Wine No. 2: Primary Fermentation

Time to start off an elderflower wine. Yesterday I popped down to York Stream, battling heavy rain (me in shorts and t-shirt, of course), steep and muddy banks, and the risk of car clamping, to gather the tail end of the season's elderflower crop. I think they were a little past their best - some heads had already lost all of their flowers - but foragers can't be choosers, and they still gave off plenty of aroma when gathered in a carrier bag.

I used Ian Ball's recipe (from a book that's been sitting on our bookshelf for at least 15 years). The method is rather different from Wine No. 1.

But it's pretty simple. Into the bucket went the washed elderflower heads and some chopped sultanas. I then dissolved 1.75 lbs of sugar in water in a saucepan - it soon became apparent that this is really cane sugar wine flavoured with elderflowers (as you'd expect - flowers don't have much sugar content). When the sugar solution had cooled, it went into the bucket along with half a cup of strong cold tea (for tannin) and the juice of two lemons (for acid).

The recipe suggests using Marmite as a yeast enhancer, but since I already had some Yeast Nutrient, that went in along with the wine yeast. Then the bin was topped up to 4 litres with cold water and left to ferment in the now well-used North corner of the kitchen.


Elderflower heads, ready to meet their fate


The mixture, ready for fermentation