Selfsufficientish.com

Hi, helpful peps.
As You may recall I was out until the dead of night gathering Elderflower heads .
The agreement was I would make cordial and others would make champagne ( a good old exchange) however I am beginning to doubt that their part of the bargain will be fulfilled.
My cordial is ready to bottle/ freeze. My question is can I turn my cordial into champagne if the deals go belly up?
thanks in advance.

You certainly can. As you've made the cordial yourself, you know exactly how many elderflowers and how much sugar went into it. All you need to do, then, is get your calculator out and work through a champagne recipe to find out how much water/more sugar/whatever you need. Then chuck some yeast in (heavy advice!!!).

Mike

thanks Mike. I really felt confident that I could but now I am a bit stuck. I used this recipe.
Elderflower cordial

Ingredients

20 elderflower heads
1 sliced lemon
2 tsp of citric acid (ask at your chemist)
1.5 kg (3.5 lbs) of sugar
1.2 ltr (2.5 pints) boiling water
Method

Boil a kettle for the water.

Fill a bowl or small bucket with all the other ingredients.

Pour the water over the other ingredients and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Skin the surface of the water to get rid of the scum that can arise. Cover with a cloth (mine has a pillow case over it).

Stir twice a day for five days.

Strain though a fine sieve though a fine sieve or through muslin cloth and decant into sterile screw topped bottles. Refrigerate.
I currently have a bucket with a little over 10 litres ready to be bottled as cordial.

How do I turn it into champagne? thanks. I have a few spare demi johns. should I pit say a pint of the base cordial in fill it to the neck with warm water and add a teaspoon of yeast. Leave it for a couple (6) days then bottle it?

I need a little bit more information. You give the recipe, which mentions only 1.2 litres of water, but then you say you have 10 litres of the stuff. Did you use the recipe as written and then top up to the ten litre mark, or did you multiply the recipe to get the 10 litres?

Mike

Yes sorry Mike I was not clear ?
I picked 100 heads put in 7 1/2 kg sugar etc. so the mix is full strength according to that ratio.

I'm on it. Now where did I put my calculator?

Mike

My spreadsheet* suggests diluting 4:1 with water has a potential 12% fermented out, or 3.5:1 for around 14%, or 1:2:3 EFC:WGJ:water for something between. But probably needs something for body. There's a lot of sugar in the cordial to dilute.

*built for TC, check it's predictions against Mikes calculations!

Sorry I didn't give you this last night - there was a strange redirect when trying to connect. Anyway, here goes ...

It isn't perfect, as the ratios of sugar to acid to flowers won't allow that without MASSIVE dilution (in which case you may as well just have started from scratch). I've used Andy's champagne recipe as a target. The end product is a bit heavy on the flower side, but as it's also heavy on the acid side that should cancel out. If you can accept that, it all becomes pretty simple. You'll end up with a maximum of 5% ABV.

So, for each LITRE of cordial, add a tablespoon of mild white wine vinegar and then make up to 7 litres with tepid water. That's it for adjustments. Now we come to decision time - to yeast or not to yeast. You can then leave it in a covered bucket in the hope that a wild fermentation will begin (that's the traditional way) or you can introduce your own yeast. If you decide to add yeast, then you have another decision - how much. A wild fermentation would start with only a few yeast cells getting in. If you want to imitate that as much as possible, then add a pinch of yeast. If you want to be doubly sure, add a level teaspoon - but be aware that this will soon turn into a lot and WILL make your champagne cloudy.

I'll finish this with Andy's words (so he'll be the one to get sued ).

"Cover with a cloth and leave for between one and four days, until it looks like it's starting to bubble a bit. Strain through a muslin/cheesecloth into swing-top bottles and drink after about two weeks.

Caution: Elderflower champagne can be very volatile so shouldn't be stored in thin glass bottles. It should also not be stored in any place in which it can do damage. It is advisable to keep the bottles cool before opening."

So - VERY IMPORTANT - make sure that your bottles will take the pressure. Swing-top beer bottles, proper champagne bottles or PET bottles are suitable. NOTHING else is. Making elderflower champagne means that you are tightly capping an actively fermenting liquid - you have been warned.

Mike

GeorgeSalt wrote:My spreadsheet* suggests diluting 4:1 with water has a potential 12% fermented out, or 3.5:1 for around 14%, or 1:2:3 EFC:WGJ:water for something between. But probably needs something for body. There's a lot of sugar in the cordial to dilute.

*built for TC, check it's predictions against Mikes calculations!

That would work if you were making elderflower wine, George, which is still rather than effervescent - but you wouldn't want to cap that unless you like elderflower-stained ceilings. You can make champagne-style wines of that strength, but it takes an awful lot of messing around and, if you don't get it dead right you end up with a still wine anyway. The idea is to force the carbon dioxide into solution under pressure - hence the bubbles when you open the bottle and release that pressure. To do that with any degree of safety, it's a good idea to restrict the amount of sugar in the hope that fermentation will stop before the explosion point of the bottles is reached.

Mike

Phew thanks Mike. Just off to work . Will study your instructions carefully x

MKG wrote:

GeorgeSalt wrote:My spreadsheet* suggests diluting 4:1 with water has a potential 12% fermented out, or 3.5:1 for around 14%, or 1:2:3 EFC:WGJ:water for something between. But probably needs something for body. There's a lot of sugar in the cordial to dilute.

*built for TC, check it's predictions against Mikes calculations!

That would work if you were making elderflower wine, George, which is still rather than effervescent - but you wouldn't want to cap that unless you like elderflower-stained ceilings. You can make champagne-style wines of that strength, but it takes an awful lot of messing around and, if you don't get it dead right you end up with a still wine anyway. The idea is to force the carbon dioxide into solution under pressure - hence the bubbles when you open the bottle and release that pressure. To do that with any degree of safety, it's a good idea to restrict the amount of sugar in the hope that fermentation will stop before the explosion point of the bottles is reached.

Mike

Ah yes.. my mistake.. I was trying to avoid too much dilution

What ever you do dont do what I did - 3 years running- and use baking yeast instead of champagne or brewers yeast if you need to give it a kick. I could never understand for the 3 years why my bottles all exploded whever I put them.Now my husband has banned me from making more!!! However I have now learnt from my mistakes and the elderflower is in flower.......