brewing 2ne1

Elderflower Wine

Started 31 May 2009 following the advice for making flower wines in Terry Garey’s book “The Joy of Home Winemaking”

1 L of flowers mostly trimmed from stems 1.3 kg sugar 1 tsp of citric acid 1/2 tsp of tartaric acid 1/4 tsp of wine tannin 1 tsp of yeast nutrient 1 tsp winemaking yeast 1 gallon of water

In a large pot put the flowers and half the water, heat until simmering and turn off the heat. Let sit for 4 hours until cool enough to touch and pour liquid/flowers through a clean strainer into primary fermenter. Add cool water to final volume and dissolve the sugar to ensure a starting SG somewhere near 1.08. Add the rest of the ingredients and cover with an airlock. Fermentation began within 12 hours due to the warm weather and it is bubbling away vigorously as I type.

Cheers, Jason

Update 6 October 2009 - The wine was racked a couple times over the last few months. Sorry, I didn’t keep track of that and update. About a week ago, I went to bottle this batch and it was still very “gassy” though it had been sitting with an airlock for quite some time. It seems it had formed an airtight seal despite the seemingly normal appearance of the airlock. Anyway, I racked it to a 1 gallon bucket (with a good lid) and added a crushed campden tablet. For about 4 days after I stirred the wine to get rid of all the gas/bubbles. It seemed finished degassing, so I let it settle for another couple of days. Last night I bottled it, resulting in 6 (now 5) bottles of a pleasant light yellow colour (not as bright as when it started but still attractive), medium/slightly dry with a good elderflower character. There were no raisins or grape juice in this recipe, but it could be mistaken for a white grape wine.