IKEA Elderflower Wine

[tradowsk]

I always loved the Elderflower Juice drink from Ikea, so I though I would make a wine with it and see what happens. Tonight we cracked open the first bottle (which was bottled in September) and it got really good reviews from the family so I thought I would share the recipe. The final result for me was semi-sweet with a unique flavor that reminds me of bosc pear and pineapple.

This is for 1 gallon:
2 500mL bottles of IKEA Elderflower Juice
1 lemon
GoFerm
FermaidO
1/2tsp grape tannin (mine is generic from my LHBS, so it's not too strong)
white sugar
BM 4x4 yeast

I treated this like a mead owing to the lack of actual fruit or nutrients, and used a TOSNA-2 nutrient addition schedule.

Rehydrate yeast in cup with warm water and GoFerm as per instructions
Take 1 (one) bottle of elderflower juice and add to fermentation bucket
Add 3L spring water, mix thoroughly
Add sugar to SG 1.090
Add juice of the lemon (do not add the zest/rind)
Add additional water up to 132oz
Pitch the yeast
Add nutrients according to TOSNA-2 schedule
Rack when SG is 1.020
When SG stabilizes below 1.000 (mine was 0.995) for a week, rack again
Degas and add grape tannin and kmeta
Once cleared, backsweeten with the other bottle of elderflower juice (I ended up using about 1/3rd the bottle IIRC) and add ksorbate.
Leave in carboy for a week to make sure it's still clear, then bottle

If you wanted to do this as a dry or semi-dry, I would add both bottles of elderflower juice to the primary and then use simple syrup to backsweeten if needed since the juice can have a certain cloyingness to it that wouldn't work in a drier wine. I would also add the lemon juice in secondary instead of primary since backsweetening with the juice adds acidity as well.

 

[salcoco]

https://winemaking.jackkeller.net/index.asp contains a recipe for elderflower wine . it suggest using real flowers. I have made one using dried elderfoweers that did well in last year's wine competition.

 

[tradowsk]

Yeah this is definitely not the traditional elderflower wine, much less floral. But it's a good cheap porch sipper that quick to make

 

[tradowsk]

Bottled this in September 2018 and cracked open a bottle over the weekend, and wow was I surprised! It tasted nothing like elderflower, but rather an almost jolly rancher-like green apple with bosc pear and citrus notes. Was really tasty and well-balanced and, like I said, an unexpected.