We constantly collected birch sap together with friends, united by several families. It’s fun, and it’s nice to walk through the forest. The result was a lot of juice. And every year we faced the same problem – what to do with it?
The main thing in our trips is not the juice itself, but the excitement and good pastime.
The story was shared by blog subscriber Maxim.
How did the idea come about
In that year of juice, we prepared several canisters. It was clear that we would not be able to drink all this just physically. It was a pity to pour it out, but we simply did not know what to do with it.
I remember we were sitting in a friend’s kitchen. For several hours now, everyone has been offering some options, and one is more fantastic than the other. The doorbell rang unexpectedly. The owner of the apartment went to open.
He returned cheerful. It turned out that our mutual friend, whom we had not seen for several years, had arrived in the city. He just decided to visit us. Word for word, we talked.
After the friend found out about our problem, he just grinned and said: “Guys, why are you suffering – make wine out of juice. And the product will not be lost, and you will at least save some money. And then I see that you are leaning on what you bought here. ”
And what, we thought, the idea is quite good. Worth a try. Moreover, after a walk through the forest, we really uncorked a bottle of red.
A beautiful birch… who knew that wine could be made from it….
Note! It is not recommended to collect more than a liter of juice from one tree.
Ingredients
The comrade was going to stay in the city for a week. Therefore, he agreed to help us in making wine from birch sap. Where did he find out this recipe, we did not know, especially since none of us had ever come across such a cunning way of utilizing forest gifts.
Our friend, on the contrary, apparently was in this pro. The next day, we were already stomping to the store for the necessary ingredients, which, by the way, turned out to be not so much needed:
- Birch sap – 5 liters. Well, as I said, we had a lot of this stuff.
- 200 gr. raisins – 99 rubles.
- 1 kg of sugar – 45 rubles.
- 2 lemons (or rather, juice from them) – 77 rubles. for 1 kg.
- 1 bag of wine yeast – 100 rubles.
Well, that’s basically all. This was a budget wine. Given that sugar, lemons and raisins could not be bought. They seem to be found in every home. We just decided not to take anything from our hostesses.
Note! The fresher the juice, the better the wine will be.
Preparation
So, the ingredients are laid out in the kitchen, and the whole company, for some reason without exception, wearing aprons, proceed directly to the preparation of wine. To do this, we had to split into several groups.
- The first step was easy. We just brought the juice to a boil, added sugar and left it for exactly 10 minutes.
- Another group at this time crushed the raisins and put them in a plastic bucket, and the third prepared the so-called yeast starter. At the same time, they followed not so much the advice of our visiting comrade as the instructions on the package.
- Together, we added boiled birch sap to a bucket of raisins. That’s where the yeast went.
The first stage, as a friend said, was completed. We closed the bucket with a lid and put it in a closet for 3 days. After that, the liquid was filtered. Again it was removed to a dark place, closed.
True, this time, on the advice of a friend, we additionally installed a water seal on the lid (a rubber glove with a small puncture on the finger).
After the fermentation process was completed (the glove stopped inflating), we filtered the wine and poured it into a clean glass container. A few days later another filtration followed.
Infused.
As a result, the wine came in glass bottles, which we placed in a dark place. A friend said that you can drink it in a month, however, it is better to wait six months. We chose the golden mean and opened the bottles exactly 100 days later.
Note! To improve the taste, you can add various spices and spices to the wine.
Result
So, more than three months have passed since the collection of juice. The friend had long since left, and the bottles were still untouched in the cupboard. Finally, the time allotted to us passed, and we appointed an evening for tasting.
All those who participated in the preparation gathered, as well as a few more curious faces. The first glass was poured for the owner of the apartment, that is, for me. After we uncorked the bottle, a characteristic smell of birch sap appeared in the air, which slightly mixed with alcohol notes.
Well, now you can drink.
The color of the wine was like a light amber. The taste was sweet and sour. We didn’t have a device for measuring the percentage of alcohol at hand, however, offhand I can say that the wine turned out to be not very strong – somewhere around 11-14%.
Later it turned out that we, it turns out, prepared wine from birch sap according to an old peasant recipe. Have you ever tried something similar?
*Alcohol abuse is bad for your health!