Hi, I live in London and am keen on making some Elderflower Champagne.

I went over to my local park today and collected quite a few flower heads.

I have read on other websites that you shouldn’t pick flowers from the roadside as they will be polluted, but everywhere in London is by a road side!!!

Does anyone know if I could rinse them and still use them? Or if they would be ok to use anyway?

Thanks for your help,
Neil

The concern used to be the lead in petrol but nowadays that’s hardly a problem compared with 30 years ago. Now we have diesel particulates which are larger and you should be OK washing them off.
Of course, to some degree it depends what you mean by busy. If you’re next to the North Circular then I’d give it a miss.
To be safe you’d need a lab analysis, but I’d just use my common sense. Do they smell of elder or traffic, being the clincher.

Thanks for your reply.

They smell of elder, no fuel smell. I’m out in East London/Essex(Dagenham), and the majority were picked quite far into the park (at least 100yds from a road) although a couple of them were close to the road. It is a residential road but has a pretty constant run of cars.

I have just seen Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall making elderflower champagne and noticed he used boiling water. would this make any difference to the brew?

mhairi - Can’t say really, not having tried it that way but I doubt our Hugh would give bad advice. There’s often more than one way to do things.

The reason for using hot water is that it is steralised of most bacteria. The more tap water that you use (Some tap water is worse than others), the more bacteria goes into your wine/beer etc. It won’t harm but can leave a nasty taste.

I have read recently that elderflower stems and leaves are poisonous. I have a batch of Elderflower Champagne that is near completion, but when I put my elderflowers into the brew they had an inch or so of stem on them. Do you know if that is going to make my brew poisonous?

Thanks

Elder leaves and bark, especially in some varieties, contain a cocktail of chemicals including cyanides that can make you pretty sick. It would have been better if you’d completely removed the flowers from the stems.

My week old elderflower champagne has began to mould and the smell is quite intense and over powering at times. I think the problem could be that some of the elderflower bits were left in and some still remain. The champagne is fizzing which I heard is a good sign but i’m concerned that my champagne will need to be chucked away due to the mould, there was not a great deal but it is off putting and I have removed while I search for a solution. The champagne is being kept in a 20 litre bucket and covered by an old t-shirt and secured with some rope to preven insects getting in. Is my champagne a write off?

I don’t know that I would trust it. How long has it been in the bucket? After three days it’s better to strain it and pour into sterile bottles - releasing the top every couple of days to stop them bursting.

Hi,

I made Elderflower Champagne according to River Cottage Bloke’s Recipe only I added a few handfulls of wild rose petals as well.

I only left it to ferment in a bucket for 2 days and there was only a little foam when I bottled it a month ago. Now its all cloudy and full of pale yellow gunk sitting at the bottom and floating around in clumps and tiny cob-web strands.

I opened a bottle and it was really fizzy.
I sniffed it and it smelled wonderful.
I dipped my finger into it and it seamed OK.
I took a sip and it tastes great.

The yellow stuff could be yeast, is it yeast and is it safe to drink?

thanks.

Ewan - I don’t think I’d fancy it with yellow gunk floating around.