Moonshine from bird cherry is characterized by a light aroma and a subtle taste of berries. The technology of preparation is standard. We need ripe bird cherry without rot and mold.
Theory
The sugar content of bird cherry berries is up to 5%. This means that from 1 kg of raw materials you can get only up to 60 ml of moonshine with a strength of 40 degrees, and taking into account 10-15% losses during distillation, the real yield will be less. Therefore, you will have to add sugar – 1 kg increases the yield by 1,1-1,2 liters (40% vol.). In fact, you get sugar moonshine with notes of bird cherry in the aroma.
To preserve the smell of berries in the finished drink, it is advisable to mix bird cherry and sugar in equal proportions, adding 3 liters of water for each kilogram of sugar.
It is optimal to put bird cherry mash on wine yeast for red grapes or prepare raisin sourdough. In this case, it will be possible to preserve the aroma and mild taste of moonshine. Theoretically, the must can also ferment due to wild yeasts that are on the surface of the berries. The disadvantage of all these methods is a long fermentation time (up to 50 days). Braga will be ready much faster on alcohol, bakery dry or pressed yeast, then hard alcohol notes may appear in the drink. If there is enough time, it is better to use wine and wild yeast or sourdough.
Ingredients:
- bird cherry berries – 2 kg;
- sugar – 2 kg;
- water – 6 liters;
- yeast: wine or sourdough – 8 liters of wort, or bakery dry 20 g (100 g pressed).
Recipe for cherry brandy
1. Remove the bird cherry from the branches (stalks), put it in a plastic or enamel container for fermentation and gently crush the berries, trying not to damage the seeds.
Attention! It is important not to use twigs and not to crush a lot of seeds, otherwise the moonshine will be bitter.
2. Add sugar and water to the fermentation tank. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Fill to a maximum of 75-80% of the volume to leave room for carbon dioxide and foam.
3. Add yeast or starter activated according to the instructions on the bag. Mix. Install a water seal of any design on the tank. You can limit yourself to a glove with a hole in one of the fingers (pierce with a needle).
4. Transfer the container to a dark room (cover with a thick cloth) at a temperature of 20-28 °C. Leave until the end of fermentation.
Depending on the chosen yeast and the temperature, the bird cherry mash ferments for 7-50 days. The end of the process is indicated by the cessation of the gurgling of the water seal (the glove was blown away) and a layer of loose sediment at the bottom. The taste of mash should be a little bitter and without sweetness.
Obtaining moonshine from bird cherry
5. To avoid burning, strain the mash that has won back through 2-3 layers of gauze, squeeze the pulp dry.
6. Drive for the first time at maximum speed without fractionation. Finish selection when the strength in the jet falls below 15%.
7. Measure the strength of the resulting product, and then calculate the volume of pure alcohol. To do this, multiply the strength in percent by the volume in liters and divide by 100.
8. Dilute bird cherry moonshine to 18-20% and make a second distillation. Collect the first 14-15% of pure alcohol separately. This harmful faction is called the “head”, it can only be used for technical purposes.
9. Collect the main moonshine (“body”) until the strength in the stream drops below 45%. Then you can finish the distillation or select the “tails” separately to add them to a new portion of the mash before distillation or for processing in a distillation column.
10. Dilute the prepared moonshine from bird cherry with water to a drinking strength of 40-45%, pour into glass containers, close hermetically and leave for 2-3 days in a cool place to stabilize the taste.
