Bird cherry (both black and red), to put it mildly, not the most successful wine material. The preparation of this berry requires a lot of time and effort, it is extremely reluctant to ferment, and the organoleptic drink itself is significantly inferior not only to currant, but even to mountain ash counterparts. Although, if there is a desire to try (so that you don’t want to anymore), you can use the following recipe.
They also prepare from bird cherry: tinctures, liqueurs and liqueurs.
Wine from cherry fruits
As in most cases, the berry should be very ripe and unwashed (the latter 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
Bird cherry berries – 5 kg;
Non-carbonated drinking water – 5 l;
Sugar – 1,5 kg;
Unwashed raisins – 100 g.
Method of preparation
Carefully knead the berry, devoid of plant excesses (including stalks), and transfer it to a capacious wide-mouthed bowl.
Pour 3 liters of water into a saucepan, add 1 kg of sugar, boil and simmer for up to five minutes over low heat, vigilantly removing the foam.
Cool the syrup to a temperature of 25-28°C.
Add the solution to the berry, add raisins and the remaining water there, after which, mix everything thoroughly and close the container with gauze (at the same time, the container should be filled no more than 2/3).
Put the capacity of the day for 3-4 days in a dark warm place (the most favorable temperature is 18-25 ° C). Do not forget to melt the pulp with a wooden spoon twice a day.
After the specified period, when the first signs of fermentation appear (foaming, hissing, sour smell), remove the wort from the pulp and pour into a narrow-necked glass vessel (for example: into a bottle). Then, squeeze out the remaining pulp there (at the same time, you need to make sure that the fermentation tank is filled with no more, but no less than ¾).
Cover the bottle with a lid with a water seal or pull a rubber medical glove with a tiny hole pierced in the finger over its neck and place it in the room where the preliminary fermentation took place.
After 5 days, decant about 250 ml of wort, dissolve 250 g of sugar in it and pour the resulting substance into a fermentation tank.
After another 5 days, repeat the above procedure.
After the complete disappearance of the signs of fermentation (deflation of the glove, the absence of bubbles from the water seal), carefully drain the wine from the sediment into a clean bottle (if the process does not stop after a month and a half from the start of active fermentation, it is necessary, in order to avoid the appearance of bitterness, pour the must into another container, without affecting the sediment, and let it ferment).
If desired, you can add sugar to taste to young wine, as well as fix the drink with vodka or diluted alcohol (up to 15% alcohol of the total liquid volume).
Fill the bottle to the top with a water seal again and send it to the basement for a week. After the specified period, you can remove the water seal and replace it with a sealed cover.
Keep the drink in the cellar for a couple more months. Each time, when a 3-cm layer of sediment appears, drain the liquid from it into the same clean container.
Pour the finished wine into bottles and seal them tightly. The drink should be stored in the same cellar for no more than 3 years.
Cherry flower wine
Some seasoned alcohol makers recommend using not only bird cherry berries, but also its inflorescences to make wine. Honestly, we ourselves would not dare to follow this advice. For lovers of alcoholic extreme sports, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the following recipe.
List of ingredients
Bird cherry inflorescences – a liter jar;
Sugar – 1,5 kg;
Water – 4 l;
Unwashed raisins – 100 g;
Lemons – 2 large or 3 medium;
Oranges (optional) – 2 pcs;
Fresh herbs (mint, thyme, oregano, snakehead, lemon balm or monarda: your choice and optional) – 2-3 pcs.
Method of preparation
Collect a liter jar of flowers (tear only fully formed, easily separated inflorescences; this should be done away from dusty roads, in the first half of the day and not earlier than a day after the rain).
Decompose the harvested crop for 2-3 days to dry, in order to get rid of the toxic essential oils contained in the bird cherry flowers.
Put the dried wine material into a clean saucepan, pour 4 liters of boiling water, mix and leave for a day under the lid.
Strain the liquid into a wide-mouthed container and squeeze the inflorescences into it, after which the latter can be thrown away.
Carefully remove the yellow zest from the lemons and squeeze the juice out of them into the future must. 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, you should 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.
If signs of fermentation appear, strain the wort through gauze, 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.
On the fifth and tenth days of fermentation, another 250 g of granulated sugar should be added to the substance, guided by the method described in the first recipe (as a result, the container should be filled no more than 3/4).
After about 30-50 days, the fermentation process should be completed; which means that 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 must still be removed from the sediment and poured into a clean tank to complete the process).
At this stage, you can make final 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 it was possible to do without additional sweetening, the result can be immediately bottled.
The final ripening of bottled wine takes place in a dark cool room with a temperature of 6-16 ° C for six months.
Relevance: 16.08.2017
Tags: Wine and vermouth, Wine recipes