Lingonberry wine at home – 3 amazing recipes

An inexperienced southerner is unlikely to distinguish lingonberries from cranberries, but for a true northerner, this berry means a lot. Swedes, Finns and other inhabitants of the taiga-tundra zone are well aware of its outstanding healing properties and unforgettable sweet and sour taste. But winemakers are often afraid of it, they think that there is a lot of trouble with it and it’s generally difficult. We are not afraid, because we know a few simple tricks for a painless experience with homemade lingonberry wine. And a couple of recipes…

Cowberries make a very beautiful, rose-red wine, with a rather delicate aroma and an unimaginably bright, rather tart berry taste. For the winemaker, this berry is not a gift. It contains very few nitrogenous substances necessary for the normal functioning of yeast, and the content in the berries of a certain amount of benzoic acid, which acts as a preservative, really complicates their life. The first problem is solved by the obligatory addition of top dressing for yeast from a wine shop or some amount of ammonia (0,4 g per 1 liter of must). The second problem completely eliminates the possibility of wild fermentation.

Only strong strains of pure yeast cultures (PCY) are suitable for making homemade wine from lingonberries, while it is desirable to prepare a stable starter with them, which we will discuss directly in the recipe. A high tolerance of CKD to alcohol is desirable – the best lingonberry wines are strong, from 10% alcohol and above. Otherwise, lingonberries are not much different from other wild berries. It contains a sufficient amount of acids (on average 1,85%), including tannins, so it does not need additional additives. Sugar is necessary for the wine to achieve the desired strength, but lingonberries themselves contain quite a lot of it (around 9% or more). The minimum number of berries for making 10 liters of high-quality lingonberry wine should not be less than 3,5 kg, more is better.

Cowberry wine recipe classic

A traditional recipe based on the basic principles of winemaking, so there should be no problems with its understanding and implementation. To extract the juice, in this case, the fermentation technology is used, but you can just as well try to extract the juice using the Cahors technology, which was described in sufficient detail by Don Pomazan. Also, the berries can be boiled – this technique is used in the second recipe for lingonberry wine, in which lingonberries are not used at all. Such is the confusion. In general, lingonberries are very similar to cranberries, so you can safely try to make wine according to cranberry wine recipes if you suddenly liked them more.

The principle of making the stable starter mentioned above for successful fermentation of berries with benzoic acid is to prepare a small amount of wort from well-fermented berries and infect it with our CKD. Such berries include grapes, raspberries, black currants, gooseberries, etc. (the links are to the recipes of the respective wines, where you can peep the proportions of the sourdough must). For wine, you can use both fresh and frozen berries. So, we are mentally prepared. It’s time to make up the wort!

Ingredients for making 10 liters of lingonberry wine:

How to cook:

1. First you need to prepare a stable yeast starter: prepare 1 liter of wort from any well-fermented berry, add yeast and wait a few hours until visible signs of rapid fermentation appear.
2. Frozen berries should first be thawed and allowed to drain. Fresh lingonberries need to be sorted out, washed, roughly crushed and placed in a sterile fermenter. Add half of the total amount of warm water and add the pre-prepared yeast starter. Do not install a water trap – cover the fermenter with a clean cloth.
3. After 2 days of rapid fermentation, strain the wort through several layers of gauze and carefully squeeze out the berry cake. Add the second part of water to the remaining cake, mix and leave for a day in a cool place. Strain again, squeeze, mix with the first drain in a sterile fermenter, add sugar and place until it is completely dissolved. Add and stir yeast nutrition, install a water seal and send for fermentation in a dark place with a stable temperature of 22-25^оC.
4. When violent fermentation subsides, which usually occurs after 5-7 days, drain the young wine from the sediment into a clean fermenter, install a water seal and transfer to a cooler place with a temperature of 12-18^оC.
5. Cowberry wine can ferment for a very long time. Every 35-45 days it must be drained from the sediment and put under a water seal again. When it is completely clear (after about 3-4 months), remove it from the sediment for the last time and pour it into sterile bottles. If the wine clarifies poorly and still remains cloudy, it is worth trying to paste over it in any suitable way.
6. Before bottling, lingonberry wine can be sweetened to taste and, if desired, stabilized with sulfur. After sweetening, be sure to keep it under a water seal for 1-2 weeks to make sure that the fermentation is complete.
7. After bottling, lingonberry wine needs to be aged for at least 6 months, but the best taste is achieved after 12 months or more.

Recipe for lingonberry wine without lingonberries

In many ways, the taste of lingonberries resembles a cross between the more affordable and common berries of blueberries and cranberries. Mix them into a dense must with raisins for top dressing, and you will get a wine that tastes as close as possible to lingonberry. The only thing that will give it away is a deeper, darker color that is not inherent in lingonberry drinks. But who cares?

How to cook:

Sort the berries, rinse, defrost the frozen ones and let them drain. Crush the berries in a suitable container and let the juice drain. Pour the juice into a large saucepan, add sugar and stir it until completely dissolved. Add water to a total volume of 4 liters, add berry cake, put on fire and bring to a strong boil. Boil the mixture for 10 minutes, remove from heat, add acid and yeast nutrition, mix. Pour the hot wort into the fermenter, cover it with a cloth and leave to cool. While the wort cools down to 25-30^оC, prepare the yeast according to package instructions (make a starter). When the must has cooled down, add the starter, install a water seal and leave to ferment in a room with suitable conditions for this.

After 5-7 days, drain the wine from the sediment and strain the berry pomace, squeezing it slightly. Pour the young wine into a clean fermenter, install a water seal and send it to a quiet fermentation in a cool dark place (12-18^оC) for a period of 3 to 4 months. Once a month, young wine should be drained from the sediment until it is completely clarified. After the last removal from the sediment, wait another 2-3 months, making sure that the yeast has finished fermenting. The wine is ready for bottling. Before that, it can be sweetened to taste (remembering to hold the wine under a water seal for 1-2 weeks after sweetening to make sure that fermentation does not continue) and, if desired, stabilize with sulfur. Exposure within 12-18 months is welcome.

Cowberry mead from Ikea

An experimental recipe based on the availability of Saft Lingon Cowberry Juice Concentrate, which anyone can get at a reasonable price from Ikea. It turns out completely dry, fragrant mead with a delicate berry flavor. Honey and lingonberry wine cool will quench your thirst in summer, and in winter it will become worthy of the ingredients of a hot Toddy or grog. Grape tannin can be replaced with 1 cup of strong black tea (2 tsp). Instead of lingonberry concentrate, you can try dried or fresh lingonberries. Following a modern mead recipe, a small amount of an enzyme such as Lalvin Fermaid-K can be included in the recipe, which will help the yeast ferment the honey-berry must, which is quite difficult for them.

How to cook:

Dissolve honey in water heated to 35-40 degrees, add the rest of the ingredients and add the yeast prepared in advance according to the instructions. Install a water seal and ferment lingonberry mead first in a relatively warm place (15,5-21^оC – meads are best fermented at lower temperatures, so a purer floral-fruity flavor profile is formed) for about 2-3 weeks, and then in a cool (10-12 ° C) 3-4 months with periodic removal from the sediment. Bottled and aged 6-12 months. This drink does not need sweetening.

Good luck in your endeavors!