Wine from bird cherry: 2 recipes at home

Bird cherry (both black and red), to put it mildly, is not the most successful wine material. Preparation of this berry requires a lot of time and effort, it is extremely reluctant to ferment, and the drink itself is significantly inferior in terms of organoleptic properties not only to currant, but even rowan analogues. Although, if you want to try it (so that you don't want to do it again), you can use the following recipe.

They also make wine from bird cherry: tinctures, Liqueurs and liqueurs.

Wine from bird cherry fruit

As in most similar cases, the berry should be very ripe and unwashed (the latter is to preserve the precious wild yeast that ensures fermentation). Also, we must not forget about the sterile cleanliness of all available equipment.

List of ingredients

1. Bird cherry berries - 5 kg;

2. Still drinking water - 5 liters;

3. Sugar - 1.5 kg;

4. Unwashed raisins - 100 g.

Method of preparation

1. Thoroughly mash the picked berry, devoid of vegetable excesses (including stalks) and transfer it to a spacious wide-mouth container.

2. Pour 3 liters of water into a saucepan, add 1 kg of sugar, boil and simmer for up to five minutes, carefully removing the foam.

3. Cool the syrup to a temperature of 25-28°C.

4. Add the solution to the berries, add raisins and the remaining water, then mix everything thoroughly and close the container with cheesecloth (at the same time, the vessel should be filled no more than 2/3 full).

5. Put the container in a dark, warm place for 3-4 days (the most favorable temperature is 18-25°C). Do not forget to mash the pulp twice a day with a wooden spoon.

6. After the specified period, when the first signs of fermentation appear (foaming, hissing, sour odor), remove the wort from the pulp and pour into a narrow-mouthed glass container (e.g., a bottle). Then, squeeze out the remaining pulp in the same place (at the same time, you need to make sure that the fermentation container is filled no more than ¾ full, but not less than ¾ full).

7. Cover the bottle with a lid with a water seal or put a rubber medical glove with a tiny hole pierced in the finger on its neck and put it in the room where the previous fermentation took place.

8. After 5 days, decant about 250 ml of wort, dissolve 250 g of sugar in it and pour the resulting substance into a fermentation container.

9. After another 5 days, repeat the above procedure.

10. After the signs of fermentation have completely disappeared (glove swelling, no bubbles from the water seal), carefully pour the wine from the sediment into a clean bottle (if the process does not stop within a month and a half from the start of active fermentation, in order to avoid the appearance of bitterness, pour the wort into another container without touching the sediment and let it ferment).

11. If desired, sugar can be added to the young wine to taste, and the drink can also be fortified with vodka or diluted alcohol (up to 15% alcohol by volume).

12. Fill the bottle to the top again with a water seal and send it to the basement for a week. After the specified period, you can remove the water seal and replace it with an airtight lid.

13. Keep the drink in the basement for a few more months. Every time a 3-centimeter layer of sediment appears, pour the liquid from it into an equally clean container.

14. Pour the finished wine into bottles and seal them hermetically. Store the drink in the same cellar for no more than 3 years.

Wine from bird cherry blossoms

Some experienced alcomakers recommend using not only bird cherry berries, but also its inflorescences to make wine. To be honest, we would not have dared to follow this advice ourselves. For fans of alcoholic extreme, we suggest you familiarize yourself with the following recipe.

List of ingredients

1. Bird cherry blossoms - a liter jar;

2. Sugar - 1.5 kg;

3. Water - 4 liters;

4. Unwashed raisins - 100 g;

5. Lemons - 2 large or 3 medium ones;

6. Oranges (optional) - 2 pcs;

7. Fresh herbs (mint, thyme, oregano, snakehead, lemon balm or monarda: optional and optional) - 2-3 pcs.

Method of preparation

1. Collect a liter jar of flowers (tear only fully formed and easily separated inflorescences; this should be done away from dusty roads, in the morning and no earlier than a day after the rain).

2. Lay out the harvest for 2-3 days to dry to get rid of the toxic essential oils contained in bird cherry blossoms.

3. Put the dried wine material in a clean saucepan, pour 4 liters of boiling water, stir and leave for a day under the lid.

4. Strain the liquid into a wide-mouthed container and squeeze the inflorescences into it, after which the latter can be discarded.

5. Carefully remove the yellow zest from the lemons and squeeze the juice from them into the future wort. If you want to enhance the citrus effect, add lemon zest to the liquid. If you want to diversify it, squeeze the juice from peeled oranges. Next, add unwashed raisins, 500 g of sugar and your favorite herbs, tie the neck of the vessel with gauze and leave the vessel in a dark, warm place until fermentation begins.

6. When signs of fermentation appear, strain the wort through cheesecloth, pour into a clean container, add another 500 g of sugar, tightly close the lid with a water seal and return to a dark, dry place.

7. On the fifth and tenth day of fermentation, another 250 g of granulated sugar should be added to the substance, guided by the method outlined in to the first recipe (in the end, the container should be no more than 3/4 full).

8. After about 30-50 days, the fermentation process should be complete; therefore, the future drink should be carefully drained from the sediment (at the same time, if fermentation does not stop by the specified maximum period, the substance should still be removed from the sediment and poured into a clean container to complete the process).

9. At this stage, you can make the last changes to the composition of the wine. For example, add sugar to taste. In the latter case, in order to avoid unpleasant surprises associated with fermentation, the drink should be kept under a water seal for another week. If you managed to do without additional sweetening, the result can be bottled immediately.

10. The final maturation of bottled wine takes place in a dark, cool room with a temperature of 6-16°C for six months.

Update: 16.08.2017

Category: Wine and Vermouth