How To Make Your Own Elder Flower Wine

Most of us enjoy a few glasses of wine on a regular basis, but have you ever tried flower wines? Oh — don't know where to buy them? Just make flower wine yourself! I found myself making wine and really enjoy seeing the whole process, from flower to wine. You can use many different flowers, including rose petals, hawthorn flowers, dandelion, and gorse flower. Here, we'll teach you how to make an elder flower wine from scratch. 

1. Gather Your Winey Stuff

Look around for elder trees locally, or simply wait for them to flower if you have trees in your backyard or already know where to find trees. Start gathering the necessary ingredients and supplies to make elder flower wine. For 15 liters (three gallons) of elder flower wine, you will need the following ingredients:

• Lots and lots of sugar — 3.9 kilos or 9 pounds, to be precise. Don't worry; almost all of this will be converted into alcohol later on. 
• Rind and juice from three lemons. 
• Three teaspoons of wine yeast.
• Three teaspoons of yeast nutrient.
• One and a half cups of cold black tea. (The finished stuff: you actually make a pot of very strong tea and then measure it out.)
• You'll need 14 liters of boiled water too, but that just comes from the tap.

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Besides that, you'll some equipment:

• A big saucepan — five liters at least.
• A fermentation bucket. You can use any bucket which is suitable for food. For this wine, the bucket will need to hold 15 liters or more. You cover the bucket with a tea towel, so you don't need a lid. 
• A tea towel or cheesecloth, or a very fine sieve. 
• A 15 liter (three gallon) demijohn. That's a glass bottle. You can also use a plastic bottle if you prefer but that's not so nice. You'll also need to buy an appropriately-sized cork with a bunghole. That is a hole to which you will attach the airlock. 
• An airlock. This ensures the carbon dioxide created during the fermentation process can leave your bottle, while keeping oxygen out. 
• A siphoning tube. This is to transfer the liquid from the fermentation bucket to the demijohn, and later to smaller bottles. 
• Sterilization equipment: sulfur powder and citric acid. You need this because bacteria can really mess up the process. 
• Enough wine bottles. You can use swing top bottles or otherwise you'll need a wine bottle corker. 
• A bottle brush to clean the inside of used wine bottles. 

Elder Flower Wine Step By Step

2. Pick Your Flowers

Pick six cups of elder flowers. That's just the flowers. No leaves or anything — you are supposed to take as much green as possible off. Don't wash the flowers because the pollen contained in them are a large part of the process. Your wine won't be as tasty if you wash the flowers first. However, do inspect your loot for bugs and shake any you see off. You can also leave the flowers in a bucket for a few hours and wait for creepy crawlies to crawl out.

It will take you about an hour.

You can take a walking stick or hook to get long branches to bend down. 

3.  Get Brewing

Place the flowers, lemon juice and rind in the fermentation bucket. Cover this with a few liters of boiling water and let it stand for two days. Cover it with a tea towel. Then, you strain the mixture and rinse the bucket. Put the mixture back in, and boil your sugar in four to five liters of water until it is fully dissolved. Then, you pour that into the fermentation bucket with your wine mixture, and also add your three teaspoons of yeast nutrient.

In the meantime, you get your yeast started. First off, you pour some boiling water onto a few spoons full of sugar, which you have put in a cleaned old jam jar, with a lid. You wait until that is lukewarm, and then you add a touch of lemon juice. Then you put your three teaspoons of yeast in there. You put the lid on and shake it vigorously. Let it stand at a warm spot.    

Then you wait until the mixture in the bucket is lukewarm, which will take approximately four hours. After, you add the yeast and cover everything with a cloth again. Your mixture will start throthing. When the chemical reaction calms down a bit after four to 10 days — depending on the temperature — you transfer everything to the demijohn. 

4. Transfer, Baby!

You are now starting the second stage of your fermentation process — no oxygen allowed! First, you have to transfer your wine mixture from the fermentation bucket to the demijohn that you already purchased. You do this with the help of a siphoning tube. Simply pouring your mixture from one vessel to another would disturb it too much. You're looking to leave some of the sediment on the bottom. 

Once the mixture is in the demijohn, you fit your cork and then the airlock. You need to put some sterilized water in the airlock and place a bit of cotton wool into the top of the airlock. Then you're done and you'll leave your mixture to ferment. When you get a really bad build-up of sediment, you "rack" your wine. That means you siphon it off into another vessel, like second demijohn, and try to take as little of the sediment as possible with you. This ensures your wine will have a better taste and texture. 

To bottle your homemade elderflower wine, first ensure bottles are clean and sanitized. Sanitize all equipment like the siphon, tubing, and bottle filler. Prepare your wine by checking clarity and taste. Siphon the wine from your fermentation vessel into bottles, leaving about 1 inch of space at the top for expansion. Immediately cap or cork each bottle to prevent air from entering. Label with bottling date and relevant information. Carefully handle wine and equipment to prevent contamination throughout the process.

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The fermentation process takes approximately three months. You'll know it's ready when all activity in the airlock has ceased. After that, you can bottle your wine. Leave it in the smaller bottles for at least another three months, and enjoy! You'll be so proud of your very first home-made wine. It will be a great present to give to others, but also fantastic to drink yourself!