Elderflower Errors?

[tonychef]

Hi,
During the summer i decided to give HFW's elderflower champagne recipe a shot. Using Champagne yeast, bottled water, 80 elderflower heads, citric acid, sugar and (as it would seem unfortunatly) white wine vinager. I left to ferment, strained then bottle 20 litres into the pet bottles that the water came out of. So far so good. However some months down the line when i come to test the brew i have 20 litres of wonderly perfumed, effervecent vinegar flavoured champagne. Is it the vinegar in the recipe that spoils the brew or have i introduced some kind of spoilage during the production? Does anyone have any ideas what i can do to bring this back to drinkable? i'm loath to chuck it knowing that it'd be next july before i could try again.

Any ideas would be welcomed at this stage
Cheers

[crafty john]

Put it on your chips, sounds like its infected. I wouldn't trust Hugh's brewing recipes or practices.

[boingy]

We've used that recipe two years running and it has worked well.
Daft question - are you sure you scaled up the recipe correctly?

[tonychef]

Maybe not, it looked a bit syrupy when i first strained it so i added let it down with more water.

What does the vinegar do in the brew anyway? Is it the for flavour or some kind of anti bacterial purpose?

[fatbloke]

Well I'd have thought that the recipe probably isn't far off, other than bloody vinegar ???

Maybe some other type of acid, but not until it's all fermented and finished i.e. just too taste maybe some malic or even tartaric acid. Certainly not acetic...........

[Gordonmull]

Um. Adding vinegar to wine is in the recipe I have for making wine vinegar!?

[critch]

i wouldnt put bloody vinegar in it!