because of its wine-like flavor. I discovered this on Amazon, which is waaaay cheaper (per oz) than the much smaller 1-2 oz packages I've seen from Brewer's Best in homebrew shops and online.
Soooo, now I get to experiment with a recipe for elderflower wine!
I'll probably start with a 2-ish gallon test batch in my Mr. Beer fermentor, before scaling up the recipe.
As to the actual recipe? Weeell, I'm thinking and googling on it. Most recipes are for a sparkling wine, buuut I'm contemplating making a still variety (since that's generally what Thorn prefers). I'll probably experiment, though--see how different versions turn out, and which one Thorn prefers before settling on a recipe and process.
The first version will likely be still and dry--but maybe I'll stabilize and backsweeten a few bottles to see how they turn out.
For a 2-ish gallon batch, here's what I'm contemplating:
3 oz dried elderflowers
juice of 3-6(?) lemons and/or limes (really no idea here, just totally guessing)
4 lbs granulated sugar (roughly 9 cups)
2 gallons + 9 cups water
I plan to start by inverting the sugar with the lemon/lime juice and 9 cups water. I might even do that in advance.
I'll rinse the elderflowers to remove dust and foreign matter, then add them and the invert syrup to 2 gallons of water and bring to a boil--I might add some lemon or lime zest, and I'll probably add some yeast nutrient. I'll turn off the heat, cover it and let it cool.
I'll line my sanitized Mr. Beer fermentor with a sanitized paint strainer bag and add the cooled must (flowers and all) to the fermentor.
I haven't yet decided what yeast I'm going to use, but I'm leaning towards using the yeast I've been using for my ciders--but I'll take a look at what I've got in the fridge and decide from there. I plan to let it ferment for 4-7 days on the flowers before I pull out the bag (letting it drain into the fermentor), then let it go until its finished. I might do some degassing of it as it ferments, so it can be truly still.
I'll probably hit it with 2 crushed camden tabs before bottling (in my experience, it really helps avoid getting wines that turn to vinegar in the bottles, even if you are religious in your use of StarSan), letting it sit for 24 hours after they're added before I bottle. I might even go crazy, and cold crash the Mr. Beer fermentor to help everything that will drop out to do so.
I have some clear 750ml and 1 L swing-tops that I'll probably bottle this in, maybe with a few Grolsch bottles in the mix. If I carb any of them, it'll probably be in the Grolsch bottles with 2 domino dots per bottle...maaaybe trying 1 bottle with 3 dots, but that's a pretty serious level of carb.
Eventually, I may even do a big batch that I just end up kegging and force carbing--if it turns out we like it sparkling. That would also make backsweetening much easier.
