How to make dogwood liqueur at home – 3 recipes

Dogwood is not only tasty, but also extremely useful. It is believed that he is able, in particular, to strengthen the potency, being consumed just before … hmm, a rendezvous. So dogwood liqueur is an excellent choice if you are planning a romantique – it will melt the ice and give you strength, but most importantly, it will tickle your taste buds. The case is small – it remains only to build such a drink, in which “Rum” will gladly help you!

Dogwood is excellent for creating homemade alcohol. It has a lot of acids, and aromatic compounds, and color, and useful substances. Pouring is a thing a little more complicated than the classic tincture, to make dogwood liqueur at home, it will take more time and effort. But, believe me, the result is worth it – this is an amazingly tasty, odorous, beautiful drink that can both please a gourmet and turn a beauty’s head, and even get rid of a hangover, thanks to the high content of succinic acid and antioxidants. In general, a miracle in the flesh!

In today’s article, I will talk specifically about liqueurs, and not tinctures, liqueurs and other ratafies. Connoisseurs may argue, but I believe that the classic liqueur is a drink that is slightly less sweet than liquor, less strong than tincture, consisting exclusively of berries, sugar and an alcohol base, without spices, spices, citrus fruits and other pickles. Moreover, dogwood does not require any flavor / aroma enhancers – the fruit is already more than bright and original. Classic – the berries are slightly fermented, after which the fermentation is extinguished with vodka or alcohol. But there are other cooking options, which we will also consider today.

Classic dogwood liqueur

The most classic, folk, domestic recipe that combines the principles of making wine and tincture – in only one vessel, without any overflows and filtration, which is very convenient in the absence of equipment.

Yeast is needed in case the dogwood refuses to ferment for some reason – this happens if the berries were washed beforehand. According to the same recipe, you can prepare a liqueur from frozen dogwood – then you will definitely need yeast. You can replace them, for example, with raspberry sourdough.

1. Put dogwood in a jar, pouring sugar in layers. There is no need to crush the berries. Top up with clean cold water so that all the fruits are covered. Leave under a loose cloth or gauze in a warm place.
2. After a day or two, the liqueur should ferment – the berries will float up and form a dense “cap”, bubbling will begin in the jar, a characteristic yeasty smell will appear. If after three days nothing of the kind is observed, you need to add sourdough or special wine yeast to the mash.
3. We put the fermented mass under a water seal or a glove – in this case, this issue is not fundamental. Let the liqueur ferment in a warm place for 5-7 days (or 2-3 days if purchased yeast was used). Periodically, the jar needs to be shaken so that the berries are mixed and not moldy.
4. We interrupt fermentation by introducing an alcoholic base – alcohol, moonshine or at least vodka, if there is nothing stronger at hand. We change the water seal to a tight-fitting lid and move the liquor to a dark place with room temperature for another month.
5. We drain the resulting liquid, carefully squeeze the berries, throw out the cake – there is nothing sensible left in it. Now the creative process begins – the drink can be made stronger or softer using water and alcohol, it can be sweetened with sugar. It is necessary to bring the taste to the condition that will suit you completely.
6. We will not filter the liquor – it is better to pour it back into the jar and rearrange it in a cool place. Over time, a precipitate forms in the liquid from the remains of yeast and cake – we can easily drain it through a straw, without any fuss with cotton wool / gauze. When the liqueur has become completely transparent, it is time to bottle it.
7. If you used vodka, you can drink it right away, but it’s better to keep the drink in bottles for a couple of months – it will be much tastier! Pouring dogwood on alcohol necessarily requires exposure to 3-5 months.

Dogwood liqueur on vodka or alcohol – an “advanced” recipe

This method generally resembles the previous one, but with its own tricks. According to this recipe, we again ferment the berry for several days, and then squeeze it. From juice with sugar, we make a dogwood liqueur without vodka – in fact, wine, – we fill the squeezes with alcohol and prepare a dogwood tincture separately. Then we combine both drinks. Or we don’t connect – it’s up to you. By the same principle, for example, rowan liquor is made according to the recipe of your obedient servant.

For this recipe, it is also better to pre-stock up on a bag of wine yeast – universal ones (“Maltiflor”) are suitable, or – for red, fruit wines, malaga, marsala. But you can also make it with wild yeast – either use the yeast from the dogwood itself, or make a sourdough – for example, raisins.

1. We sort out the unwashed dogwood, put it in a saucepan or other container with a wide neck, carefully knead it with a pusher or hands. Add 2 liters of water and a glass of sugar. Cover with cheesecloth or cloth and leave in a warm place for 1-2 days. Periodically stir the “porridge” with a wooden spoon.
2. Within a couple of days, the mass should ferment – the dense parts of the berries will cluster into a “cap”, bubbles, hissing, sour smell will appear – which means that everything is going as it should. If fermentation has not started within 3 days, you will have to fool around with sourdough or yeast, nothing can be done.
3. Let the mass wander for a couple more days. At this time, it must be stirred several times a day – so that mold does not form. After that, carefully squeeze through a tulle or other thin cloth, gauze folded in several layers, a juicer – in short, in any convenient way.
4. There is no need to throw away the cake – there are enough flavoring substances left in it to make a dogwood tincture. We put the squeezes in a jar, without tamping, so that they occupy about half the volume. Top up with alcohol, close tightly and set aside in a dark place. Periodically, the jar will need to be shaken. During the first couple of days, the amount of alcohol may decrease slightly – everything is in order, it just soaked into the cake. In this case, the jar will need to be refilled to the top.
5. We temporarily forget about the tincture – it’s time to start pouring. We take the squeezed out liquid, add the remaining water according to the recipe (3 liters) and 600 grams of sugar (or all the remaining sugar at once if we used the CCD). We mix everything thoroughly and send it to a dark place, under a water seal.
6. With wild yeast, the liqueur will ferment for up to 40 days, with cultural yeast – up to 2 weeks. When fermenting on the “savages”, the remaining sugar is added in portions – in a glass, when the signs of fermentation begin to subside – the water seal gurgles quieter, the movement in the bottle stops, approximately on the 7th and 10th day.
7. When the wort is completely fermented, it becomes almost dry in taste, clarified and forms a dense sediment – it must be carefully decanted through a straw. Secondary fermentation is not required – after all, we do not make wine, but liquor, a drink that is simpler and less demanding on storage conditions. In fact, we have prepared dogwood liqueur without vodka – it can simply be sweetened, aged and consumed, skipping the next step.
8. We take the tincture, which we forgot about after the fourth step, squeeze it, filter it roughly through a couple of layers of gauze and combine it with “young wine”. We try. Sweeten to taste. We stir. We leave it in a cool place right in the jar – within a couple of weeks the drink will completely lighten up and form another layer of sediment. Decant the liqueur for the last time and bottle. It will be possible to try in 2-3 months, but it is better to let it stand for at least six months.

Double dogwood liqueur on vodka – a simple recipe

In fact, this is not a liqueur, but a tincture, but with some nuances – first we will prepare a dogwood vodka infusion, and then a fragrant syrup from alcoholized berries. When preparing the syrup, the jar is exposed to the sun. Some believe that the name “pouring” is associated with this technological process – the drink, they say, is “poured” by the sun’s rays. I am not William Pokhlebkin, and I will not dispute this etymological theory – maybe this is exactly how it is. Be that as it may, the recipe gives an excellent result – 100% tasty, tested many times, without complex nuances and frills.

The easiest recipe for making dogwood liqueur today, even a beginner can handle it. My dogwood berries, sort out, put in a jar and fill with vodka. Let stand in a dark place for three weeks, periodically shake the container to improve maceration. After three weeks, the infusion is drained, the berries are not squeezed, but covered with sugar and rearranged on the windowsill or in another sunny place. Turning into syrup, sugar will draw out from the dogwood all the remnants of taste, aroma and all the alcohol that the fruits absorbed during infusion. It takes 3-4 days to prepare the syrup, you don’t need to shake the jar, just turn it from time to time.

As soon as all the sugar has dissolved by itself, drain the syrup and add it to the tincture. The liqueur should turn out sweet, but not cloying, the sweetness must be controlled to taste: add a little, stir – try. As soon as the sugar level suits you, the container should be set aside in a dark, cool place for a couple of weeks. During this time, a precipitate may form in the liqueur, which can be removed by decanting and/or filtration. However, the technology allows for the presence of a small amount of turbidity in the liquor – here it’s up to your taste. According to the recipe, dogwood liqueur on vodka should settle in the basement, but a long exposure is not required – you can taste the drink prepared by your own hands in 1-2 months!