Shredded bottle cap

I think we’re going to give up with this first batch of elderflower champagne and put it down to experience. It’s far too dangerous to use in its current state, and we’ve come to the conclusion – reluctantly – that even if we carried on with it for some time it would be impossible to keep in a cupboard.

We’ve had 18 explosions so far, with the volatile liquid still blasting the corks clean out of the bottles and spewing their contents all over the place, even with the steam-shrunk seals over the tops of the corks. As you can see from the picture above, they come out with such force that they actually shred the seals.

We’ve had them stored inside a big metal bin for a week now, trying to stabilise them, but now they just fire their corks into the underside of the lid (very noisy) which causes the liquid to run down the underside of the lid, down the side of the bin and onto the floor. It’s still better than it would have been if they hadn’t been in the bin at all, but it’s far from ideal.

So we’re going to pick some more elderflowers and buy some more sugar and lemons and make a second batch, learning these important lessons from our first attempt:

1. Use fewer flowers, or balance them out better with more liquid. They already have their own yeast inside them, so using a lot of flowers in a limited amount of liquid is bound to prove volatile.
2. Don’t add too much extra yeast when it looks like not much is happening. Try waiting a little longer and see what develops naturally before pushing things along yourself.
3. Stand well back at all times.

 

Related posts:

1. The explosive elderflower champagne
2. Bottling the elderflower champagne
3. How to make Elderflower champagne