures that any wild yeasts will not get going on my delicious nutritious broth.

Next day the must got a long session with an egg whisk, this is to put plenty of dissolved oxygen into the must. (It will also drive off some of the sulphites from the Campden tablets). Yeast needs oxygen this to bud (reproduce) and so form a healthy sized colony for a timely brew. Then I pitched the yeast and covered.

For 4 days, once a day, I stirred the must with a whisk for the same reason given above. On day 5 the sun came out so off I went to collect Elderflowers. It's still a little early for them so I had to cycle about 10 miles to gather enough. I then put them in a large plastic bag, tied it up, and left them overnight. Next day shook the bag for about 10 minutes (in advert breaks during a good movie!). Most of the flowers dropped off the sprays, the loose flowers were put into a muslin bag. The rest (about 1/4 - 1/3 of the total) were put back into the plastic bag for another night.

The must (Gravity 1030) was transferred to secondary fermentation - under airlock - by a combination of siphoning initially, and then decanting when the fermenting bin was light enough to handle with ease. The decanting was done with extra care because I want to keep the lees for starting the next brew.

The flowers in the muslin bag were then added to the secondary container, and the airlock fitted. Next day the flowers in the plastic bag were shaken off their sprays, put into a muslin bag, and added to the must in the secondary fermentation container.

From here on it will be the usual routine, racking to demi-johns in a few days, stabilising if required, degassing if preferred, racking after clearing.

Discussion

The bagging and shaking of elderflowers will save you a massive amount of time and tedium with a fork. It's the best wine tip I've learned in the last couple of years, but we do like Elderflower wine!

Adding the flowers at the secondary fermentation stage means you need less flowers, for 2 reasons. First the fermentation has quietened down, when it's vigorous then lots of the delicate volatile flavours from the elderflowers get blown out of solution. At secondary stage this happens significantly less, so you get more of those yummy favours in your wine. Also, at secondary stage you have an alcoholic brew. It's about 5% or so, but nevertheless the alcohol adds to the flavour extraction. It will dissolve some things better than water alone. Oily type molecules especially, which also taste good.

There's nothing special about the unusual brand of sugar used. Usually I buy Silver spoon because it's made more or less locally. It seems madness to me to buy sugar that has come thousands of miles when, for the same price, you can get something local. One day the cost of fuel for moving such commodities so far will make it economic insanity, so supporting something local will help to ensure it's still available when those times come. Uh oh ... I got a bit "politically eco" then didn't I! This packaging didn't say anything about country of origin, neither did it say if the source was cane or beet. So there's a good chance that I shot myself in my eco foot. But it was the only sugar in the store.

clicky here for a comparison of this year's elderflower wines, all 4 of them.