Contents
Honeysuckle wine at home is made in different ways – with and without yeast, with honey, without water, from fresh or frozen berries. The finished drink has a pleasant delicate aroma, amazing taste with slight sourness and a beautiful ruby-garnet color. All the beneficial properties of honeysuckle are preserved in hand-made wine, therefore, with moderate use, it will benefit the human body.
How to make honeysuckle wine
In order for the drink to turn out tasty, beautiful and fragrant, it is necessary to responsibly approach the choice of the main ingredient. The berries must be ripe, they are only allowed to be picked in dry weather. Next, they need to be carefully sorted out, removing rotten and moldy. Even one or two spoiled berries can partially worsen or completely spoil the future wine.
Clean and ripe honeysuckle is recommended not to be washed before making wine, but if there is a need for this, it will need to be dried thoroughly. In addition to ripe berries, frozen ones can be used to make wine.
The containers in which the drink will ferment are pre-sterilized with high quality so that the wort does not become infected with mold or other microorganisms. For cooking, glass, plastic or wooden utensils are suitable. Uncoated metal is not recommended.
To quickly dry the dishes, you can rinse or wipe with alcohol.
Recipes for making homemade honeysuckle wine
You can make homemade wine from honeysuckle according to many recipes. For beginners, the simplest, without yeast, is suitable. More experienced winemakers can make drinks with yeast, no water, honey, or frozen berries.
A simple honeysuckle wine recipe without yeast
This recipe is perfect for beginners. Its advantage is that a tasty and aromatic drink can be obtained using a minimum amount of ingredients. Yeast, vodka or other strong alcohol is not used.
Composition:
- 3 kg of berries;
- 3 kg of granulated sugar;
- 2,5 L of water.
Preparation:
- Sort the berries, wash, dry, chop and put in a container for fermentation. Top with sugar.
- Close the container tightly and put in a dark place for three days.
- After the start of fermentation, add 600 g of granulated sugar.
- Put on a water seal. Leave for further fermentation in a dark room with a constant temperature for 3-4 weeks.
- Strain the wine several times to achieve a suitable transparency. Pour into bottles.
- The young drink must be left for another 30 days, after which it is ready for use.
Honeysuckle wine with yeast
If yeast is used during the preparation of honeysuckle wine, the fermentation process is significantly reduced, the procedure itself becomes easier, and the finished drink will be stronger. This recipe is relevant if the berries are very acidic, because the acid interferes with the fermentation process.
Ingredients:
- 3 kg of berries;
- 300 grams of sugar;
- 1 L of water;
- 1 tsp yeast.
Recipe:
- Make a starter: mix the yeast according to the instructions with granulated sugar and put in a warm place.
- Prepare honeysuckle: sort, wash, chop, put in a fermentation container and leave until juice is obtained.
- Enter water and sugar.
- Remove the pulp, leaving only pure juice. After a few hours, pass through the filter.
- Add the prepared sourdough to the juice.
- Install a water seal or glove, put in a dark place for fermentation.
- After three months, the liquid is filtered and the water seal is re-installed.
- Wait another three months, then drain the wine and bottle it.
Wine from frozen honeysuckle at home
To prepare a delicious and aromatic alcoholic drink from honeysuckle, you can use not only fresh, but also frozen berries. Thus, homemade wine can be made at any time of the year. The process is practically the same as usual, but first you need to make juice from frozen ingredients.
Composition:
- 3 liters of juice;
- 300 grams of sugar;
- 100 g of raisins.
Preparation:
- Add water to the prepared juice and heat the liquid to 35 degrees.
- Add sugar, mix thoroughly, add raisins.
- Close the container tightly and put in a warm place to start fermentation.
- When the process is complete, strain the liquid and bottle.
- Young honeysuckle wine should be put in a cold place and kept for 3 months before drinking. During this time, it will acquire an excellent taste and aroma. If a precipitate forms, the drink is poured again to avoid bitterness.
In this recipe, raisins are used to speed up fermentation. You can replace it with unwashed, but clean grapes.
Honeysuckle wine with honey
Some winemakers add honey to the drink. In this case, it acquires a characteristic bright taste and a new aroma. For this recipe, it is recommended to use wooden oak barrels of any size.
Composition:
- 5 kg of honeysuckle;
- 10 L of water;
- 3 kg of sugar;
- 0,5 kg of honey.
Drink preparation:
- Prepare the berries: select spoiled ones, chop them with your hands, put them in containers for fermentation. Pour 6 liters of water.
- Infuse for four days, periodically stirring the pulp to avoid mold.
- Drain the juice, add the remaining water to the container. After six hours, squeeze the pulp and discard, and mix the liquid.
- Add honey, add sugar.
- Leave the juice to ferment for six months. Six months later, the wine is ready to drink.
Making wine from honeysuckle according to this recipe is difficult, so it is recommended that you first gain experience in simpler ways to make this alcoholic drink.
Honeysuckle wine without added water
To make the drink stronger and have a richer taste, it can be prepared without water. The berries contain a sufficient amount of juice so as not to dilute it with other liquids. This recipe is very simple and therefore suitable for beginner winemakers.
Composition:
- honeysuckle – 2 kg;
- granulated sugar – 500
Recipe:
- Sort the berries, remove spoiled and unripe ones, wash, chop in a meat grinder and leave for several days in a warm room so that they let the juice flow.
- Squeeze out the liquid from the pulp, and leave it in a cool place.
- Introduce 200 g of granulated sugar into the pulp and leave to infuse.
- Squeeze out the contents of the dishes again, mix the first and second juice, add the remaining sugar.
- Leave to ferment for 30 days in a dark room.
- Pour, strain the liquid, leave for another 30 days.
If the drink is sour, it goes well with meat dishes, and can also be used as a base for making sauces.
Terms and conditions of storage
If homemade homemade wine is stored in a refrigerator or in a cool room, it can be consumed for several years. To increase this period, it is allowed to fix it with vodka before pouring into prepared containers.
A drink bottled in glass bottles and corked with wooden corks is recommended to be stored horizontally. In this case, the corks are wetted from the inside with a liquid, which avoids drying and loss of tightness, leading to the evaporation of alcohol and deterioration of the taste of the drink.
Do not leave homemade wine in plastic containers for a long time. It allows oxygen to pass through, oxidation begins, the drink ferments and spoils again. Also, storage in glass containers closed with plastic or metal lids is not allowed. After two months, the wine will be unusable.
Conclusion
Honeysuckle wine at home is a tasty, aromatic drink with a slight sourness, the use of which in moderation will benefit a person. Inexperienced winemakers are advised to start by making drinks without yeast or without adding water, for those with experience, recipes using yeast or honey, as well as frozen berries, are suitable. The finished wine can be stored for up to several years if it is poured into a suitable dish and put in a dark, cool room or in the refrigerator.