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Elderflower Wine

Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 11:16 pm
by Tomr
Hi all,
For the first time this year I've decided to have a go at making some elderflower wine. It seemed a shame to waste the hundreds of flowers I cycle past every day.

I am following the recipe from this site and may have hit a little snag. I just want to check it with someone who’s done this before.

I roughly tripled the ingredients to use up all the flower heads I had.
I put my flowers (with as much of the stems trimmed off as possible) into the bottom of a brewing bucket along with the lemon and tipped over the requisite amount of boiling water. The lid is sat loosely on the top and its now been sitting for coming up to 48hrs.
The thing that concerns me slightly is that it’s turned an impressive dark green to the point that it looks black when I peer in to my bucket containing about 2 gallons of the stuff. Is this cause for concern?

I have successfully made some Elderflower Cordial following a recipe I found on the UKTV Food website. I bottled that today and its glorious stuff but at no point did it go even remotly green!

Thanks in advance
Tom

Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:55 am
by red
have to say - that doesn't sound right. I am making elderflower wine.. my own recipe - and its the same colour as elderflower champagne.. ie creamy

be interesting to see if anyone who followed this actuall recipe has a green brew...

Update

Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 4:37 pm
by Tomr
It's starting to clear a little now. Its more brown than anything! I might press ahead and see what happens.

Update

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:52 pm
by Tomr
Right, a quick update.
I am still a little concerned about it but I'm pressing on.
The colour and smell was very off putting (the smell was rotting vegetation.) But I strained the lot and added the sugar and yeast.

After I had got rid of the remnants of the elderflowers the smell improved and now that it’s been fermenting for about a week the colour has changed completely. It’s now a golden colour. The smell is VERY alcoholic so I’m wondering just how strong this is going to be! Photos below.

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