Elderflowers in bloom - best use in a Kit

[Doreblade]

I'm about to pimp a Wilko Feeling Hoppy kit (replacing 1kg sugar with light spraymalt and brewers sugar 50/50, a bit of yeast nutrient to help the paltry 6g of dried yeast, and dry hop 50g cascade pellets at day 10 of fermentation).

But the elderflowers are just coming to prime around here and would love to add them to enhance my beer a la Badger Golden Champion. My wife loves it so I'd earn plenty of brownie points.

Can anyone suggest the best way to do this. I thought of brewing short to 21/22 litres then steeping a goodly amount in a litre or so of boiling water overnight to kill any wild yeast (as you do when making cordial) and adding it at the same time as the dry hops. But advice would be much appreciated.

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[WalesAles]

Dore,
Look in the `Beer Recipes` and `Winemaking` threads on JBK.
Lots of good info on there!

WA

[Doreblade]

Funnily enough I had a lightbulb moment just after I posted this thread and did just that. Plenty of ideas indeed!

[WalesAles]

Plenty of ideas indeed!

Dore,
I can see that you are new to JBK, if you want ideas, scroll down through EVERY thread.
Even if you don`t fancy the thread, ie, Hops, Yeast, Cider, Brewing equipment, etc, you will be amazed how
much info is on JBK!
They are all worth a look.
I bet you end up saying `Ooooh! I NEED one of those`.

WA

HaHaHa! Just like this Beauty!
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=82605

[Doreblade]

Already succumbed to the 'I need one of those' syndrome - a shiny new Grainfather should be arriving next week - and I fully blame JBK .

Honestly though, there is indeed an absolute wealth of info here and thanks to posters like WA I feel pretty confident I will be able produce something eminently quaffable from it (and recover if things don't go quite to plan).

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[WalesAles]

Dore,
You are now a fully paid up member of the `ELC`!
Didn`t take you long! HaHaHa.

WA

[BeerShark]

HI Doreblade,
I've been the beneficiary of some great advice on here re: elderflower additions and brewed up a session pale with elderflower last week (see the chain in the "recipes" section. I'm also using a Grainfather).
I ended up adding 20g dry flowers to the boil at 10mins, then the flowers from 20 fresh heads at flame out - waiting for the wort temperature to come down to 85 degree-ish and setting the GF to 79degree for a 30 min steep. I'd read a lot about adding elderflower to the boil being a bit of a waste of time because the boil effectively kills the aroma, but also conscious of the wild yeasts that are present on the fresh flowers (hence the steep while the wort was just off the boil). I also gave it a 10min whirlpool and left to stand for 10 mins before transferring to the FV
I've just taken the first hydrometer reading this morning and had a sneaky taste and at this stage (at least!) really pleased with the level of elderflower coming through. I guess it's early days, but the early signs are good.
I also have a sneaky weapon up my sleeve in the form of some elderflower extract that I could add to the FV if its not coming through, but I really don't want to have to use it!
Good luck!

[Doreblade]

Thanks for the info Beershark - very useful indeed.

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[JamesF]

Might have to try this myself, though it's getting a bit late for elderflowers here. Normally we pick bucketloads just to turn into elderflower cordial, but there must be a few left over. Or I can raid some of the ones my wife has stashed in the freezer next to my hops.

James