On Mon, 16 Jun 2003 19:46:50 +0100, Alan Gould
wrote:

bottling it
to keep for 12 months.

But Oh! beware the bottles exploding.
Here speaks the voice of experience!!!

Pam in Bristol

Andy Spragg wrote:
Just like the secret of good elderberry wine is to make sure no stalky
bits get into the pulp. Whether it would guarantee it for 20 years, I
cannot say, I'm lucky if mine lasts 20 months ...

Another secret I read somewhere was the put the elderberries in a large
bucket full of water, and the unripe ones will float to the top. That's
about all I remember about elderberry wine making


--charles

On Tue, 17 Jun 2003 19:19:58 +0100, Alan Gould
wrote:

I believe there is a
commercial preparation manufactured under the title of Elderflower
Lemonade or similar.

The Bottle Green Company's Elderflower Cordial is delicious. Almost
as good as the real thing! They also do Elderflower Presse which is
fizzy.
http://www.bottlegreen.co.uk/

Pam in Bristol

In article , Pam Moore
writes
On Mon, 16 Jun 2003 19:46:50 +0100, Alan Gould
wrote:

bottling it
to keep for 12 months.

But Oh! beware the bottles exploding.
Here speaks the voice of experience!!!

Elderflower 'champagne' is very fizzy and it can burst bottles, but that
is usually only kept for a few weeks as a summer drink. Elderflower wine
is a still wine made in quite a different way and it needs 12 months to
reach full maturity. In practice we often open a bottle or two for Xmas.

The elderflower 'melomel' I make mainly for Joan is basically a white
flower wine using some honey instead of sugar. Joan only likes very
sweet wines, so I have developed a way of making it to be as sweet as it
can be while still finishing out crystal clear. I use approx. 1 lb.
sugar, 2lbs. honey and a can of white grape juice concentrate to each
gallon, along with elderflower heads and rose petals. If I need to fine
it, I use banana mush as the flavour is compatible with the wine.

True Melomel is a scented mead. When the Druids made it, they would use
no sugar or grape juice, just pure flower honey. They also used no
yeast, but fermented the brew with the same flowers that made the honey.
Traditional honey wines like mead, melomel, oenomel, metheglin etc. can
take up to three years to finish fermenting, then another 3 to mature.
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

On Tue, 17 Jun 2003 17:47:42 +0100, Roy Bailey
wrote:

Thanks to everyone for the links.

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques43.asp was the best with two
recipes; one of which appeared similar to my lost one. Alan's was a
little more complicated than I required.

http://www.hopshopuk.com/recipes/elderflower.html also looked a good
one, but I rejected http://www.dbutler22.freeserve.co.uk/winemak2.htm
because it used bakers' yeast.

Never!

You can always replace bakers' yeast with just about any yeast for wine-
making. Try a visit to your local Boots. Maybe you can find a champagn-type
yeast there which should give good results.

On Wed, 18 Jun 2003, Tim wrote:

You can always replace bakers' yeast with just about any yeast for
wine- making. Try a visit to your local Boots. Maybe you can find a
champagn-type yeast there which should give good results.

Boots are phasing out their wine-making supplies. The Reading branch
stopped some time ago. A search on the web should come up with suppliers
but it may need to be ordered by post.

There's a place in Reading which distributes various wine yeasts: Gervin
Supplies, 61 Church Road, Woodley, Reading, RG5 4 PT. Telephone:
0118-969518. I've used these for a few years now and they're quite good.

--
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| Internet: | writing from |
| Fidonet: David Rance 2:252/110 | Caversham, |
| BBS: telnet://mesnil.demon.co.uk | Reading, UK |
+-------------------------------------------------------+

On Wed, 18 Jun 2003 09:04:21 +0100, David Rance
wrote:

On Wed, 18 Jun 2003, Tim wrote:

You can always replace bakers' yeast with just about any yeast for wine-
making. Try a visit to your local Boots. Maybe you can find a champagn-
type yeast there which should give good results.

Boots are phasing out their wine-making supplies. The Reading branch
stopped some time ago. A search on the web should come up with suppliers
but it may need to be ordered by post.

There's a place in Reading which distributes various wine yeasts: Gervin
Supplies, 61 Church Road, Woodley, Reading, RG5 4 PT. Telephone: 0118-
969518. I've used these for a few years now and they're quite good.


Ah, well, I haven't been home for a while. The Reading branch had a really
good wine and beermaking department some years ago. Is that Church Road in
Woodley over by the Chequers? I used to live around there when I was a
nipper.
Tim.

On Wed, 18 Jun 2003, Tim wrote:

There's a place in Reading which distributes various wine yeasts:
Gervin Supplies, 61 Church Road, Woodley, Reading, RG5 4 PT.
Telephone: 0118- 969518. I've used these for a few years now and
they're quite good.

Ah, well, I haven't been home for a while. The Reading branch had a
really good wine and beermaking department some years ago.

Yes, it did, but it has gradually wound down its stock over a few years
and I think it was last year when it had stopped completely. Pity,

Is that Church Road in Woodley over by the Chequers? I used to live
around there when I was a nipper.

I don't know, not being a frequenter of public houses (they don't like
you bringing your own alcohol!). But the address of Gervin Supplies is a
private house so I think they are just distributors. I actually bought
my yeast from the Hop Inn along the Erleigh Road.

--
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| Internet: | writing from |
| Fidonet: David Rance 2:252/110 | Caversham, |
| BBS: telnet://mesnil.demon.co.uk | Reading, UK |
+-------------------------------------------------------+

In article , David Rance david.ran
writes
On Wed, 18 Jun 2003, Tim wrote:

You can always replace bakers' yeast with just about any yeast for
wine- making.
I know that! But a wine or beer recipe that recommends bakers' yeast has
no credibility for me. Bakers' yeast is for making bread; brewers' yeast
for beer ...

Try a visit to your local Boots. Maybe you can find a
champagn-type yeast there which should give good results.

Boots are phasing out their wine-making supplies. The Reading branch
stopped some time ago. A search on the web should come up with suppliers
but it may need to be ordered by post.

There's a place in Reading which distributes various wine yeasts: Gervin
Supplies, 61 Church Road, Woodley, Reading, RG5 4 PT. Telephone:
0118-969518. I've used these for a few years now and they're quite good.

This is what I am using.

David, you might be interested to know that Peter Corderoy of Blewbury
still does some winemaking and brewing stuff, and that there are good
homebrew shops in Farnborough and Andover. The Brupaks web site
www.brupaks.com lists them.
--
Roy Bailey
West Berkshire.

On Tue, 17 Jun 2003 15:49:36 -0400, Charles
wrote:

Andy Spragg wrote:
Just like the secret of good elderberry wine is to make sure no stalky
bits get into the pulp. Whether it would guarantee it for 20 years, I
cannot say, I'm lucky if mine lasts 20 months ...

Another secret I read somewhere was the put the elderberries in a large
bucket full of water, and the unripe ones will float to the top. That's
about all I remember about elderberry wine making


--charles

The only one I remember is how my mate nearly died after consuming a
bottle and then impaling himself on a picket fence!!!!

Tim wrote in message news:oprqwslnwnwxhha1@localhost...
The one our family has always used is:

2 heads of elderflowers, juice and thinly-pared rind of 1 lemon, 24
oz sugar, 2 tablespoons vinegar, 1 gallon of water. Leave well covered
for 24 hours, then strain into pop bottles. Leave for up to a
fortnight to build up fizz and clear.

We call it "Elderflower lemonade"; but note that it's quite strongly
alcoholic: a pound and a half of sugar in a gallon could in theory
give seven-and-a-half percent alcohol. Which is as strong as that
lethal cheap cider in blue bottles.

Theoretically, but it depends on the wild yeasts that have innoculated the
brew. Some don't produce much, if any alcohol.
[...]
A good point, Tim: I can't imagine that many of the wild yeasts could
survive that much alcohol. My feelings on the potency of the brew are
probably coloured by the "unaccountable" light-headedness my brother
and I used to experience after drinking a lot of it on hot days: I'm
worrying too much, and it shouldn't do any harm in sensible
quantities.

Mike.

On Wed, 18 Jun 2003 18:53:54 +0100, Roy Bailey
wrote:

In article , David Rance david.ran
writes
On Wed, 18 Jun 2003, Tim wrote:

You can always replace bakers' yeast with just about any yeast for
wine-making.
I know that! But a wine or beer recipe that recommends bakers' yeast has
no credibility for me. Bakers' yeast is for making bread; brewers' yeast
for beer ...

Sorry, didn't mean to be rude.
Maybe they see it as a practical replacement - I know that brewers' yeast
is difficult to get sometimes, and maybe because it doesn't produce alcohol
in any amount worth mentioning. But I know what you mean.
Tim

On 19 Jun 2003 08:47:43 -0700, Mike Lyle wrote:

Tim wrote in message
news:oprqwslnwnwxhha1@localhost...
The one our family has always used is:

2 heads of elderflowers, juice and thinly-pared rind of 1 lemon, 24
oz sugar, 2 tablespoons vinegar, 1 gallon of water. Leave well covered
for 24 hours, then strain into pop bottles. Leave for up to a
fortnight to build up fizz and clear.

We call it "Elderflower lemonade"; but note that it's quite strongly
alcoholic: a pound and a half of sugar in a gallon could in theory
give seven-and-a-half percent alcohol. Which is as strong as that
lethal cheap cider in blue bottles.

Theoretically, but it depends on the wild yeasts that have innoculated
the brew. Some don't produce much, if any alcohol.
[...]
A good point, Tim: I can't imagine that many of the wild yeasts could
survive that much alcohol. My feelings on the potency of the brew are
probably coloured by the "unaccountable" light-headedness my brother
and I used to experience after drinking a lot of it on hot days: I'm
worrying too much, and it shouldn't do any harm in sensible
quantities.

Mike.

That said, some minor German beers are still brewed with wild yeasts, and
the Austrian version of scrumpy("Most") is also, and that's a headbreaker
if you drink too much. :-) Cheers!
Tim.

In message oprq101mi5wxhha1@localhost, Tim
writes
On 19 Jun 2003 08:47:43 -0700, Mike Lyle wrote:

Tim wrote in message
news:oprqwslnwnwxhha1@localhost...
The one our family has always used is:

2 heads of elderflowers, juice and thinly-pared rind of 1 lemon, 24
oz sugar, 2 tablespoons vinegar, 1 gallon of water. Leave well covered
for 24 hours, then strain into pop bottles. Leave for up to a
fortnight to build up fizz and clear.

Theoretically, but it depends on the wild yeasts that have
innoculated the brew. Some don't produce much, if any alcohol.
[...]
A good point, Tim: I can't imagine that many of the wild yeasts could
survive that much alcohol. My feelings on the potency of the brew are
probably coloured by the "unaccountable" light-headedness my brother
and I used to experience after drinking a lot of it on hot days: I'm
worrying too much, and it shouldn't do any harm in sensible
quantities.

Mike.

That said, some minor German beers are still brewed with wild yeasts,
and the Austrian version of scrumpy("Most") is also, and that's a
headbreaker if you drink too much. :-) Cheers!
Tim.

Belgian geuze lambic beers are also fermented by wild yeasts and
typically about 4.5% alcohol. Most of them these days are hygienically
made in stainless steel tanks using wild yeast cultivars, but ISTR there
is still at least one authentic geuze brewery where the brew is left to
go its own way. St. Louis and Morte Subite are a couple of examples.

Many are heavily fruit (~25%) based so you get strawberry, raspberry and
peach flavoured beers - a very refreshing drink on a hot summers day.

Regards,
--
Martin Brown

Roy Bailey pushed briefly to the front of
the queue on Tue, 17 Jun 2003 17:47:42 +0100, and nailed this to the
shed door:

^ Thanks to everyone for the links.
^
^ http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques43.asp was the best with two
^ recipes; one of which appeared similar to my lost one. Alan's was a
^ little more complicated than I required.

Harrumph. I am vexed. Went out on Saturday evening to collect a couple
of bags of elderflowers, and then spent a couple of hours /trying/ to
"separate flowers from stalks". And it seems to me to be virtually
impossible. Particularly with the freshly-opened flowers, which a
colleague advised me to concentrate on because they are heavier on the
aromatics. What I ended up with is about half a gallon of flowers,
most of which are attached to bits of thin green stalk.

Elderberries are a doddle by comparison, given patience. Does anyone
have any helpful advice on how to achieve a cleaner separation? Or is
my experience normal, and it doesn't actually matter too much?

Andy
--

"No, you claim the magpie is to blame for all the
worlds ills, based on your ignorance of magpies."
(4a7391c12e538ef306d33d71c9482221@TeraNews)