It is customary to make jam or jelly from sea buckthorn, but the berries are also suitable for amateur winemaking. When it’s time to harvest, I advise you to use this simple recipe for homemade sea buckthorn wine. It will turn out an orange-colored drink with a mild taste and a pleasant delicate aroma. The cooking process is laborious, but the result is worth the effort.
The berries must be ripe, without signs of spoilage, rot and mold. If chlorine is used to purify water in your area, tap water must be left to stand for a day before starting preparation. All containers should be sterilized with boiling water, then wiped dry.
Ingredients:
- sea buckthorn berries – 9 kg;
- sugar – 3 kg;
- water – 3 liters.
Sea buckthorn wine recipe
1. Grind the collected unwashed berries with a mixer or knead with a rolling pin in an enamel bowl with a wide neck.
Sea buckthorn for wine cannot be washed, because wild yeasts are on the surface of the berries, which activate fermentation. If the berries are dirty, they can be wiped with a dry cloth.
2. Add water and 1 kg of sugar to the resulting slurry. Mix. Tie the container with gauze or cover (to protect against insects). Move to a warm dark place. Leave for 2-3 days. Every 6-8 hours, stir the wort with a wooden stick or a clean hand, drowning the pulp in the juice – a layer of floating pulp and skin. After a day (usually earlier), foam will appear on the surface, a slight smell of sour will be felt and a hiss will be heard. This means fermentation has begun. Orange foam should be removed 3-4 times a day.
3. Filter the wort through 2-3 layers of gauze, squeeze out the cake well (no longer used). Strained juice is poured into a fermentation tank, filling a maximum of 70% of the volume so that there is room for carbon dioxide and foam.
4. Transfer the container to a dark room with a temperature of 18-25°C. On the neck, install a water seal or a medical glove with a hole in the finger (pierce with a needle) to seal and vent gas.
After 4-5 days, add the next portion of sugar – 1 kg. To do this, remove the water seal, drain 0,5 liters of fermenting wort, dilute sugar in it, pour the finished syrup back into the fermentation tank, install a water seal.
After another 5-6 days, add the remaining sugar (1 kg) according to the technology described above.
The fermentation of sea buckthorn wine lasts as long as the glove remains inflated or the water seal periodically bubbles. It usually takes 25-60 days. When the glove falls off (the shutter does not gurgle for several days), and a layer of sediment appears on the bottom, this indicates that it is time to move on to the next step.
Attention! If the wine ferments for 50 days, it must be poured without sediment into another container and left to ferment under a water seal, otherwise bitterness may appear.
5. After fermentation is complete, remove the layer of sea buckthorn oil from the surface. Drain the wine from the sediment into another container through a tube, for example, from a dropper. Taste, optionally add sugar for sweetness or fix with vodka (alcohol) 2-15% of the volume. Fortified sea buckthorn wine is better stored, but not as aromatic and the taste changes slightly.
If sugar was added, reinstall a glove or water seal on the container with filtered wine, if not, just close it tightly. It is advisable to fill the containers to the top so that there is no contact with oxygen.
Move the vessel to a dark room with a temperature of 6-16°C and leave for 3-4 months for quiet fermentation (ripening). Once every one and a half months, I recommend pouring the drink into another container, removing the sediment at the bottom.
6. Bottling. After aging, a white homemade wine from sea buckthorn with an orange tint is obtained. Now it can be poured into bottles and tightly closed with corks. When stored in a basement or refrigerator, the shelf life is up to 3 years. Fortress – 10-12%.
PS The recipe was changed on 25.04.2016/XNUMX/XNUMX, comments before this date are not relevant.