Elderflower Fizz

A delicious alternative to soft drinks and alcohol, this sparkling elderflower fizz is a lovely refreshing summer drink for all to enjoy. It is a great alternative to champagne at Christmas if you are needing a break from or avoiding alcohol. This lovely effervescent drink brings the medicinal benefits of elderflowers and ginger in a wonderful wild ferment.

Ingredients:

Fresh elderflowers – approximately 12 flower heads.

3 inch or so chunk of fresh ginger.

2 lemons

3 cups of sugar or honey

2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar

8 litres of cold water

1-2 red fragrant roses (optional)

·         Chop the ginger and add to a saucepan with 3-4 cups of the water and simmer on low heat for 30-40min.

·         While still hot strain the ginger water into a 2nd saucepan and add the sugar/honey and stir until dissolved, set aside.

·         De-head the elderflowers by stripping the flowers off the florets into a clean and sterilised food grade bucket or similar (this is important as too much stem in the brew will give an unpleasant flavour and may make you crook due to the presence of cyanogenic glycosides in leaves, stems, and uncooked berries).

·         Chop the lemons into small slices or chunks and chuck in the bucket with the flowers.

·         Chuck rose petals in if using (they give a lovely pink blush to the finished drink)

·         Add the water to the bucket and add the sugar water too being careful not to heat the flowers and inadvertently killing the wild yeast (I usually mix cold water with the warm/hot sugar water to cool it down before adding it to the bucket).

·         Add the vinegar. Give it all a stir. Cover with a tea towel and set aside for two days giving an occasional stir (and taste).

·         After two days, strain well. I usually strain twice, first with a colander to get the big chunks out then with a fine mesh sieve to get the tiny bits out.

·         Bottle into clean sterilised bottles. PET bottles work well and allow for a bit of pressure build up. I use glass flip top bottles which occasionally give a rather dramatic opening experience.

·         Let the bottles sit at room temperature for a few weeks (longer in cold weather, less in warm temperatures). Refrigerate one bottle for a few hours and then test out the brew. If it tastes great and has plenty of fizz, put them all in the refrigerator. If not fizzy enough, leave for a few more days and then try it out again.

·         Serve chilled on a warm summer day and be sure to open carefully! 😉