Elderflower Fizz & Cordial (+ lots pics)

[jmc]

Saturday was good weather around here so I collected a load of elderflowers.

I needed some for a planned Elderflower Saison, most for 25L of Elderflower Fizz (liked by SWMBO) and rest for some cordial.

I found a couple of good spots in the nearby countryside and picked about 180 elderflower heads.
After trimming off stalks I ended up with 1320g of florets.

I put 220g aside (in plastic bag & frozen) for Elderflower Saison, that left 1100g of florets for fizz/ cordial

I wanted to kill off any wild yeasts but not boil away flavour so I decided to pasteurise at 85C for 30 mins.
I used the LIDL jam maker / mash tun / boiler to extract flavour and aroma from the elderflowers as this has a facility to pasteurise,
i.e. set temp to 85c temp to 30C and click on then away you go.

I used my hop filter to stop florets getting in the cordial:
upside down showing holes

fitted


1100g Elderflower Florets


7kg sugar, 4 lemons + 30g citric acid


Add sugar


Add 7L water and stir. Start boiler. Set at 85C for 30 mins.


Use zester to add lemon rind


Add lemon juice


25 mins left to go at 85C


1 mins left to go at 85C


I left it in boiler for about another hour. No heat added but its insulated so it was 80C after an hour.
I couldn't drain to glass as I was worried it would crack with heat so I drained, via hop filter & silicone tube.
To other end of tube I fitted a fine nylon sieve and this was placed on a ss sieve to support.

It drained very easily (maybe syrup would be slow if cold), and was hazy but no bits were in it.


I got about 11L of Elderflower syrup. They I washed / sparged with 4L of cold water as florets were sticky.
This produced about 4L of second runnings, OK to store for a few days and use diluted 30-50% as a drink.

I added 20L cold (treated) water to 5L of the strong syrup to make 25L of Elderflower Fizz. OG 1041.
To this I added a 2 tsp yeast nutrient and a saison yeast starter. It was going steadily after 24 hours.
I realise amount of acid added may be a bit low, but I'll add later in the brew if it needs it.

This left about 6L that was bottled hot in clear swing-top bottles, for use as a cordial, or as additions to brews at secondary.

Last job, clean out Lidl MT/boiler. Filter worked well.

[WalesAles]

JMC,
Looking Good!
WA

[Jambo]

Great work - the elder is just starting to flower up here so going to try something very similar next week all being well. As you say, compared to the recipes I've been researching, your quantity of lemons is low - others recipes would be more like 10... Did you use the citric acid at any point yet?

For your elderflower Saison do you plan to add those to the boil? Would be great if you could post that recipe also

Cheers

[jmc]

Great work - the elder is just starting to flower up here so going to try something very similar next week all being well. As you say, compared to the recipes I've been researching, your quantity of lemons is low - others recipes would be more like 10... Did you use the citric acid at any point yet?

For your elderflower Saison do you plan to add those to the boil? Would be great if you could post that recipe also

Cheers

I had a taste last night (nice) and already there is a balancing acidity and spice from saison yeast to hopefully balance 'sweet' fragrance / flavour from elderflower. All simple sugars will ferment out so I'll check taste at end and add citric acid then if needed.

I did treat dilution water as if I was brewing.
I added AMS to reduce alkalinity of my water and added campden solution to remove chlorine which is noticeably strong at the moment.

Recipe post added as requested.
See AG102 Elderflower Saison

[CJR]

Where can you find elderflowers? I like the cordial but not sure where to start.

[Jambo]

JMC

Many thanks for the recipe post!

CJR

They are on trees that grow like weeds everywhere and are flowering right now, in hedgerows, big white flowers. Otherwise you can buy them dried year round.

Cheer.