Not really champagne of course, not least because it only has around 1.5% alcohol. But this makes it a lovely lightly fizzy, not too sweet, mildly alcoholic drink perfect for relaxing with friends over a long lunch. Elder trees are flowering right now and this is so, so very easy to make.
You need, besides very fresh, fully open elderflowers, just sugar, lemons, and a little bit of wine vinegar. The only equipment – a large, clean bowl or bucket, cheesecloth or similar to cover it, a strainer and a funnel, and some very clean 2 litre plastic bottles. That’s it. And you can plan the long lunch for any time after a fortnight.
The elderflowers naturally contain enough yeast to ferment the sugar and create a pleasant fizz along with a little bit of alcohol. They just need to be fresh, and the rest of the equipment clean so as to avoid introducing enough of another yeast to out-compete the champagne-producing yeast. You could probably use glass bottles – I haven’t tried it – but elderflower champagne has even more of a reputation than ginger beer for dramatic explosions. I used two litre plastic milk bottles for this batch, rinsed in boiling water a couple of times and then dried in the sun. They work perfectly, just enough expansion to contain the fizz without exploding.
For each two litre bottle, you need 4 flower heads and a very clean bowl or bucket big enough to hold 1.5 litres of lukewarm water. Strip the flowers from the major stem. Don’t wash them but check for insects – lots of little nectar eaters are likely to be hiding in them. Add them (the flowers, not the nectar eaters) to the water along with the juice and the pared rind of half a small lemon, a generous cup of caster sugar (if you use a proper measuring cup, it’s a cup and a spoonful really) and a couple of teaspoons of wine vinegar. I would normally use white wine vinegar but I didn’t have any so I used rice wine vinegar for this batch and it worked fine.
Stir to dissolve the sugar, cover the bowl with clean cheesecloth or similar to keep insects out, and leave it in a cool place for 24 hours.
After 24 hours, strain out the flowers and the lemon rind and bottle the liquid in your 2 litre plastic bottles. They will only be 3/4 full and that’s fine – you need enough air gap for the ferment gasses. Put the lids on and leave the bottles in a cool place to ferment for a fortnight. I leave them on my kitchen bench where I can keep an eye on them. After about a week, the bottles should start to look like they want to blow up. Loosen the lids and you will hear the gas escape. Burp them like this every day or two.
The champagne is ready to drink in about a fortnight. Screw the lids down tight and put the bottles in the fridge. They will stop fermenting at fridge temperatures and keep for quite a long time, a month or so at least, and I don’t have fridge room to keep for longer. But it’s worth keeping an eye on them anyway, lest you end up with a sticky spray all over the fridge contents. Out of the fridge, they will keep fermenting, the yeast will eat up all the sugar and they will become more alcoholic, more vinegar, and more explosive. Be warned!
Serve cold in pretty glasses with a garnish of melissa (lemon balm) or borage flowers, and maybe one of those just coming into season strawberries.
