Bird cherry is a kind of berry. Delicious, but don’t eat too much. But making homemade wine from bird cherry is very useful. And the nutritional value of the berries will be preserved, and a pleasant tart drink is always welcome. Homemade wines differ from store-bought ones in ease of preparation, budget and good energy. With your own hands, you can make a wonderful fragrant drink that will appeal to family members and guests. The astringent taste of fresh berries, which many do not like, gives the wine originality. Bird cherry contains pectin, useful for older people. Therefore, it is worth paying attention to beautiful fruits. Bird cherry is often left out.
Housewives prefer wines made from grapes, currants, plums, but they may not even remember about bird cherry. But if you try this amazing product at least once, then bird cherry wine will take its rightful place in the list of blanks.
Consider a simple way to make wine from black or red bird cherry at home.
Strong bird cherry drink – preparatory stage
For cooking we need:
- bird cherry berries in the amount of 5 kg;
- pure water in a volume of 5 l;
- granulated sugar – 1,5 kg (ideally, you can take 250 g per 1 kg of berries);
- black raisins – 70 g.
First, prepare a glass container. You can take a volume of 10 or 15 liters. It depends on the number of berries and needs. Wash the bottle, dry it, cover with a clean lid or cloth.
We turn to the preparation of berries. The very first thing to do is sort out the fruits of the bird cherry. To make the wine tasty and fragrant, we need ripe, but not overripe berries. Too soft is better to postpone. At the time of sorting, we remove spoiled berries, leaves, twigs, any debris.
Water washes natural yeast from the surface of the fruit, so fermentation will be weak and the drink may not work.
We pour the clean, sorted fruits of the bird cherry into a convenient basin and knead. When all the berries are still whole, you can take a mortar, then continue with your hands. Be sure to wear gloves so that your hands do not become the color of bird cherry. We knead thoroughly.
We prepare wine from black or red bird cherry on sugar syrup. Therefore, it will have to be prepared. Housewives know how to prepare jam syrup. The technology in the wine process remains the same:
- Pour the sugar according to the recipe into an enameled bowl and fill it with water.
- Mix well so that the syrup does not burn later.
- We boil sweet water for 3-5 minutes, not forgetting to remove the foam.
- Remove from heat and set aside to cool to 20°C.
We prepare the wort. It is better to make it in a separate bowl, and then put the wine in a pre-prepared container.
Pour the berries with syrup, add the washed raisins and cover the container with gauze folded in three layers. Be sure to fix the edges, you can use an elastic band. We remove the pan in a warm and dark room. Holding time of three days or more. During this time, do not forget to stir the contents daily to remove excess acid. As soon as fermentation begins, the wort is ready. The beginning of fermentation is easy to determine by the appearance of:
- foam on the surface;
- bubbles in the contents of the pan;
- characteristic smell of mash;
- hissing and seething wort.
Now we take the prepared container and pour the resulting wine into it, which must stand and replay.
The main stage of wine making
For proper fermentation, it is necessary to make a water seal on the bottle. Usually at home, this is a tube that helps gases escape from the container. One end of the tube is lowered into the bottle, the other into a container of water.
It is necessary to carefully insulate the tube at both ends. Bubbles that appear indicate that the fermentation process is still ongoing.
We put the container in a room with a temperature of 17 ° C-24 ° C without direct sunlight on the liquid.
It will take from 3 to 6 weeks to insist the wine of their bird cherry. Readiness is determined by the clarification of the wort, the absence of bubbles and the appearance of sediment. Now the bird cherry drink needs further processing.
Pour the wine into a large bottle very carefully. It is important for us not to stir up the sediment.
Let’s move on to the final stage.
Final Actions
We need to taste the wine for sugar. If you want a sweeter drink, then add sugar. We do it like this:
- Pour 0,5 or 1 liter of wine into a separate container.
- Add the right amount of sugar.
- Mix well.
- Pour into a bottle.
Now we send the bird cherry wine to a cooler place with a temperature not higher than 11 ° C and keep it for 2 to 6 months. It is better to withstand the maximum period, then the drink will be tastier.
Pour the finished wine into small bottles and cork. We store in the basement or in the refrigerator. Shelf life is 2-3 years, the strength of the drink is 12%.
If you want the red cherry wine to be more tart, add the leaves of the plant in the ratio of 300 g per 5 kg of ripe fruits.
There is another easy and simple recipe for making red cherry wine.
The option does not provide for the preparation of the wort. Crushed berries are placed in a bottle and poured in layers with a thin layer of sugar. The bookmark is carried out on ¾ of the volume of the container, then the mixture is poured with water. A water seal is put on the neck, and the wine is aged for the prescribed period until the end of fermentation. As soon as fermentation is over, the drink is bottled and sent to the cellar.
If you try to make wine from bird cherry at home, the result will make you change your attitude towards this shrub. The drink makes the taste of berries much softer. Prepare fine wine with varying degrees of sweetness and strength. You will appreciate this wonderful drink with an unusual taste and aroma.
