Elderberry Champagne

[Llamas]

My Elderflower champagne is fizzling away nicely under the stairs, but with the recent anniversary gift of a ladder (ahh romance) I can now reach all the Elder branches I missed, and the berries which look way too tempting to pass up.

Now, does anyone know if it's possible to brew a nice sparkling fizz from the berries?

[shirlthegirl43]

I think the berries are used for jams, jellies and red wine

[rustylady]

Berries make good wine. The only way I know of to make it fizz is to ferment out till it is completely clear, then bottle and add some sugar, hoping to start secondary fermentation.

[Polly Fouracre]

As above but use a champagne wine yeast. (And use sparkling wine bottles, otherwise you may find exploding bottles!)

[Nelly]

You could always make a cordial/syrup concoction and have it as a long drink with sparkling water - that would give you elderberry fizz! Apparently the same stuff is also good for colds, with hot water in winter. I found a good-sounding recipe that I'm intending to try with some of my berries. I'll post it if you would like it. In fact I've got so many elderberry recipes that I want to try that I'm considering going out AGAIN to pick some more (I've picked 15lb so far but 9lb of that has gone into wine ).