Elderflower v Lavender v Nettle

Friends visiting was the perfect opportunity for a blind tasting of the three current brews. In the photo above from left to right are: Elderflower champagne, Lavender champagne and Nettle beer.

First thoughts on the identity concealed Elderflower champagne was that it looked like barley water. It smelt of flowers, sweet and nice a little like perfume. Opinions on the flavour were mixed. One person found it very sweet another thought it was not to sweet. Gorgeous and thoughts of soaking raspberries in it. L thought it was dangerous “give me a bottle of that and I’d soon be going out”

The Nettle beer was suspected of being a vegetable brew on smell – most likely suspect was potato. They thought the taste was crisp and herb like. One person thought it reminded them of something. Beautiful.

Onto the Lavender champagne which was instantly identified on aroma as “100% lavender”. The distinctive scent was fresh and floral. They thought it was pleasant. Comments varied from wanting “to bathe in it rather than drink” to how refreshing it would be on a hot day.
On marks out of 10 averages scores were as follows: Lavender champagne 6, Elderflower champagne 7 and Nettle beer coming out top with 8.5. The general feedback was that they would very happily purchase anyone of them from a shop. One person had drunk some nettle beer before – bought in a bar. But they felt the one they had previously had tasted a bit chemically.

All three drinks were fermented enough for drinking purposes, but I think that the flavour of the Lavender in particular will develop more over the next couple of months. I know from experience that the nettle beer, if you can bear to wait, becomes even lighter and crisper a year on.

Several more bottles were drunk and some is now making its way up to London on the train.