Elderflower Champagne Day One

Ingredients to make Six Litres of Elderflower Champagne: 

4 litres hot water

2 litres cold water

700g sugar

The juice and the zest of 4 lemons

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

About 16 elderflower heads, in full bloom

A pinch of yeast (you may not need this)

Method to make Elderflower Champagne
1. In a spotlessly clean clear or white container, dissolve your sugar in 4 litres of hot water, stir and then add 2 extra litres of cold water.
2. Stir the Elderflower heads. Vinegar, Lemon juice and zest into your water and sugar mixture.
3. Cover with a clean piece of muslin, leave to ferment in a cool, airy place for a couple of days, check fermentation then leave for a further 5-7 days.
4. Prepare 6 x 1 Litre bottles preferably with swingtop lids or large plastic torpedo shaped bottles ready to decant your fizz into in about a week's time.

At last the Elderflowers were ready to pick a few days ago and so the alchemy began. We are actually at day three in the process and tiny bubbles are appearing on the surface of the brew to which I did add a tiny pinch of yeast to kickstart fermentation on day two. So far I think all is going well and I shall now put the solution away and wait until next week when we should be at bottling stage. Stay tuned for the next scintillating episode of Moonshiners! We'll have to wait until October to see the finished result....!