Wine and liqueur made from dogwood berries: 2 recipes at home

Dogwood wine has a peculiar sourness, which many novice winemakers try to get rid of by adding sugar at different stages. Vzboltai does not recommend doing this, because, firstly, you at least deprive the drink of its soul, and secondly, you risk getting absolutely frivolous alcohol at the exit, where the sweetness interrupts absolutely all the taste of the drink.

For dogwood liqueur, it is important to keep a balance between sweetness and sourness.

Find out the recipe liqueurs from dogwood.

Dogwood wine recipe

Ingredients

1. Dogwood berries - 2 kg

2. Water - 2.5 liters

3. Sugar - 600 g

4. Yeast - 1 tsp.

Method of preparation

1. Wash the berries well, crush each one with a spoon or rolling pin.

2. Boil sugar syrup from 1.5 liters of water and 250 grams of sugar.

3. Pour hot syrup over the dogwood berries in a wide-necked vessel. After 10-15 minutes, add 1 liter of cold spring water. Stir the wort. Wait for the wort to cool to room temperature.

4. Add yeast, stir and transfer the container to a dark place with a temperature of 18-25°C. Cover with gauze.

5. After 2-3 days, signs of fermentation should appear: foam, light sour odor, hissing. It's time to strain the berries through cheesecloth, they are no longer needed.

6. Add 150 grams of sugar to the fermented juice, stir, then pour the wort into the fermentation container. Leave at least 25% of the volume free.

7. Install a water seal or a pierced medical glove on the neck. Then transfer the container to a dark room (or cover) with a temperature of 18-26°C.

8. After 4-5 days, add sugar (100 grams). To do this, drain 200-300 ml of fermenting juice, place sugar in it. Pour the resulting syrup back out. After 3-4 days, repeat the procedure, adding the last 100 grams of sugar.

9. Depending on the temperature and yeast, fermentation lasts 25-60 days, then the hydroseal stops emitting gas (the glove will deflate), sediment will appear at the bottom, and the wort will become lighter.

10. Now you need to carefully drain the sediment of the young wine.

11. If the fermentation does not stop after 55 days from the start of preparation, to prevent the wine from becoming bitter, you need to drain it from the sediment and put it to fermentation under a hydroseal at the same temperature.

12. It's time to taste the fermented wine, add sugar to taste if desired, or fix it with vodka (alcohol) in the amount of 2-15% of the volume.

13. Once a month, remove the wine from the sediment by pouring it through a tube into another container. Cooking is complete when the sediment no longer appears.

14. Pour the aged dogwood wine into bottles and seal them hermetically. Store in the refrigerator or cellar for 3-4 years.

Dogwood liqueur recipe

Ingredients

1. Alcohol - 1 liter

2. Water - 500 ml

3. Dogwood berries - 1 kg

4. Sugar - 600 g

The method of preparation

1. Put the washed and dried berries in a large jar, pour alcohol, leave under the lid in a dark, warm place for 15 days.

2. Strain the tincture, mash the dogwood into gruel, filter the juice and mix with the tincture.

3. Prepare sugar syrup, cool, mix with tincture and pour into dry bottles.

4. Seal, keep in a dark place. The liquor can be drunk after 15 days, but it is better to let it stand for at least a month.

It should be borne in mind that there is simply no standardized recipe for dogwood wine, so having cooked once according to the "honed" recipe, you should derive your ideal proportions, which, by the way, you can share with us by writing to us by mail.

Update: 20.07.2018

Category: Wine and Vermouth