After aging, the wine from honeysuckle berries turns out to be soft, tasty with a slight sourness and a delicate aroma of raw materials. The cooking technology is standard, except for the honeysuckle itself, only sugar and water are needed.
Ripe honeysuckle of any variety is suitable for winemaking (it only affects the shade). First, the berries need to be sorted out, removing the spoiled, rotten and moldy ones, which noticeably spoil the taste of the wine. Then be sure to sterilize all containers with boiling water and wipe with a dry, clean cloth so as not to infect the wort with third-party microorganisms, such as mold.
Ingredients:
- honeysuckle berries – 2 kg;
- water – 2 liters;
- sugar – 700 grams.
honeysuckle wine recipe
1. Sort the berries, separate the leaves, twigs and stalks. Rinse honeysuckle in cold running water.
2. Grind clean berries with your hands, a wooden pestle, a meat grinder or a blender until a homogeneous mushy state. You need to crush each berry.
3. Pour the resulting mass into a container with a wide neck – an enameled pan, bucket or plastic bowl.
4. Add all the water and 350 grams of sugar. Mix.
5. To protect against insects, bandage the neck with gauze or cover. Move the container to a dark room at room temperature. Leave for 4 days. Be sure to stir the must 2-3 times a day with your hand or a wooden stick, drowning the pulp in the juice – the skin that has floated to the surface.
After 6-12 hours from the moment of adding water and sugar, signs of fermentation will appear: foam, hiss, a slight sour smell, indicating the normal course of the process.
6. Filter the wort through a sieve or 2-3 layers of gauze. Press the cake well (no longer needed).
7. Add 100 grams of sugar to pure juice, mix.
8. Pour the wort into a fermentation tank, filling up to a maximum of 70% of the volume to leave room for the foam and carbon dioxide that will be created during the fermentation process. On the neck, install a water seal or a medical glove with a hole pierced by a needle in one of the fingers. Check the tightness of the fastening of the structure.
9. Transfer the container to a dark room (can be covered) with a temperature of 18-27 ° C and leave until the end of fermentation.
10. After 5 days from the date of installation of the water seal, add 150 grams of sugar. To do this: drain separately 150-200 ml of wort, dilute sugar in it, pour the finished syrup back into the fermentation tank and install a water seal. Repeat the procedure after another 5-6 days, adding the remaining sugar – 100 grams.
11. Depending on yeast activity and temperature, honeysuckle wine ferments for 30-60 days. The end of fermentation is indicated by the absence of bubbles from the water mash for 1-2 days (deflated glove), clarification of the must and a layer of sediment at the bottom.
Attention! If fermentation does not stop after 50 days from the start of preparation, you need to carefully drain the wine through a straw (decant) into another container, then leave to ferment under the same temperature conditions. With a long stay on the lees, the wine begins to taste bitter.
12. Carefully remove the fermented young honeysuckle wine from the sediment by pouring it through a tube into another container. If desired, add sugar for sweetness (to taste) or fix with vodka (alcohol) in an amount of 2-15% of the drink volume. Fortification promotes storage, but the drink becomes slightly less aromatic and harsher in taste.
13. Fill storage containers with honeysuckle wine to the top so that there is no contact with oxygen (preferably). Close hermetically. If at the previous stage sugar was added for sweetness, keep the first 7-10 days under a water seal.
14. Transfer the wine for maturation to a refrigerator or cellar with a temperature of 6-16°C for 3-6 months. Every 10-25 days, as sediment appears at the bottom with a layer of 2-5 cm, filter the drink by pouring it through a straw.
15. When sediment no longer appears, the drink can be bottled for storage and corked.
If stored in a cellar or refrigerator, the shelf life of homemade honeysuckle wine is 2-3 years. Fortress – 11-12%. The amount at the exit is approximately 60% of the initial volume of the wort.
