Alcoholic Elderflower Champagne Recipe

Following on from the non alcoholic elderflower champagne it would have been wrong of me not to do an alcoholic version of it to enjoy on hot summer evenings we’re having.

The recipe I used for this is pretty much the same as my Grandad’s non alcoholic elderflower champagne recipe though I’ve tweaked it a bit adding lots more elderflower heads and more lemon too. Another addition is a pinch of yeast to help get the fermentation going, though the flowers have natural yeasts they often need a bit of a helping hand to turn some of that sugar into alcohol.

Alcoholic Elderflower Champagne

12 heads of Elderflower – remove the white flowers from the green stalks

1.1Kg White Sugar

3 tablespoons white wine vinegar

6 Litres Warm Water

6 lemons (juiced and rind cut up)

A pinch of Yeast (I used youngs Wine and Beer Yeast)

Equipment you may need

• Fermentation Bucket – Around £10
• Syphon – Makes transferring to bottles easy
• Star San – A great no rinse steriliser that’s easy to use and lasts ages
• Bottles – loads of options for swing top bottles, make sure they are strong

Method

1. Place flower heads in a bowl followed by the juice and rind of the lemon
2. Add the sugar and vinegar and then pour the water over
3. Stir to mix
4. Leave for 6-7 days in a warm place and then bottle

Make sure you bottle in nice strong bottles that can take the pressure, use either plastic fizzy pop bottles (my preference are the 1 litre ones), swing top beer bottle, old champagne bottles or beer bottles; basically anything that previously had something fizzy in it under pressure previously. Sanitise the bottles before filling, then keep them in the warm for a week or so to let them carbonate (you can release a little pressure if you use screw tops) then chill in the fridge and enjoy.

Elderflower Champagne is pretty volatile stuff and bottles are prone to exploding. Best to keep them somewhere easy to clean (ie not on the lounge carpet!), reduce the risk by using good bottles that can take the pressure!

Alcoholic and Non Alcoholic Elderflower Champagne