Adding an Elderflower Taste

[SiHoltye]

I'm looking at adding what I think is the elderflower effect in Badger Champion Ale.

I'd read that about 50g might be a place to start in 25L, so I trialled 2g in one litre of water boiled for 15 minutes tonight, and the taste and aroma was not what I expected. Am I using the right elderflower product do people think?http://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/catalog/ca ... derflowers

[maxashton]

Try making a mini extract brew, i guess. It could be the flavour comes from the reactions with the hops/malt

[tomU]

I don't suppose dried elderflowers retain all their flavour and aroma. Often dried fruits have a completely different taste to their fresh forms - maybe the same goes for elderflowers?

How about some elderflower cordial in the fermenter? Worth a try do you reckon?

[scarer]

I believe Badger use an elderflower essence/ flavouring of some sort and not the real thing.

I have found that 50g is too much for 25lt and even my last one using 20g was still too much so my next one will have 10g of dried and hopefully I will get the hint of elderflower i'm after.

[TC2642]

I believe Badger use an elderflower essence/ flavouring of some sort and not the real thing.

I have found that 50g is too much for 25lt and even my last one using 20g was still too much so my next one will have 10g of dried and hopefully I will get the hint of elderflower i'm after.

I used 150gms of fresh elderflower in my Wheat beer Was a little overpowering. One thing I learnt from using the fresh stuff is too take everything off except the flowers.

[SiHoltye]

I found MSK Food Ingredients who offer 30ml of Elderflower flavouring for £17.99 It may be that this amount may last a lifetime but I'll keep researching for now

[SiHoltye]

I ended up using 15g of dried elderflowers at 15 mins left of the boil in 25L of 1.045-ish. Gave me exactly the low level elderflower bouquet/taste I was looking for, definitely noticeable. I may up it to 20g next time just to see what it's like.

[scarer]

My elder ale is conditioning at the moment but I only ended up using about 5g of it in 20lts. In my last elder ale its aroma was too strong and a little off putting because it is an unusual smell. This time it is much more subtle with a gentle flavour so I'm hoping i've got it about right.

[Bongo]

Cheers fellas good to have an update,i fancy a try with some soon so it's good to see your results.

[pantsmachine]

Cairngorm brewery does a nice elderflower tasting beer. Trade Winds, in fact it was Cairngorm brewery that started me down this wonderful path i find myself on!

[shedman]

Well, well looks lke I overcooked things going by the posts. I made an elderflower beer earlier this year using fresh flower heads, I added 5ltr to the mash and 5 to the boil - certainly tasted and smelled wonderfully flowery. Slightly too much perchance? Next year I will definately be cutting back, maybe a couple of litres in the boil.
Wished I had found this thread earlier

[SiHoltye]

I ended up using 15g of dried elderflowers at 15 mins left of the boil in 25L of 1.045-ish. Gave me exactly the low level elderflower bouquet/taste I was looking for, definitely noticeable. I may up it to 20g next time just to see what it's like.

In this beer I hadn't adjusted my waters' alkalinity. I had an on-going astringency issue because of this and so may have not reported the elderflower effect as it would be in a better beer. I've sorted this now and am brewing a Best Bitter with some elderflowers tomorrow so I'll post back about the results without an astringent over-bite.