Ok, you need more than flowers but hey, the title got you here.

We recently made a batch of Elderberry Flower Cordial. I found the recipe at Food.com.

Well, since I’m new to fermenting, I didn’t have the cordial in a warm enough place to ferment. We ended up with a fizz-less, over sweet alcoholic syrup. Basically useless to me because I don’t like terribly sweet things, and I’m not going to give my kids alcohol syrup on their pancakes.

So, I added an additional 1/2 liter of water (a bottle of purified water that was room temperature). And found a proper place to ferment it. Left it there for a week and I opened the most wonderful bottle of champagne I have EVER made. 😉

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

15 large Elderberry Flower Heads, Shaken to remove bugs

4.5 Cups of Sugar (I prefer Morena Pure Cane Sugar. It has an amazing flavor all its own and it is much better for you.)

1 Lemon thinly sliced

5 cups boiling water

1 clean, plastic soda bottle with lid

 

Place flower heads in the bottom of a large bowl.

Lay lemon sliced on top of flowers.

Dump sugar evenly over lemons.

Pour boiling water over lemons.

Mix until sugar is dissolved.

Place lid on bowl or cover with plastic wrap.

Leave the container on your counter for 4 days.

Every day for the next 4 days, remove cover, mix and squish the lemons.

By day 4 you should have a little fizzy action going on.

Filter the liquid from the flower mix into your soda bottle.

Place cap on tightly.

Leave the soda bottle to ferment  in a warm/dark place for the next week. My fermentation spot ended up being the upstairs linen closet. Try to find a place that has a fairly consistent temperature.

Check occasionally for fizziness. The bottle will expand as the gas builds. You may need to release the gasses to prevent the bottle from making a huge mess in your linen closet………. *cough* (joking, that didn’t happen to me but it could).

By the end of the week you should have a lovely, floral champagne.

I think next time I will try reducing the sugar. I feel it lacks that crispness of champagne because of the sugar. But as I said, I don’t like overly sweet things. You could try reducing the sugar. Remember that the amount of sugar used has a direct effect on the fermentation. This was my first time making this, and I really have very limited experience with fermentation so please don’t expect more than this from me… hahaha.

Do you have any fermentation tips to share? How did your elderflower champagne turn out? Please comment and let me know!