My first batch..elderflowers??

You could have put them in a sterilised nylon jelly bag and weighted with a sterilised stone :)... other recipes suggest just using the water that the flowers have been steeped in. I've never tried it myself, because I prefer the berries.

..but I'm sure it will be fine - my first ever batch was elderberry - I hadn't a clue what I was doing; downloaded a recpe from the net and charged in. It was quite beautiful! (And, in flavour etc. equivalent to wines sosting UKP 15 per bottle).

Good luck!!!

Just stir daily. Eventually the petals will become waterlogged and sink. Also, as the yeast turns the sugar you added into alcohol, the liquid will become lighter and the wet petals will sink. I figure the yeast will eventually break up the petals as time goes on -- I noticed that after 'bout 5 days, even raisins soften to a sludge, what chance to flower petals have?

I usually pour hot, not boiling, water over the flowers. I also find that the action of the yeast raised them to the surface in a crusty cap. Now I use a mesh bag to contain them, makes racking to secondary easier.

You're > I just finished my first batch..it called for sprinkling the

Now, I've been looking for an elderflower expert. A friend recommended a recipe for 'elderflower champagne' as follows:

steep flowers in sugar water for 24 hours, bottle and ferment for 14 days (I used one plastic pop bottle in order to monitor the gas pressure). Fermentation is supposed to rely on wild yeast and is supposed to produce a sweet, sparkling, aromatic beverage after 2 weeks.

After 2 weeks it was still impotably sweet and only slightly gassed, despite plenty of visible yeast flocculate. Experimentally, I have decanted a gallon into a demijohn and added some yeast nutrient. There is some airlock activity, but very slow. Is it likely that I can rescue this by e.g. pitching a wine yeast, or should I just leave it be for a month? or chuck it away?

In message , Sam Wigand writes

Personally I'd be tempted to start again - though I appreciate it's a big investment ;). Rather than a plastic pop bottle, you really need strong glass bottles with a screw top. Grolsch lager bottles might do at a push, I imagine. There's an obvious caveat about getting strong enough bottles to withstand the (possibly considerable) build-up of pressure when it does go right. And make sure you take the tops off outside, with a handy jug to pour it off into. Voice of experience...

The demi-john with airlock might ferment OK, but it won't carbonate the champagne to any great degree. Nearly 8 pounds of sugar to 3 gallons is quite a lot for this recipe (IMHO); if the wild yeast isn't very alcohol tolerant, you might end up with a weakly-alcoholic sugar syrup and an awful lot of dead yeast.

I've often found that the first batch of the year doesn't go well, so it might be that the wild yeasts don't develop fully till a little later in the season. Doing anything with wild yeast is always going to be hit or miss; I've just thrown out my first batch and started a second, because the first grew a raft of green mould right across the top within days. If you want to try a slightly different recipe, here's the one I use:

Sterilise the bucket before you start. Dissolve the sugar in the boiling water, pour in the rest of the cold water. Half and squeeze the lemon, throw in juice and peel, and the wine vinegar. Add the elderflower, stir it well. Cover the bucket with a tea towel, and leave it for 4 days or so. If you're keen stir it daily, otherwise don't bother. After 4 days, strain it through 2 layers of muslin and bottle it. Leave it for another few days before trying the caps to see if it's fizzy yet. It may take a week, may take more. The initial SG will be about 1040, so if it fermented to dryness you could get around 5% alcohol - although it's rather pleasanter before it gets dry.

I can't stress how important it is to use *strong* glass bottles...

cheers, robin

Just to clarify, the bulk of the must is indeed in 1.5 litre Grolsch bottles. I only used one 500ml plastic bottle, because one can monitor gas pressure without opening the cap by squeezing it.

I have abandoned hope of a sparkling brew. I am simply hoping to salvage something drier and vaguely drinkable. I may try bottling it before the end of fermentation to get some degree of spritz, if possible.

Thanks for your help.