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:yes: The whole house smells of socks as we speak :toast: I am popular with the Mrs!!

 

Edited to say did anyone else notice a shitload of greenfly larvae on the heads... or am i just unlucky?

 

Ooh dunno about the fly, you are supposed to give them a good shake though...

 

 

redfox Posted Yesterday, 09:25 PM

I intend making some but word of warning. Use plastic bottles. Its volatile stuff!

 

Whats the problem with glass then?... I just bought glass bottles and champagne cases and bungs!

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What I cant get over is how simple the cordial and champagne is to make...

For those that cant be botherd to google, here's the cordial recipe:

 

Ingredients

20 heads of elderflower

1.8kg granulated sugar, or caster sugar

1.2 litres water,

2 unwaxed Lemons,

75g citric acid

 

1. Shake the elderflowers to expel any lingering insects, and then place in a large bowl.

 

2. Put the sugar into a pan with the water and bring up to the boil, stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved.

 

3. While the sugar syrup is heating, pare the zest of the lemons off in wide strips and toss into the bowl with the elderflowers. Slice the lemons, discard the ends, and add the slices to the bowl. Pour over the boiling syrup, and then stir in the citric acid. Cover with a cloth and then leave at room temperature for 24 hours.

 

4. Next day, strain the cordial through a sieve lined with muslin (or a new j-cloth rinsed out in boiling water), and pour into thoroughly cleaned glass or plastic bottles. Screw on the lids and pop into the cupboard ready to use.

 

And here's the champagne:

 

Ingredients

About 24-30 elderflower heads, in full bloom

2kg sugar

4 litres hot water

Juice and zest of four lemons

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

A pinch of dried yeast (you may not need this)

Method: How to make elderflower champagne

1. Put the hot water and sugar into a large container (a spotlessly clean bucket is good) and stir until the sugar dissolves, then top up with cold water so you have 6 litres of liquid in total.

 

2. Add the lemon juice and zest, the vinegar and the flower heads and stir gently.

 

3. Cover with clean muslin and leave to ferment in a cool, airy place for a couple of days. Take a look at the brew at this point, and if it’s not becoming a little foamy and obviously beginning to ferment, add a pinch of yeast.

 

4. Leave the mixture to ferment, again covered with muslin, for a further four days. Strain the liquid through a sieve lined with muslin and decant into sterilised strong glass bottles with champagne stoppers (available from home-brewing suppliers) or Grolsch-style stoppers, or sterilised screw-top plastic bottles (a good deal of pressure can build up inside as the fermenting brew produces carbon dioxide, so strong bottles and seals are essential).

 

5. Seal and leave to ferment in the bottles for a further eight days before serving, chilled. The champagne should keep in the bottles for several months. Store in a cool, dry place.

 

The Citric acid for some reason was a nightmare to get hold of round this way, I must admit I fancy giving the champagne a go fairly soon :drink:....

 

Jasp

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can you use plastic bottles? would b a lot cheaper going to give it a go this year hundreds of trees round my way and have :wacko: a big 80 litre bin to make it in so hope its nice lol :cheers::drink:

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get your citric acid on ebay. cheap as .....well citric acid!

i think its used for those bath bomb things and its a nightmare to get from chemists as its apparantly used to cut certain drugs. wouldnt like snorting that!

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get your citric acid on ebay. cheap as .....well citric acid!

i think its used for those bath bomb things and its a nightmare to get from chemists as its apparantly used to cut certain drugs. wouldnt like snorting that!

 

Thanks for that!

You were saying about plastic bottles.... aren't glass ones stronger?

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going by reading on various sites plastic was safer as its pretty gassy stuff and I had to release the pressure on the bottles at least once a day.

If it is the right bottle and cage tops then maybe that would be ok but I wasnt sure my glass bottles with the stoppers were up to the task so played safe.

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.... going to have a crack at champagne this year, and cant wait!!!!

Anyone else giving it a go?

 

We're planning to - but no sign of the elderflowers yet :( My partner got his hopes up then realised that it was the hawthorn then the rowan blossom :icon_redface:

 

Any good recipes?

I made this recipe last year and it was crackin good!!

4 flower heads in full bloom

650g of caster sugar

1 gallon of water

1 lemon

4 tablespoons of distilled vinegar

 

Dissolve the sugar in a little of the water.

Put flower heads into suitable container

Add vinegar

Cut the lemon rind off try to avoid the white pith (easiest way is to use a veg peeler) and add to container

Juice lemon and add

Add the water and stir in the Dissolved sugar

cover with cling film and leave for 4 days

After 4 days bottle into plastic bottles

Leave for another 6 days at least and enjoy!! Easy as that! Nice too!!!

RE green fly problem I had the same trouble absolutely covered in them!

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I hate to bring this interesting topic down to my level..... but........ how alcoholic is the champagne ? :alcoholic:

 

No idea mate but I know mine is trying to blow the tops off the bottles :D. there's plenty of fizz in the stuff............

 

Jasper

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I hate to bring this interesting topic down to my level..... but........ how alcoholic is the champagne ? :alcoholic:

 

I read on one of the forums that it was about 4% but some people said it got them really drunk.

You get testing kits from wine shops I think.

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Had a go at making elderflower cordial this year (as per HFW recipe), i make my own sloe gin every year so thought what the hell, thought i might have left picking the elderflowers till a bit late on in June as some were starting to go a bit brown but i picked the freshess looking ones. After cooking up what i thought looked like the colour of warm pi$$ i left it to cool and sampled some when it had been in the fridge over night, OMG, how come after all these years ive never made any of this incredible tasting cordial is beyond me, all the years of buying it from supermarkets wasted, will definately be making more than my 2 ltr batch next year.

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the mrs made a load of strawberry jam on saturday, she did half the batch with elderflower in :yes:

 

very very nice :thumbs:

Sounds lovely mate, I haven't had home made jam since I was a kid.. :(

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