Elderflower Vomit

[Emdiesse]

Hi,

I decided, this year, to give brewing some elderflower champagne a go.
I picked a load of elderflowers
Sterilised the bucket and everything going in it (except the flowers. I gave them a wash)
Chucked the flowers in a makeshift fabric bag thing
Added sugar to warm water and added the flowers (in their bag)
Sat the whole lot on a heat mat in the garage...
It's covered with some cloth and elastic holding the cloth in place and remains that way.

Nothing happened for a few days...

I got a few white specs of mould and 1 or two green specs of mould (Didn't sound right). I hooked them out to the best of my ability

Chucked in some packet yeast

Now it's gone mad, I can hear it fizzing, I guess it's fermenting.... but is it supposed to look all scummy?

 

[resnikov]

Cannot comment on Elderflower but my homebrew beer looks a but like that during the brewing process.

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Toddy]

Oooh, that looks awfully dark
I don't bother washing the flowers, I just pour boiling water over them.
That might have darkened them though; if I get the drying wrong the flowers do go brown, if I get it right they stay pale.
They taste pretty much the same though.

Ah, see how it turns out, it might be very good
It does froth with some vim and vigour though, almost writhes.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Emdiesse]

Interesting, so the little specs of mould it started to accumulate before I added more yeast are not too much of a concern?

It looked much darker than what I expected it to be as well. It was this colour when I first started squeezing the flowers in their bags...

I can't help but feel I may have gone slightly wrong because I sterilised everything, literally everything.... except the flowers. I tried to make sure I had every critter off, and gave them a brief wash in water because I heard from River Cottage that they have a natural yeast so should start brewing on their own (When they didn't I added some yeast) so I didn't want to kill of the natural yeast, perhaps I should have!

I guess if it tastes good then it probably will no me no harm... in moderation

Either way, it's an interesting experiment!

Out of interest... how do I know when the brewing process is complete?

Where do I go from here?

Thank you for the replies

 

[Silverhill]

Just out I interest, what yeast did you use? It looks a lot like bread yeast sitting on the surface bubbling away.

I tend to use a packet of Gervins No.3 yeast or a number 6 (Gervins again) for a far stronger brew. I'd have a little sup of yours and see how it tastes, if it's good I'd filter it through some muslin or a sterilised linen cloth, add a sugar to your desired sweetness and bottle it up.

I usually add a 'charge' of sugar before bottling to counteract any bitterness and also to allow the booze to go a little further because my wife likes to mix it with lemonade I'm not saying its the right way to do it, but it works with me.

I'm on my second batch now, and the general consensus was very positive when I shared it around the campfire last week.

 

[boatman]

For what we called elderflower champagne we didn't use yeast just sugar and lemons plus the flowers. It did not froth in the bucket but built up fizz after straining and bottling, after a week in the bucket. Make sure those bottle are strong or they will burst. We once had a bottle stopper and neck blow off and shoot clean through a thick glass jug. Delicious drink but don't know the alcohol strength.

 

[spandit]

If you had a hygrometer you can measure the SG of the liquid. Once it stops changing you know the brewing is complete (and there is a formula for working out the ABV). As mentioned, you can charge the bottles beforehand but either use plastic fizzy drink bottles or proper beer bottles that can handle the pressure

 

[Bighund]

Yeah that looks very similar to a home brew (haven't done one in a few years though)

 

[Mafro]

Looks very dark to me. Does it smell good? It should smell lovely!

 

[Emdiesse]

I was giving some 'Youngs Champagne Yeast' so I used that

So I have about 12 litres of the stuff since I figured there was no point doing only half measures
In that 12 Litres I chucked 2KG sugar! That would be around 750 g per 4.5 litres suggesting ~7 - 8% ABV.
Although, I guess this could quite easily be wrong for many other factors, such as the flowers maybe having their own sugar content?

Any idea how long brewing could typically take?

Cheers for all the replies, i'll try out all the advice ... It doesn smell nice... but a bit yeasty at the moment

I hope, when it's finished and I take my first sip I can still read BCUK!!!

 

[Silverhill]

Mines usually bottled 10-14 days from the day I made it. Yeast is normally added after three days if the natural yeasts don't get to work, which is nearly always the case. Your quantities are the same as mine more or less, so 2kg of sugar normally gives a sweet, but not overpowering taste. Another kilo of sugar will probably make it more palatable.

 

[Emdiesse]

Mines usually bottled 10-14 days from the day I made it. Yeast is normall added after three days if the natural yeasts don't get to work, which is nearly always the case. Your quantities ate the same as mine more or less, so 2kg of sugar normally gives a sweet, but not overpowering taste. Another kilo of sugar will probably make it more palatable.

Glad to hear my 'slap bang wallop' approach matches the ratios of a successful brewer

Funnily enough, I added my yeast after around 3 days as well... but I was stingy and nothing happened for another 2 days except some mould growth... so I added more and then this happened in a day!

It's beginning to look a little more promising...



Maybe the darkness was the shadow from all the scum!

Are the specs of green and white mould that appeared before my next batch of yeast kicked it off anything to worry about? I don't want to poison anyone beyond the poisonous nature of alcohol itself!

 

[Kepis]

Still looks very very dark to me, the stuff we make here ends up looking like Lemon Barley Water, but tastes so much better in so many ways, we worked out the SG of one batch we made and it was around 5%.

Here's how we do ours http://kepisbushcraft.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/elder-flower-champagne-sambucus-nigra.html

 

[Emdiesse]

Still looks very very dark to me, the stuff we make here ends up looking like Lemon Barley Water, but tastes so much better in so many ways, we worked out the SG of one batch we made and it was around 5%.

Here's how we do ours http://kepisbushcraft.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/elder-flower-champagne-sambucus-nigra.html

Oh, I have just remembered... I followed a recipe from a Boots wine making book-ish crossed with River cottage so I also included a litre of white grape juice and a lemon... Perhaps that is what is making it dark!

tHanks for the link