elderflowers clogging up siphon?

[100LL]

just started my first VR Piesporter a week ago and its the first kit that i have made that calls for the addition of elderflowers to the primary fermentation.
I noticed that when i went to rack into my carboy for the secondary that the flowers had all stayed on top of the mix.
Anyhow, when i was siphoning some of these ended up in the carboy so i was wondering if those will drop out during clearing?
Also the elderflowers clogged up the siphon so badly near the bottom of the primary that my carboy is only filled till about 5 inches below the top. Around where the bottle begins to get smaller.

Any advice with working with these things to avoid this problem in the future? Or was i doing it wrong to begin with?

thanks for the advice

 

[Runningwolf]

First off I love that kit. Made it twice. The second time I made it I put the flowers in a mesh bag to prevent that from happening. Lesson Learned. You could just use a regular siphoning hose and put nylon mesh on either end to prevent the flowers from going into your carboy. If you have to rack it into a bucket first then into your carboy do that. Keep your exposer time to oxygen to a minimum though.

 

[St Allie]

When moving from primary to secondary with floating flowers or fruit, I pour the lot through sanitised muslin into a bucket and then transfer to the secondary.. your fermentation is still going, so oxygenation isn't really an issue, the yeast will deal with it.

If you get lots of the sediment in the secondary it doesn't matter.. it will drop out when you fine it anyway.

This is how I deal with mine, as I don't bother with bagging fruit or flowers and it works fine..



Allie

 

[robie]

Yep, mesh bag or muslin strainer is the way to go.
You can also use a sift to strain most it out just before racking.
I got really tired of the hassle and started using a mesh bag.

 

[cpfan]

To the best of my recollection I've only tasted one kit (a riesling) that had the elderflowers added. I didn't like it. I did like the results of that kit when the elderflowers were omitted.

So now, I won't add the elderflowers to anything.

Steve

 

[100LL]

thanks for the advice guys. i think adding the elderflowers to the bag before fermentation seems to be the easiest way to go about this.
ill have to try to do it next time.

for now will those flowers sink to the bottom during clearing or will i have to deal with them during bottling?

 

[St Allie]

My suggestion would be to transfer it back into the primary through a sieve, get rid of all the flowers while it's still fermenting and carry on as usual.

Allie