elder flower wine

[quiltertoo]

Last year my elderberry bushes were loaded with berries but before they were ripe enough to pick the birds stripped the berries. No berries left for wine making. I thought I might try making some elder flower wine this year instead of feeding the birds. Has anyone made this wine? Will it have a good flavor or will I want to fill the bird bath with it?

Mary Lou

 

[cmason1957]

I have never made it, but I have tasted the elderflower juice that you can buy at IKEA. Very floral tasting, light flavor that I think might be easily overwhelmed, so Abv should be kept lower. I am making this for the first time this year, also.

 

[AkTom]

Would netting your bushes be worth the trouble?

 

[danr]

Made some years ago.Was very good and that was before I knew anything(Ph,tannin,sulfites,etc)

 

[salcoco]

winemaking.jackkeller.net I believe has a elderflower recipe

 

[BernardSmith]

I make elderflower wine every year - several times a year. It's our favorite wine but I use dried flowers. One oz of dried flowers to a gallon of water. I prefer using table sugar as the fermentable but making a mead with honey works too. - If you want to go that route you might consider orange blossom honey. An ABV of about 12% is good (SG of about 1.090). You may want to add some acidity before bottling and you may prefer to back sweeten this with about 4 oz of sugar /gallon.
The thing is that not all flowers make a good tasting elderflower wine. There is a variety which is supposed to smell like cat piss.

 

[quiltertoo]

Would netting your bushes be worth the trouble?

I plan to net some of them. I already have 10 blueberry bushes under netting but there are always some birds that figure out how to get in. I also have 12 blackberry bushes that need protection and haven't harvested a cherry from my cherry trees in years. But every year I have high hopes for a different outcome.

Mary Lou

 

[quiltertoo]

The thing is that not all flowers make a good tasting elderflower wine. There is a variety which is supposed to smell like cat piss.

Do you dry your own flowers or buy them? I'm thinking I should only make 1 or 2 gallons until I know how it tastes.

Mary Lou

 

[BernardSmith]

Don't have easy access to elderflower trees and have not had any success in growing them myself so at this time I buy dried florets from my LHBS. Not sure the company that bags them but they are generally available here (upstate NY) because presumably they are used as an additive by brewers (?).

I generally make my elderflower wine or mead in one gallon batches although given how much we like this wine I should make a 3 or 5 gallon batch... but the idea of 30 bottles of one variety of wine doesn't sit so well with me. Would much better prefer to make the same wine a half dozen times than to imagine that I am making wine for the entire community...