Can you freeze Elderflowers?

[Beerisgoodforyou]

Hi all, new to forum and new to brewing but totally hooked after making a Wherry, a Great Eastern conditioning and a fixby gold fermenting.

Whilst looking in to the field behind my garden I notice a tonne of elderflowers growing. They are well away from any pollutants so should be good for using as an additive.

My question is, as I have no brews I can add them to now could I preserve them? First thought was freezing them but as typing wondered if I could boil the flowers and make up ice cubes with the flavoured water and add to the FV next time I brew.

What do people think. As I said I'm a complete novice so if this is a dumb idea please tell me!!

Chers
PG

[GARYSMIFF]

do they not dry them?

"To dry your own elder flowers, pick them early in the morning before the heat of the day has diminished their potency. Place the flower heads on clean paper in a warm, dark, dry place for a few days.The flowers are then used like tea leaves to make a delicate tisane which can be flavoured with lemon and honey, or added to lemon marmalade for extra piquancy.


From herehttp://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/elder.html

[Beerisgoodforyou]

Thanks, but if they are dried would you have to rehydrate them?

Could you not just follow the cordial recipe minus the sugar and freeze?

[trucker5774]

If they don't freeze, I'm in trouble. I didn't see myself being able to do a brew for a month or two so I collected and froze 80g of elderflowers. As it happens I am brewing today and will use them. I also dried about 30g which reduced to 8g once dry.

Many other posts have endorsed freezing them

[boingy]

We froze some last week using a normal freezer bag and the flowers turned brown within hours of freezing them. On closer investigation it was only the flowers in contact with the plastic that browned, I'm guessing it is frost burn. If I freeze some more I will try using a tupperware box.

[Beerisgoodforyou]

So has no one ever made a tea from the flowers and frozen the tea and later used that in their brew?

[OldThumper]

I don't think freezing them loosely in bags works. I tried this last year and as Boingy confirms they turn brown upon removal from the freezer but more importantly I did not really get much aroma from them. What apparently does work well is if you vacuum pack them prior to freezing them. A local microbrewery does this every year for its seasonal Elderflower brew. They vacuum pack the flowers after picking and then freeze them. I don't know if freezing them is necessary in this case unless you want to keep them for a long period. I have just ordered a vacuum packer for my hops but there are very few elderflowers left near me now (gone past it).

I have yet to be able to determine if dried flowers are as good as freshly picked flowers.

Cheers.

[Beerisgoodforyou]

OldThumper wrote:
> I have just ordered a vacuum packer for my hops but there are very few elderflowers
> left near me now (gone past it).

I'm on the East of Southampton and the field is full of them!

How do you use the flowers? Boil them and add to FV?

[trucker5774]

OldThumper wrote:
> I have just ordered a vacuum packer for my hops but there are very few elderflowers
> left near me now (gone past it).

I'm on the East of Southampton and the field is full of them!

How do you use the flowers? Boil them and add to FV?

Use just the actual flowers and add in the last 15 to 5 mins of the boil.

[Beerisgoodforyou]

trucker5774 wrote:
> Use just the actual flowers and add in the last 15 to 5 mins of the boil.

And if using a kit would you boil them in a little water and add to the FV?

[trucker5774]

trucker5774 wrote:
> Use just the actual flowers and add in the last 15 to 5 mins of the boil.

And if using a kit would you boil them in a little water and add to the FV?

Or boil in a little made up wort from the kit and add back to the FV when cool.

[Beerisgoodforyou]

Great thanks for all the advice guys

[OldThumper]

Oh right. Yeah I guess some trees flower early and some late. There are many varieties of Elderflower trees I believe and they will flower at different times. I must look harder!

I add mine 5 mins from the end of the boil. I reckon boiling for 15 mins will remove a lot of the aroma.