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Student life is remembered to me with a touch of nostalgia. Carefree time of youth and experiments. I had to try quite a few homemade drinks prepared by the parents of the roommates.
Once my friend brought apricot mash, poured into a large glass bottle. The cloudy liquid turned out to be fragrant and sweet in taste, but rather insidious.
The second time I encountered Braga at my parents’ dacha, when an unprecedented harvest of apricots made me remember the folk recipe.
The historian was shared by my subscriber Daniel.
To drink or not to drink
Braga people began to use long before they learned how to distill it into moonshine. It was believed that the drink perfectly quenches thirst, invigorates, pacifies abdominal pain and, of course, relaxes after a hard day’s work. The main thing is to know the measure.
But modern science has found that during the fermentation process, methyl alcohol, acetaldehyde and other toxic substances with clever names are formed in the liquid. Therefore, uncontrolled use of mash can lead to poisoning.
Attention! Filtration through several layers of gauze will help reduce the content of toxic substances, but only slightly.
In my opinion, only a strict selection of raw materials will avoid trouble. My father and I, for example, used only whole apricots. No rot! And, of course, they took glass containers for fermentation.
Varieties of mash for drinking
While I was searching the World Wide Web for a recipe for apricot mash, I found out an interesting fact: resourceful people have learned how to prepare this drink from many ingredients. I made a few bookmarks for the future, suddenly come in handy:
- Honey closes the age-old dispute about the need to add sugar, but the cost of the product is quite high.
- Birch sap contains 1,5% sugar. Instead of yeast, a handful of unwashed raisins can be added to birch mash to keep the composition natural.
- Fruits and berries are the most popular products among home craftsmen.
- Cereals are suitable for lovers of a strong degree.
- Rye bread gives the finished drink the taste of kvass and cooks quickly enough.
That Incredible Harvest
Recommendation! Braga will not have off-flavours if wine yeast and filtered water are used.
Preliminary preparations
My father is a thorough person, once again he does not like to be distracted from business. Therefore, before we start preparing the mash, we have collected everything you need in the kitchen. We washed a 30-liter glass bottle with a water seal, took out a large bowl and a potato masher (yes, you will also need it).
Ingredients for apricot mash:
- ripe fruits – 10 kg;
- filtered water from a well – 15 l;
- dry yeast – 20 g;
- granulated sugar – 3 kg.
We decided to play it safe and add sugar to the mash so that fermentation would definitely occur. The local store did not have wine yeast, which is quite predictable, so we used dry ones.
Recipe for apricot mash with dry yeast
First of all, we got the seeds from ripe fruits. The halves were put in a large bowl and turned into an orange puree with a pusher. Sugar was poured into the cooked apricots, stirred until the crystals dissolved.
Next, I will describe our steps step by step:
- The sweet puree was carefully transferred to the bottle.
- The water was heated to 30 ºC and poured into the apricots.
- Yeast, pre-filled with warm water, was added to the fruit mixture.
- The liquid was thoroughly mixed.
- They closed the neck with a clean cloth, left the bottle in a warm kitchen for a day.
- The next day, a water seal was installed, the container was wrapped in a warm blanket and placed in a far corner.
Recommendation! If there is no water seal in the house, you can put a medical glove with a pierced finger on the neck.
Fermentation took us 20 days. During this time, Braga noticeably brightened, and a sediment appeared at the bottom of the bottle. I passed the liquid through several layers of gauze to remove the pulp and yeast from there. Here’s the drink!
I tried it very carefully, literally sipped. Homemade mash impressed me with its fruity taste and aroma. Very easy to drink, but we do not abuse. Everything should be in moderation, because with the seeming harmlessness of the brew, it has about 6-8% alcohol.
There was excitement to put other fruits from the summer cottage into action. I would like to hear advice from those who already have cooking experience. Share your secrets with a newbie.