Elderflower Champagne

 

Ingredients

  • 750g sugar
  • 250ml white wine vinegar eg apple vinegar
  • water
  • 5 large elderberry blossoms
  • 1 lemon sliced with peel

Method

  1. Melt 250g of sugar with a lttle water.  Perhaps as little as 2 tbsps.
  2. Boil until the sugar / water mixture turns to caramel.
  3. Carefull add 1ltr of water and stir until dissolved.  Note caramel can be explosive.
  4. Add another 500 of sugar and pour into 6 litres of water (I use a brewing bucket)
  5. Add 250 ml wine vinegar
  6. Add the sliced lemon
  7. Leave for 3 to 4 days stirring once a day.  (I also add some natural yeast to speed up the process)
  8. Pour into plastic bottles eg Coke bottles, and keep in the cellar or fridge for at least one week before drinking.

Note the bottles are liable to explode and the drink can be very fizzy so open with caution.

This recipe was provided to me by Jiri Schneider who first came to stay with me as a young boy from a Communist Czechoslovakia he now lives in a free Czech Republic.  I went to stay with him some time ago and his mother had made this wonderful elderflower drink for us to consume.  I have made some since and it is really good.