Sealing the elderflower champagne
The elderflower champagne is proving to be even more volatile than we expected. First it was just one bottle that kept on blowing its cork, which we put down to it being the last one filled and this it getting more than its fair share of the yeasty sediment. Since then, though, we’ve had 15 cork ejections, each of which is accompanied by a fountain of sticky, fizzy wine.
The outhouse floor is tacky to the touch, and the box the bottles were in has had to go out as it’s soaking wet and falling to bits. I think we got off lightly, though. A comment on one of my other blogs outlines her far more destructive experiences:
I made a batch of Elderflower champagne two weeks ago and bottled it in plastic fizzy drinks bottles. Yesterday evening there was a huge explosion and both bottles had exploded all over the kitchen! The biggest shame is that the champagne smelt amazing but was splatted all over the ktichen floor! Any advice on what I can use to bottle the champange? Is glass any better than plastic or will it do the same?
The answer is, I don’t know. I’m not surprised the plastic bottles exploded, and I’m hoping the glass ones will better retain their integrity.
In light of this ominous warning, though, we moved the cast iron dustbin from the garden into the kitchen, half-filled it with cold water and placed the bottles inside it, in the hope that keeping them cool would save them from fizzing away to their noisy popping doom. It didn’t make much difference. For every cork we replaced, two more would come flying out, this time crashing into the lid of the bin like Animal smashing his cymbal.
The cat didn’t like it.
So this morning we drove back to the brewing store to buy some steam-shrinking caps to secure the corks. They are a plastic cup that you place over the head and neck of the bottle, then hold in the steam of a boiling kettle until they shrink into place.
Beside them on the shelf was the method for making elderflower champagne, with a warning on the bottom that the results will be ‘highly effervescent’.
So we brought the caps home and slipped them onto the bottles then held them over the steaming kettle (we tried a pan but the steam wasn’t sufficiently focussed), but this brought problems of its own. Holding them over the kettle inevitably heated up the bottle, and with it the cork, which then started to bulge out of the top of the neck. Two blew out in my hand, blasting off the steam-shrunk caps, but running them under the cold tap seemed to remedy things on later attempts.
So now they’re all capped and stored back in the bin (I’m taking no chances) and we’ll see what happens. Even if they don’t do much to stop them blowing their tops, the new steam-shrinked seals do look good. And that’s something, at least.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
The only time I ran into problems using pastic bottles was making home brew beer and the secondary fermenation coninued in the bottles. There was a clue that all was not well – the plastic bottles ‘stretched’ and after an anxious approach I was able to release the pressure.
I make elderflower champagne every year and have only had problems with glass bottles – please try again using good plastic bottles that are designed to withstand the pressure.
Cheers
Heya,
Buy yourself a Hydrometer! It measures the amount of fermentable sugars left in the wine using the ‘Specific Gravity’ scale. You should only bottle the champagne once primary fermentation has finished and the gravity is lower than 1.010 SG.
Oh, and if you measure the gravity before and after fermenting you can determine the exact alcohol content of your delicious champagne!
H
Dear Pasty Muncher,and all,
Thank you for all your comments they were very interesting . This year is the first year I am going to make Elderflower Champagne. Ive been making Elderflower Cordial for years , and it freezes really well. But I have to say the Champagne’s volatility makes me a little concerned. I can not afford to buy the sprung top bottles,? Would they work anyway ? You mentioned that a good quality plastic bottle , please can you give me some idea as to WHAT bottles to use . Will I have to release the pressure regularly and for how long for . And will the pressure settle after a while , and how long does the champagne last for ? Does it inprove over years ??????.
Regards all
Ma Martin.
Just use any plastic bottles – the ‘squishier’ (like coke bottles) the better, as they’ll stretch. Release the pressure by unscrewing the tops gently when the bottle goes hard or starts to go mis-shapen. You might have to do this every day. Don’t worry, your champagne will still be highly fizzy at the end of the process. I’ve been releasing pressure from my batch every evening.
I am going to pick my first ever batch of elder flowers tomorrow to make ny first ever batch of E/F Champ. Have researched which bottles to use and have plumped for PET 500ml botts. Very interesting reading all your comments…. will keep you posted. Went to Hugh F-W’s Strawberry fair on Sunday where he had made a very lovely Strawberry alc fizz with pureed strawbs, goozgog wine made two months ago, loadsa sugar and (I think?) some sparkling water….Mmmmm very nice. See his prog on 24th of June,:) Hope my E/F Champ becomes as tasty!!!
I would recommend NOT using glass (unless you know exactly what you are doing!). Mine exploded in the kitchen last night. Glass fragments everywhere. The tiles on the opposite wall were chipped and chunks had been taken out of the wooden units near where the bottle (Grolsch-type cap) stood. If it had exploded literally 5 seconds earlier, it would have been me with chunks missing. I learnt a very valuable lesson in home brewing…
I agree that a hydrometer would make exploding bottles very rare. Or, wait until the fermentation has finished completely, and THEN bottle, adding 1tsp of sugar to each bottle.
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