I made some elderberry wine once and as my husband was into home brewingwe had a lot of large brown beer bottles and a capping machine.There was a mighty explosion one evening about 6 weeks later in the utility room where we had them stored.Brown glass everwhere, could have killed the dog is she had been in the room at the same time.All but one of the bottles went off and I was too scared to touch the 6th one so put a big white bucket over it and left the room very quickly.Never tried to make it again!
pickles7,
Oct 27, 1:37am
Scary stuff. This is a huge problem when you use the wrong bottles, not only the bottles but the sugar required to sparkle your wine, has to be measured. This problem should be taken care of if you use the hydrometer.
kuaka,
Oct 27, 2:22am
Most probably it was bottled too soon
babytears,
Oct 28, 7:05pm
OMG. that's scary. I haven't quite made it into the recycling centre as yet, so will wait and see, but if I don't go with wine bottles, I've decided to go with the fliptop bottles
purplegoanna,
Oct 28, 8:14pm
Anyone got heaps of elderflower heads i can have! would you courier a big box of them to me at my cost! pleeeeease i really want to make some wine for christmas but cant find any flowers anywhere.
pickles7,
Oct 28, 10:15pm
That way the wine won"t break the bottles ,,,just flip out
babytears,
Oct 28, 11:05pm
You really need to be able to harvest them right before making your batch, if the flowers brown or wither this can taint your wine and it could affect the fermentation process. where are you!
babytears,
Oct 28, 11:07pm
Yeah, they may flip out so much that they flip onto the floor - I've never made this before, so it's really going to be a learning curve for me - the more I read up on this process the more complicated it sounds - when to pick, when to brew, how long to ferment, when to bottle, how long to keep before drinking - sheesh - better be worth it lol!
purplegoanna,
Oct 29, 1:28am
auckland.i may have to get people up here on the hunt.
pickles7,
Oct 29, 1:48am
Hey if all else fails, turn your wine into VINEGAR. I am still turning my last lot of wine into vinegar,.I have made wine over a good many years, you will find you will have a wine club, in your area. Well worth joining, They will help you through the process.
babytears,
Oct 29, 7:51am
Yes I did wonder about that. how does it turn into vinegar. is it a matter of time!
kuaka,
Oct 29, 9:03am
I really don't think that if you put any sort of wine down now, it would be ready to drink in time for Christmas, even if it was fermented out it probably wouldn't be clear enough to drink.
purplegoanna,
Oct 29, 9:22am
okey dokey ill stick with lemoncillo then.
kuaka,
Oct 29, 9:34am
Really!I wonder what the secret is!
kuaka,
Oct 30, 3:47am
The penny has just dropped!The program you're talking about is made in the UK.My recipe book says to pick the elderflowers in May and the wine will be ready to drink at Christmas!So, methinks you are cutting it a bit fine!
babytears,
Oct 30, 5:04am
From the River Cottage programme, the method is to pick Elderflowers right before making, mix and leave for 24-48 hours to start fermenting. strain, bottle and then 1 week later it is good to drink
kuaka,
Oct 30, 9:31am
I honestly do not believe it is possible to make wine which is drinkable that soon.I have had a look at the recipe on the website and also saw the stuff which looked like bottled dishwater.It's made more along the lines of ginger beer, and is not elderflower wine or champagne no matter what he says or calls it.Elderflower wine (or champagne) would be crystal clear, and that dishwater in the bottles is not going to be crystal clear in a weeks time, even if you are game enough to drink it.
pickles7,
Oct 30, 9:43am
Could be like that Rhubarb champagne, that did the rounds a few years ago.
kuaka,
Oct 30, 9:57am
Don't know, I've never even heard of that let alone tried it, but I have to admit that the River Cottage recipe could produce some fizz, but it doesn't have any yeast added to it (he says if there is no sign of it fermenting after 48 hours, to add a pinch of yeast) so it is relying on natural fermentation, and bottling it so early is probably going to produce some fizz with quite a lot of glug at the bottom of the bottle.I guess it all depends on your taste buds and how desperate you are for a glass of wine or fizzy dishwater!
pickles7,
Oct 30, 10:12am
I wouldn't even try it, myself. I have not had a look at the recipe though. I t dose sound sort of like the, Rhubarb champagne, recipe. More a fizzy drink, not wine.
kuaka,
Oct 30, 10:30am
I'd have to agree with you there pickles.The recipe is:
4 litres hot water 700g sugar 2 tbsp white wine vinegar ! about 15 flower heads in full bloom A pinch of dried yeast (you may not need this)
Certainly not my idea of wine.
music_note,
Oct 30, 10:39am
If you ask a question in this blog by NZ Gardener's editor-at-large, you might be able to find them in Auckland http://lyndahallinan.com/
My dad used to make a delicious fizzy lemony gingery drink he called 'mead' and would put one big squishy Australian raisin in each bottle. As children we though we were drinking champagne.
kuaka,
Oct 31, 5:26am
Interesting, as mead is made with honey, lemon and orange.The recipe I have is 4lb honey, 1 orange, 1 lemon and water, yeast and nutrient.With 4lb honey I would be surprised if the orange and lemon flavour were really noticeable.The raisin would be to produce the secondary fermentation necessary to produce the sparkle.My sparkling mead recipe says when the fermentation is complete, siphon off into bottles and add 2 oz honey to each bottle and cork down.
I've never tried making it, but it is quite a pleasant drink.
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