Making Elderflower Wine.
Elderflower wine is a light, dry, white wine with an aromatic bouquet. It is very easy to make and usually trouble-free. Elderflowers can be found from May to July, but are usually most plentiful in June. It is not recommended to pick Elderflowers
growing at the side of a road, as these will probably have been polluted by car exhaust fumes. Elderflowers grow in "hands" - several stalks of flowers on a single stem.
Ingredients (to make four gallons of wine):
64 hands of Elderflowers
4 kg of granulated sugar
4 sachets of bakers' yeast
3 oranges
3 lemons
Instructions
1. Cut the stalks from the elderlowers, leaving only the flowers. Discard the stalks.
2. Put hot water into a large pan.
3. Dissolve the sugar in the water and bring to the boil.
4. Sterilise the fermenting bin and rinse with clean water.
5. Add the elderflowers to the water in the pan and stir well.
6. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
7. After 20 minutes, remove as many of the elderflowers as possible, using a strainer.
8. Pour the hot liquid through the strainer into the fermenting bin.
9. Cover the fermenting bin and allow the liquid to cool to about 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
10. Slice the oranges and lemons and put them into the liquid.
11. Sprinkle the yeast on top of the liquid. Do not stir. Put the top on the fermenting bin.
12. On each of the next three days, stir the liquid and re-cover.
13. The initial fermentation should cease after about 21 days (when bubbles have stopped rising to the surface).
14. Sterilise and rinse the demijohns.
15. Remove the oranges and lemons from the wine and transfer the liquid to the demijohns. Put an airlock containing water in each demijohn.
16. Put the demijohns in a cool place. Ensure that the airlocks are topped-up with water when necessary.
17. When no more gas is escaping through the airlocks, replace them by corks.
18. Leave the wine for a year in a cool place before bottling.
Bottling Homemade wine
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