Pale ale, with Elderflower

[Tarmac]

Hi,
Has anyone got a tried & tested recipe for a good 4% ish Pale, using elderflower for taste and aroma? 23ltr batch?

I’m currently thinking of starting with 4kg pale malt, challenger for bitter hops, elderflower 15 mins & 1 min.

All suggestions welcome, and avoid the cat pee smelling elderflower

[PeeBee]

Not used it in beer yet (intend to). But from brewing Elderflower "champagne": Be frugal with it, too much and even the pleasant smelling stuff smells like cat pee. The flowers were just scolded in "pop" recipes, I'd skip the 15 minute boil suggestion, and maybe reduce the 1 minute to zero? But the flowers are heaving in wild yeast (I think the "pop" recipes relied on it - despite the scolding?) and also plenty of more "macro fauna" (bugs with legs).

Remember where you got the pleasant smelling stuff. I always reckoned they turned into the best flavoured elderberries ("Ebulum" clones for later in the year?).

[Mjr6313]

I have been playing with the idea I tried last year but I think the wild yeast took over I used the elderflowers In a sort of hop back to get the best flavour when I boiled to make a juice it didn't impart a lot of flavour and I had a to bin my fermenter in the end the next two batches had the same "flavours" dispute being different beers.
I am going to make a juice / syrup with the flowers, lemon juice, sugar and water add some campden and somthing that stops yeast from making babies. Add that as a dry hop addition.

[Robwalkeragain]

Don’t bother with 15 min, you’ll just kill aroma. Get it in at flame out - at least 20 heads. Even better is extract which is available on amazon, which can be added after fermentation.
Brewed one with citra hops before and it was excellent.

[Cobnut]

Don’t bother with 15 min, you’ll just kill aroma. Get it in at flame out - at least 20 heads. Even better is extract which is available on amazon, which can be added after fermentation.
Brewed one with citra hops before and it was excellent.

I've made Elderflower "champagne" (pop) which uses lemons, so I can see how Citra hops would work well in an elderflower pale. Given that I have a penchant for Citra hops, I can see myself adding this sort of thing to my ever-expanding list of beers to brew.

I think I need to hasten retirement to give me more time for brewing (and tasting/supping)

[PeeBee]

… I think I need to hasten retirement to give me more time for brewing (and tasting/supping)

Careful what you wish for.

I "retired" 6 or 7 years ago and only had my 60th birthday this year. You don't want to know how I wangled that (perhaps I wish it hadn't happened?).

[PeeBee]

Don’t bother with 15 min, you’ll just kill aroma. Get it in at flame out - at least 20 heads. Even better is extract which is available on amazon, which can be added after fermentation.
Brewed one with citra hops before and it was excellent.

I didn't give a quantity but "20 heads" (in 23 litres?) seems about right. A quick Google found recipes for "pop" using 4-8 heads in 2 litres (8 heads in 2 litres seems like a lot to me). Get rid of the thickest green stems (perhaps).

The Googling reminded me that the flowers were not scolded so as to retain the wild yeast. So "flame out" seems right too.

[Cobnut]

… I think I need to hasten retirement to give me more time for brewing (and tasting/supping)

Careful what you wish for.

I "retired" 6 or 7 years ago and only had my 60th birthday this year. You don't want to know how I wangled that (perhaps I wish it hadn't happened?).

Sounds like a tale to be told over some ales.

[Tarmac]

Thanks for all the suggestions and advice.
Liking the idea of using citra, a fantastic hop.

Flame out it is then for the elderflower.

[wilfh]

An alternative is a blast from a camden tablet if you are going to dry hop it, soak in a little beer with half a tablet for 24 hours before adding it to the bulk.

I agree a little goes a long long way especially fresh flowers
good luck
wilf

[Bad 'Ed]

I made an elderflower champagne once and it was really bitter. Elderflower syrup on the other hand has always been good. When you pick the elderflowers changes how much bitterness you get out of them, so just in case maybe it is better to extract the flavour into something first, then you can make sure you've done that but right before putting it into the beer. It should give the bugs some time to drop out and if you add it after fermentation is pretty much done then the wild yeast won't be much of an issue either.