or, getting rat-faced, sustainably!
We are not big on alcoholic drinks around here, Linda doesn’t drink at all and I probably do once or twice a year. Funnily enough the process of brewing beer is something I find fascinating but I can’t stand the taste of the stuff so there is not much point. Having said that, I read about elderflower Champaign some years ago and decided to make some just to see what it was like. We made it and the process that we went through worked very well, but when we got to the tasting, yuch! Fortunately my father found it very much to his liking and proceeded to guzzle the whole lot, and he was a wine drinker. So if you are into that sort of thing and are after some cheap and very locally produced booze, this article is for you!
Before we get started I would like to just make you aware that there are two elderberry species that I have seen available, Sambucus Nigra, the black elderberry and Sambucus Canadiensis which has lighter leaves and bark. For elderberry wine, jam etc Nigra is the best but seems to be rare whereas Canadiensis is more commonly available spreads by suckering and can be a bit of a bugger if it gets away from you. I have seen what I believe to be Canadiensis labelled as Nigra so you need to be careful.
You will need –
6 elder flower heads,
900gms of sugar,
2 tablespoons of white vinegar,
4.5 litres of cold water, and
Two large lemons, cut into thin slices.
The process –
1. Pick the flower heads and remove any bugs adhering to them, unless you like lots of body in your Champaign and put them in container large enough to take the brew, say 5 litres.
2. Put the rest of the ingredients into the container and mix to dissolve the sugar, cover and leave for 24 hours.
3. Strain out the solid stuff and pour into bottles. Even though there is no yeast in the mix natural wild yeasts will colonise the mix so I use PET bottles that can stand the pressure.
4. Leave for 2 months then consume chilled.
This is a very easy drink to make, you just need to leave enough time for fermentation so if you are making it for a friend’s wedding , make sure you get your timing right.
