Two Proven Acacia Wine Recipes

What is spring? This is the revival of nature, the flowering of everything and everyone, a riot of colors, amazing smells associated with youth, renewal, hope. And spring is acacia. Who said that “the fragrant clusters of white acacia are irretrievable, like my youth”? How returnable! You can feel the marvelous spring aroma of these wonderful May flowers at any time of the year – you just need to make the right wine out of them!

The topic of flower wines is very interesting and multifaceted. We already started it in an article about dandelion wine, a drink sung by Bradbury, later we will definitely introduce readers to other similar wines – from black elder flowers, coltsfoot, jasmine. But today we will talk about another, no less original, but quite common drink – we will analyze two recipes for acacia wine, one is simpler, with fastening, and the other is more complicated – according to technology.

Strictly speaking, white locust and acacia is not. Botanists call this beautiful thorny tree “false acacia robinia”, but it is she who is used to make acacia wines, such a paradox. By the way, did you know that Robinia belongs to the legume family? You will know – she is a relative of peas, soybeans and lentils, and therefore produces pods with small seeds in the fall. But these beans are by no means magical and you can’t burst them – of all parts of the acacia, only flowers can be eaten, leave the leaves to feed the rabbits, and it’s better not to touch the bark at all – it is poisonous.

Collect acacia blossom in May, when the flowers are already fully bloomed, but have not yet faded. The best time of the day to pick is in the morning, before the flowers open under the influence of the sun, you can pick them after the rain. To make wine, we need only petals, no flower stalks – they contain all the nectar.

Classic acacia wine recipe

Flowers are far from ideal raw materials for wine, so we, like it or not, will have to use a variety of additives. First of all, it is lemon juice, which will give the drink the necessary acidity and ennoble its taste – without lemons, putrefactive processes can develop in our must. To increase the level of tannins, black tea is also added to the wine – this way it will be better stored and get a noble tart taste. Of course, instead of lemon and tea, it is better to use tartaric acid and powdered tannin, if you have them, but we will try to get by with the usual “grandmother’s” ingredients.

The given ratio of lemons and oranges is considered optimal so that the acacia fully reveals its aroma, but is not lost in citrus fruits. Sometimes the zest of these fruits is also added to the must, but it can easily clog the floral bouquet.

1. To begin with, acacia petals must be separated from the leaves and receptacle and carefully sorted out, removing rotten or moldy parts. Before that, the flowers are not washed., otherwise a part of the nectar, which serves as the main ingredient for wine, will be lost. Cut off the peel from citrus fruits along with the bitter white crust, cut the pulp into small pieces and send to a container. Brew all the tea in one liter of boiling water, let it brew.
2. Put all the above ingredients in a suitable container, pour tea without tea leaves into it and pour ten liters of hot (50-60 degrees), not boiled clean water. Cover the container with a lid and send to infuse in a dark, warm place for three days.

1. Drain and strain the finished broth-infusion, squeeze the remaining cake through cheesecloth. Ferment yeast in a separate container – any for white, berry wines or universal ones, such as multiflora, are suitable. While the yeast is fermenting, dissolve 3.5 kg of sugar in the wort. Combine the ingredients, pour into a 20-liter bottle. Add clean water up to ¾ volume and put under a water seal.
2. 3 weeks after the start of active fermentation, send the first portion of additional sugar to the wort, mix thoroughly and leave under the shutter. The phase of rapid fermentation can last quite a long time, up to 2 months, since acacia petals are a high-protein product and it can be difficult for yeast to process it. For the same reason, it is highly desirable to use a yeast feed.
3. When the wine has clarified and stopped gurgling, it is time to drain it from the sediment for the first time using a straw. Taste the drink – if it is not sweet enough, add another 0.7 kg of sugar. Pour the wine into a smaller container – so that the liquid occupies 90-95% of the volume, install a water seal and transfer to a dark, cool place.
4. Secondary fermentation lasts about 5 months. At this time, the wine must be removed from the yeast sediment at least 3-4 times, otherwise it will be bitter. When the drink has become completely light, and the precipitate no longer falls, it can be bottled.

Finally, a bouquet of wine from acacia flowers will open only after six months or a year of storage in a cool place. But the amazing taste and aroma of this wonderful drink, formed after a long exposure, is worth your patience!

By the way, they say that excellent homemade champagne is made from such wine – to prepare it, you will need to perform a couple of additional manipulations, read about all the subtleties in this article.

Fortified acacia wine

A much simpler recipe using the “red” technology, which will give us a fairly strong, sweet and perfectly stored drink, with a predominant taste and aroma of acacia.

In many photo recipes for acacia wine from the category “oh, girls, I cooked such a yummy …” hostesses add a few raisins to the must and wait, from which the wine just turns sour more often, without starting violent fermentation. We recommend that you immediately make the right starter from raisins, and even better – buy wine yeast, fermentation will be faster and without excesses on them, the process will be less dependent on temperature and other factors, which will save you time and nerves.

1. Divide the sorted acacia flowers into two portions – we will need 2 liters for wine, and another 0.5 liters for tincture, with which we will subsequently fix the drink. To the first portion you need to add lemons or acid and pour hot, but not boiling water. This can be done directly in the container in which fermentation will take place.
2. Pour the second part of the petals with vodka or diluted alcohol, close tightly, send to a dark, warm place and do not touch until the wine is ready.
3. After three days, add sugar and pre-fermented yeast or cooked sourdough to the wort. We wait until fermentation begins – bubbles will go, a sour smell will appear – and we put a water seal on the container.
4. When the process of active fermentation is completed, the wine must be drained, the remnants of the petals must be squeezed out well. Remove the tincture from the zagashnik and add to the wine in a ratio of 100 ml per liter of drink. Sweeten to taste – according to the recipe, this acacia wine is closer to dessert wine, alcohol will not allow the must to ferment again, so make at least liqueur.
5. Send a drink for aging for a month or two in a cellar or other cool place. When precipitation occurs, be sure to decant the wine until it becomes completely light – with fortified wines this happens faster than with ordinary ones.
6. Pour the finished drink into bottles and let it stand for at least six months before tasting.

Both recipes for acacia wine, if all the points are correctly followed, will result in an excellent drink – with a bright and rich taste, a wonderful floral “spring” aroma. It will certainly please you in both a gloomy autumn and a frosty winter, it will warm and soothe, give confidence and strength to wait for the next cheerful and bright May!