I'm newish to this but every year I make some Elderflower Champagne. This year it has gone slightly wrong there appears to be excessive sediment and everytime I release the pressure it is all stirred up. i don't ever remember this happening before. Should I restrain it and if I do will it lose it's fizz.
TIA
In message , Phil Read writes
I make it every year too; always did have a lot of sediment in (i.e. maybe 1/2 to 1 inch at the bottom of a 2-pint screw-topped bottle). But I never really noticed that it makes much difference in terms of the flavour, until the stuff has been bottled a very long time, when it begins to get a bit rank and yeasty.
IMO, it probably won't do much harm, particularly if it's done gently; the fermentation that carbonates it is (presumably) still going on to some extent, and straining won't remove the active yeast cells. That said, if the sediment isn't causing a problem, why take the risk? Perhaps you could compromise by straining as you're serving from the bottle?
cheers, robin
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