Try at home recipe… Elderflower Champagne

I’m sharing my family secret recipe which I have been using to create this wonderful bubbly for 15 years, it delicious but you’ll need to hoard some glass champagne bottle first as it’s powerful stuff and needs containing! I use champagne corks and wires too. It means you get the full explosion effect upon opening to impress your friends.

Make sure you pick the flowers on a sunny day to ensure you capture maximum natural yeast and flavour in the flowers. Makes 20 bottles

Ingredients

• 35 elderflowers heads
• 15 litres of water
• 800g granulated sugar
• 9 lemons
• 7.5 tbsp white wine vinegar

Method

• Boil water, add to sterilised container, when cold throw in flower heads, sliced (into eighths) lemons and wine vinegar. Let it stand for 24 hours.
• Be sure to sterilise and rinse you bottles, all straining and bottling equipment.
• Strain and bottle the liquid.
• Cork well, it is very fizzy, true to its nature.
• I soak the plastic corks in hot water first to make them more supple and bang into the bottles with a hammer, using pliers to tighten the wires around the neck of the bottle.
• Ready to enjoy after 4 weeks