I've made elderflower champagne and it's gorgeous.

[TheDuchessOfNorksBride]

And very fizzy. 8 bottles cost no more than £5 to make and it's very, very easy.

Next year, I shall mostly be making it by the dustbin load. It's only 4% alcohol so compatible with b/f.

It is lovely isn't it. I use my granny's recipe which is water, elderflower heads, lemons and sugar. Very cheap to make. Watch out of the bottles blowing their corks in the middle of the night though. I thought someone was shooting in my kitchen at 3am

Here's the receipt, it's Hugh FWs.

oh oh recipe please!!!
last year ours went completely flat except for two bottles which exploded.
what bottles are you using?
we still have lote of elderflowers as we are up north

I've used screw caps and Grolsch type bottles - the only standard cork I used, did indeed explode across the cellar!

yes i think the spring /fliptop bottle may be the answer.left ours in the cloakroom and every coat still whiffs a bit of elder

so it will keep longer than 8 days? if you aren't going to drink it all in one go ?

I like the sound of it.

The screw cap bottles are old wine bottles I dug out of my over-large recyling bin and the Grolsch type ones I bought from Ascott. I actually bought them for cider but won't need them until later in the year.

I imagine it will keep for several months. But as we only have 8 bottles I'll be surprised if it sees the week month out.

Brilliant; this will be my project for the weekend. Thanks!

When my mum used to make it she used demijohn bottles with rubber bungs. Never bothered to decant into small bottles.

Update: You really must use spring-top lids or buy champagne corks & wires from a wine-making shop. My screw tops are not up to the job and have started leaking air and dripping champagne.

So we'll definitely finish drinking it this weekend before they explode.

Oh what a shame you've got to drink it all .
If you struggle send some my way....

My dad used to make this, it is lovely but all the bottles did explode, well the corks popped out. My dsis's bf makes it and keeps it in plastic screwtop bottles that had pop in them originally.

i'd love to make this. but where did you find the elderflowers? did you pick your own?

bumping for totalmisfit and Lilo! I remember seeing elderflower bushes in our local wood. But live no-where near there now and haven't any idea where I might get some. Does sound wonderful...

We went for a walk today and passed some elderflower bushes in the hedgerows - mostly they were past flowering but the occasional one had just one or two small flower heads left (mostly very high up) all the lower ones had finished and were well on the way to turning to elderberries. We managed to collect just about enough for an 8 bottle batch & have set them going. If anyone's going to try this this year don't leave it - get out & collect the flowers very soon as they're are pretty much over (but maybe not so much up north).

We cracked open our first ever batch last night - totally fab! I'm ridiculously pleased with myself for being able to produce something fizzy.

The elderflowers are more or less finished here too, I'm now waiting for the elderberries to make elderberry and bramble jelly.

I'm very . I depserately wanted to make some this year but left it too late and all the flowers have been stripped off - I blame Hugh FW!

Oh, and re the exploding bottles - I made mine from a recipe on the net which suggested using plastic bottles and when you decant it into the bottles, screw the lid on then undo it half a turn. After a week or so screw them on tight again. Worked for us, no explosions yet.

TDONB - did yours look actively frothy before you bottled it? Mine has been sitting in a bucket in the cloakroom for the past week, and it's making a faint bubbling noise when you put your ear to it, but no froth . . .

bram - it had a small amount of froth and was very slightly bubbly when agitated. After being bottled I could see the teeniest dots of bubbles rising to the surface. Within 24 hours it was fizzy enough to blow corks out!

Plastic is worth a go I think. But all our elderflowers have gone (we have lots of elder trees at home) so no more cordial or champagne and sadly I'm not so keen on elderberry wine!

Ah-ha - I shall bottle tomorrow night. Thanks!

Ours is ready to try tonight. Should I chill the bottle or leave it a room temp?