The first American settlers brushed their teeth with dogwood berries, but now it is mainly an ornamental plant that adorns summer cottages. But lovers of homemade alcohol can benefit from these berries. I will tell you how to make dogwood wine at home according to a simple recipe. You will get a fragrant drink with an original taste.
To make wine, you need fresh, frozen or dried (two times less than indicated in the recipe) dogwood. Only berries without signs of rot and mold are suitable. All used containers must be washed with hot water and wiped dry.
Ingredients:
- dogwood berries – 2 kg;
- water – 2,5 liters;
- sugar – 600 gram;
- raisins – 50 grams (or wine yeast).
Raisins are needed as a source of wild yeast, it can be replaced with fresh unwashed grapes, raspberries or strawberries. Try to buy large flavored raisins, they are less processed with preservatives that kill yeast.
If you add ordinary dry or baker’s yeast, you get mash instead of wine.
Recipe for dogwood wine
1. 3-5 days before working with berries, prepare a starter. Wine yeast owners skip this step. Pour raisins (or unwashed crushed grapes, raspberries, strawberries) into a bottle, add 10 grams of sugar and 50 ml of water. Close the bottle with cotton wool or cover with gauze, put for 3-4 days in a dark place at room temperature. When foam appears, the sourdough is ready. If it doesn’t ferment, it means that the raisins are heavily processed with preservatives and another one is needed.
2. Wash the berries well, crush each with a spoon or rolling pin.
3. Cook syrup from 1,5 liters of water and 250 grams of sugar: bring to a boil, boil for 3-5 minutes, removing foam from the surface.
4. Pour the hot syrup over the dogwood berries in a container with a wide neck, for example, an enamel saucepan. After 10-15 minutes, add 1 liter of cold unboiled water. Mix. Wait for the wort to cool to room temperature.
5. Add the starter made at the first stage (along with raisins) or wine yeast. Mix.
6. Move the container to a dark place with a temperature of 18-25°C. Cover with gauze.
7. After 2-3 days, signs of fermentation will appear: foam, slight sour smell, hiss. It’s time to strain the berries through cheesecloth, they are no longer needed.
8. Add 150 grams of sugar to the fermented juice, mix, then pour the wort into the fermentation tank. Leave at least 25% of the volume free.
9. Install a water seal of any design or a medical glove on the neck, making a hole in one of the fingers with a needle. Check the tightness of the connections.
10. Transfer the container to a dark room (or cover) with a temperature of 18-26°C.
11. 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. After 3-4 days, repeat the procedure, adding the last 100 grams of sugar.
12. Depending on the temperature and yeast, fermentation lasts 25-60 days, then the airlock stops releasing gas (the glove will deflate), sediment will appear at the bottom, and the wort will become lighter. Drain the young dogwood wine through a straw into another container, without touching the sediment at the bottom.
If fermentation does not stop after 55 days from the start of preparation, so that the wine does not become bitter, you need to drain it from the sediment and put it under a water seal at the same temperature.
13. Taste the fermented wine, if desired, add sugar to taste or fix with vodka (alcohol) in an amount of 2-15% of the volume. Fortified wine keeps well, but is tougher in taste and not as aromatic.
14. Fill storage containers up to the neck so that there is no contact with oxygen, close hermetically (when adding sugar at the previous stage, keep under a water seal for the first 7-10 days) and transfer to ripening in a dark place with a temperature of 4-16 ° C. The exposure period is 4-6 months.
15. Once a month, remove the wine from the sediment, pouring it through a straw into another container. Cooking is complete when sediment no longer appears.
16. Pour the aged dogwood wine into bottles for storage, seal tightly. In the refrigerator or cellar, the drink can be stored for 3-4 years. Fortress – 10-12%.
