In our garden we have a couple David Austin roses which are strongly scented, one of which always has masses of flowers made up of many densely packed petals (this is the one). So armed with scissors and a jug I collected 3 pints of petals.

The rest of the recipe is the same as the Elderflower Cordial apart from only using the rind of one of the lemons, only one additional tablespoon of citric acid and only heating it to around 70 degrees Celsius so as to not drive off the delicate rose flavour and scent.

I used 4 litres of water as this seemed to be the right amount of water as the petals were covered after giving them a bit of a mash.

I do slightly regret adding the Camden tablet as this caused the cordial to lose it’s delicate pink colour and turn more golden, but as the cordial wasn’t boiled it was needed to ensure it wouldn’t go off.

The result when diluted is a lovely combination of rose and lemon which is going a lot faster than the elderflower.

Ingredients:

• 4 litres hot water
• 700g sugar
• 4 lemons
• 20 – 25 pink elderflower heads
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp wine yeast

Put the hot water and sugar into a large pan or clean sterilised bucket and stir until the sugar has dissolved.

Top up with cold water so you have 6 litres in total of sugar solution.

Add the white wine vinegar, the juice and zest from the lemons and the elderflower heads (minus any beetles, caterpillars etc :-) ). Stir and cover. When the temperature is between 25 and 30°C add the yeast, give it a stir and cover.

Leave in a warm place to ferment.

After a week strain through a filter bag or clean muslin into a pan, and you should have something which looks like this:-

Yes it really does look that pink in the pan. When you see it against the light it is a much more delicate colour as you can see from this next shot:

Transfer into bottles. These must be strong and capable of withstanding the pressure which will build up during the next phase. I used Grolsch-style swing-top bottles but unfortunately mine are amber so I am ordering some clear ones from Hop and Grape and will start another batch off tomorrow.

Seal the bottles and leave them for a week for the fermentation process to continue and carbonate the champagne, then place in the fridge to stop the fermentation. Serve chilled. Left in the fridge the champagne should keep for a couple months.

Enjoy :-)

This is easy to make and will provide you with plenty of cordial to last the summer.

Ingredients:

• 1 carrier bag of elderflower heads
• 2 lemons
• 1 camden tablet
• 2.25 kg sugar
• 3 tbsp citric acid
• 3 litres water

Trim the excess stalks from the elderflowers and place them in a bucket/large pan, making sure that you remove any beetles, caterpillars etc.

Add the water, adding more if the flowers aren’t covered. Add the juice from the lemons, cut the rinds into chunks and add these too. Give the mix a good stir and cover with the lid or a cloth.

Leave for 4 days, giving it a stir every day.

After four days strain the mixture into a large pan using a a straining bag or clean, sterile muslin.

Measure the liquid and for every litre add 1 tbsp of citric acid and 750g of sugar (the ingredients list assumes that you will have 3 litres of liquid). Add an additional 2 tbsp of citric acid and gently bring the liquid to the boil, stirring  all the time to make sure the sugar dissolves and doesn’t stick on the bottom of the pan.

When it starts to boil, leave it boiling gently for about a minute then turn off the heat and leave to cool.

When it is around 25°C, crush the camden tablet and stir into the liquid ensuring that it dissolves.

Transfer into sterilised bottles and keep in a cool dark cupboard or the fridge, but the cupboard should be fine as the camden tablet acts as a preservative.

We have found that this is best when diluted 1 part cordial to 4 parts water.

Enjoy!

After a bit of googling, I came across the idea of “short” mead. This is where you ferment it in a demijohn as usual, but bottle it after 5 days and put the bottles in the fridge to halt the fermentation. So intrigued by the idea I thought I would give it a go.

I have just bottled the results of the following recipe, and the initial tasting is very promising. Just need to see what it tastes like after it has been chilled and has settled.

Anyway, onto the recipe.

To make ≈ 1 gallon of mead you will need:

• 2.2 kg Honey (I used 2 and a half large jars of clear honey from ASDA)
• 3.5 litres of water
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 250 ml strong black tea
• 20 cloves
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp wine yeast (or a sachet of champagne yeast if you can get it)
• Large pan (must hold more than a gallon)
• Demijohn
• Enough bottles to hold a gallon of mead, Grolsch style are best

Bring the water to the boil in the pan. When it is boiling, remove from the heat and slowly add the honey stirring all the time to make sure that it doesn’t stick on the bottom of the pan.

Add the cloves, nutmeg, lemon juice and the tea. Cover and leave to cool.

When it has cooled to 25-30°C, stir in the yeast and transfer to a sterilised demijohn. Fit an airlock and leave to bubble away.

After 5 days remove the airlock and use a straw to have a taste, it will still be cloudy but don’t worry. If it is too sweet for your taste re-fit the airlock and leave for another day and taste again. If it is to your liking then it is time to bottle.

Use a siphon to transfer the mead to the sterilised bottles, leaving the sediment behind. Seal the bottles and place in a fridge to stop the fermentation process.

If you don’t put the bottles in the fridge then the fermentation process will continue in the bottles until all the sugar content has been used up or the bottles explode. This is why the Grolsch style bottles are best as they will cope with the pressure of any CO2 produced before the process stops in the fridge, and any excess pressure will escape past the rubber seal.

If you don’t mind it being cloudy you can drink this straightaway, but the longer you leave it the clearer it will become (just be careful not to stir up the sediment when you pour it).

You must keep this in the fridge because as soon as it gets to room temperature the yeast will re-activate and start the fermentation process again.

Update 20/06/2010
The mead was field or rather woodland glade tested at a solstice gathering last night to much success. The three litres I took along disappeared very quickly.

Will have to buy some more honey and make another couple of batches.

Called into Wilkinson’s in Andover at the weekend but they were out of stock and didn’t know when they would be getting any more.

Today I called into Wilkinson’s in Basingstoke to find that their idea of a homebrew section is three wine kits and a fermentation lock, so I thought I would try Boots.

I enquired at the pharmacy counter and was told “Sorry we don’t sell that as it is a chemical.” to which I replied “Like everything else in the pharmacy?” and received a blank look.

Next I tried the pharmacy counter in SuperDrug. Success they had just received some in stock but needed to know what I wanted it for so told them home wine and cordial making. I was passed a 50g box of citric acid, but when I asked for a second pack as I need 75g was told that it is restricted to one 50g box per customer as some people use it when taking drugs.

“Like tinfoil, matches and lighters?” I asked,  ”I suppose teaspoons are also used and you can buy those.” replied the assistant whilst shrugging her shoulders.

Anyway I handed over my 94p for my 50g box which will just have to do for now, and headed back to my office annoyed about the stupidity of the country we live in, especially as I have just ordered 500g from a homebrew supplies shop for £3.20, no questions asked.

• 1 x 1.5kg can of Brupaks Pale Liquid Malt Extract
• 2 x 500g packs of Muntons Light Dried Malt Extract
• 50g East Kent Goldings hops
• 25g Progress hops
• 1 pack of Danstar Nottingham yeast
• 1 tsp Irish Moss
• sugar/DME for priming

Put 12 litres of water in a pan and start bringing it to the boil.

Whilst it is heating up, place the unopened can of liquid malt extract in warm water to make it easier to remove from the can.

When the water reaches around 70°C, add the can of malt extract, rinsing out the can in the hot liquid to get every last drop and keep stirring to ensure it doesn’t stick and burn on the bottom of the pan.

Add the dried malt extract and stir until it has dissolved completely.

When the liquid starts to boil add 20g of East Kent Goldings and 15g of Progress.

Half an hour later add 15g of East Kent Goldings and 10g of Progress.

Prepare the yeast starter as per the instructions on the pack.

20 minutes later add the Irish Moss and if using a chiller coil place it in the liquid now to sterilise.

5 minutes later add the last 15g of East Kent Goldings and the zest of an orange.

After a further 5 minutes turn off the heat and start cooling the liquid either by turning on the flow of water into the chiller coil or by placing the pan in a bath of ice/very cold water.

When the temperature reaches 35°C, strain the wort into the fermenting bin and top up with cold water to the 23 Litre mark Pour the water from a height to help aerate it.

Measure the specific gravity and keep a record.

Bring the temperature of the yeast starter in line with that of the wort by adding small amounts of wort every couple of minutes. When the temperature is within a degree or two,  add the yeast to the wort and fit the lid to the fermenting bin.

Place the bin on a heat mat or in a room with a temperature of 20°C and leave to ferment for 7 days.

Transfer to a second fermenting bin and leave at 20°C until fermentation has completely ceased (S.G. should be about 1009 and stay constant for 2 days).

Transfer to bottles which have been primed with ½tsp of sugar or DME or a barrel which has been primed with 100g of sugar or DME.

Leave for two weeks before giving in to temptation and having a taste, but better left for a month.

Update 08/08/2010

I recently made a second batch of this but used Extra Light DME, Danstar Windsor yeast (adds more fruity esters to the the beer), and added the zest and juice of 2 oranges when transferred to the second fermenting bin. This has resulted in a beer with a lovely zestiness and hint of orange.

Roll on to the end of January and the beer was beautiful. The colour, bitterness and flavour were very comparable to Hobgoblin just slightly less carbonated which is not a bad thing as sometimes Hobgoblin can be a bit gassy.

The only problem is that it is too nice and I am down to my last eleven bottles so it is time to get brewing. The hops and malt extract arrived this morning so I just have to get one of the boys to leave the house (the smell of boiling hops makes him sick) and I can get brewing again.

Now that I have come up with a recipe that works it is time to start experimenting with some other beer types. Wonder what I will attempt next…..

First off, the cider. This turned out to be a really nice strong dry cider with just the right amount of sparkle. It was so popular that it has all gone. Just as well I have a second batch ready for bottling.

The nettle beer had much improved since the last tasting. Originally it was very sharp especially on the first sip, but a few weeks of maturing has made the world of difference and it is now really nice and very strong (no idea how strong as I didn’t measure the original and final gravities).

Quite successful I think.

After 6 days the specific gravity has dropped from 1044 to 1014 which if bottled now would result in an alcohol of about 4.6%, but after a further 14 days fermentation should drop to get the result closer to Hobgoblin’s 5.2%.

The colour is spot on and the flavour even at this stage (well you can’t help having a taste when starting the siphon) is pretty close.

Looks like it is going to be a good new year :0)

One of my favourite beers is Wychwood Brewery’s Hobgoblin so I thought that for my first recipe I would see if I can come up with my own version of it, hence the name Hobblegobble. After a bit of searching around some of the homebrew fora I found someone else’s recipe for a Hobgoblin clone and adjusted it to suit the lower Alphaic Acid (what makes bitter bitter) levels of the available hops and the malt extracts I could purchase.

My recipe is as follows:

To make 5 UK gallons of Hobblegobble:

Speciality Grains:

• 180g Carapils Malt
• 180g Light Crystal Malt
• 98g Chocolate Malt

Extract:

• 2 x 1.5kg tins of Brupak Amber Malt Extract
• 500g Muntons Light Spraymalt

Hops:

• 85g Fuggles (4.2% AA)
• 85g Styrian Goldings (3.2%AA)

Other:

• Irish Moss
• 1pkt Danstar “Nottingham” yeast

In a large pan, heat up 12.5 litres of water to about 75°C. Place the crushed grains in a muslin/nylon hop or grain bag and place the bag in the hot water.

Stand the two tins of malt extract unopened in some hand hot water to help make it runny.

Leave to steep for half an hour, then remove the bag and give it a squeeze to get as much liquid and sticky extract out that you can and then discard the used grains.

Add the malt extract, rinsing the tins out in the malty-liquid to get every last drop out of the tins, and keep stirring to make sure it doesn’t stick on the bottom of the pan. When you add the dried malt extract it will go lumpy at first but it will disappear as you keep stirring.

Bring the wort to the boil.

When it starts boiling add 40g of Fuggles hops and 40g of Styrian Goldings hops and stir them in.

Half an hour later add 30g of Fuggles and 30g of Styrian Goldings and stir them in.

20 minutes later, add 1tsp of Irish Moss.

If you are using a chiller, place it in the wort now to sterilise it (but don’t turn on the cold water!!).

10 minutes later add 15g of Fuggles and 15g of Styrian Goldings and switch off the heat.

Leave for a minute and then cool the boiling wort using either a chiller like my D.I.Y. chiller or put the pot in a bath/sink of cold water and ice. If you don’t have ice, just make sure that the water is changed frequently.

When the wort reaches 30-40°C, strain the wort into your primary fermenting bin and top it up to 5.5 gallons making sure that as you top up the water you agitate the wort to get some oxygen into it.

Measure the Original Gravity (see the post on homemade cider).

Add the yeast as per the instructions on the packet, put the lid on the fermenting bin and leave in a warm place (approx 20°C) for 7 days.

Transfer to a second fermenting bin (transfer as much liquid as you can without transferring much of the solids) and leave for a further 14 days at 20°C.

Measure the final gravity and calculate the alcohol using the formula in my cider posting.

If you are going to bottle the beer then put ½tsp of dried malt extract or white sugar in the bottom of each bottle, or if you are using a pressure barrel add 100gm of dried malt extract or white sugar to the barrel.

Leave for three weeks in a warmish room (about 15°C) for three weeks before drinking.

So far I am only 2 days into the first fermentation and the beer will not be ready for drinking till the New Year. Something to look forward to I suppose :-).