8 simple recipes for making bird cherry wine at home
Bird cherry, stunning with abundant flowering in early summer, pleases with valuable fruits rich in polysaccharides, pectin, trace elements and phytoncides. The berry drink reduces inflammation and fever, and relieves indigestion. They make both light and strong wine from bird cherry at home, a simple recipe does not provide for a large number of ingredients, but reveals the taste of the fruit.
Cooking technology
Bird cherry is not as juicy as currant or gooseberry, but the wine from it turns out to be no worse than from these berries. However, so that the drink does not disappoint with a too tart taste, it is necessary to follow the recipe, adhere to certain rules. To make wine, you should not pick green fruits, you should only use fully ripe, but not washed berries. On the surface of the bird cherry, there are microorganisms that cause fermentation.
The dishes for the drink must be doused with boiling water; it is not advised to use containers from milk. When microbes get in, the fruits become moldy and sour. The berries are poured with sweet, but not hot syrup, kept warm, stirring several times a day, until the wort is fermented.
After that, the liquid is sent to a glass container, covered with a glove with a hole, and left in a room where it is 18–25 ° C.
How to make wine at home
You can prepare the drink yourself from fresh and dry fruits of the bush.
From red berries
Due to the presence of astringency and astringent properties, bird cherry wine has a peculiar taste. To prepare a strong drink from red berries, they usually take:
- 5 liters of water;
- 70-80 g of raisins;
- 5 kg of fruits;
- 9 glasses of sugar.
First you need to wash with soda and rinse the bottle with boiling water, cover with gauze so that germs do not get in. The berries must be gently dried with a towel, without wiping off the plaque, and poured into a bowl, crush each fruit with a spoon.
To prepare the syrup:
- Sugar is poured into an enamel basin, combined with water.
- The liquid is boiled for 5 minutes, the foam is removed.
- After removing from the stove, cool to 20 ° C.
In a separate container, pour bird cherry with a cooled composition, put raisins. The neck of the dish is covered with gauze, folded in layers. Keep the workpiece in a warm place protected from light for at least three days. When a sour smell, hissing bubbles and foam appear from the container, the drink is poured into a bottle, a glove is put on its neck or a tube is placed inside.
When the liquid brightens, a precipitate will form, which usually takes at least three weeks and the temperature in the room is about 22 degrees, the drink is poured into another bottle, mixed with sugar, kept for up to six months at 10-11 ° C.
From dried berries
A fragrant fortified drink is made not only from freshly picked fruits, but also from bird cherry, which is sold in dried form at any time of the year.
From 10 liters of water and 4 kg of sugar, you need to cook syrup, pour a kilogram of fruit into it. When the liquid with berries has cooled, they are mixed with the sourdough, and left to ferment. When a sediment appears in the wort, the drink is poured into a bottle, kept in a warm room, closed from light. Bottles are filled with real wine and placed in the refrigerator.
Vodka option
When preparing a drink from bird cherry on its own, its strength does not exceed 11%. To increase this indicator, vodka is poured into the fermented and strained wort. When using 5 kg of berries and the same amount of water, 500-600 ml of an alcoholic drink is required.
With apple
Fruits remove the astringency of the bird cherry, add pleasant notes to the wine. It is especially tasty when 10 kilograms of sweet and sour apples are taken for 1 kg of berries:
- The fruits are cut into pieces, and fresh black or red bird cherry is rubbed.
- Syrup is boiled from 10 liters of water and 2 kg of sugar.
- The cooled liquid is filled with a mixture of fruits and berries.
In order for the wine to ferment well, a thin hose is installed or a glove with holes is put on the neck of the container. The clarified wort is filtered and bottled.
With alcohol
Fortified aromatic wine from bird cherry has not only a pleasant taste, but also healing properties, protects against colds during hypothermia. To prepare an alcoholic drink, use:
- 2.5 tbsp. Sahara;
- 0.8 kg of berries;
- 1000 ml of ethyl alcohol.
The bird cherry is gently crushed, left warm. A few days later, when bubbles appear on the surface of the wort, the berries are mixed with sugar, kept for another week, adding alcohol, after which the liquid is filtered.
With plums
They improve the taste of wine, accelerate the fermentation process, add interesting notes to the bird cherry drink with sweet and sour fruits of fresh plums. The fruits are washed, pitted, chopped and combined with berries, which are crushed with a spoon. Dishes with a vitamin mass are mixed with syrup, left warm for several days. To make wine from 1 kg of bird cherry, take:
- 1 liter of water;
- 10 kilograms of fruit;
- 2 kg of sugar.
The fermented wort is filtered so that there is no sediment. For further infusion, the wine is poured into a new container, kept in a cool place.
With currants
Since bacteria live on the surface of bird cherry berries that act like yeast, fermentation occurs when different fruits are added. Collecting 10 kg of currants and 1 kg of wild or cultivated bird cherry, you can make a wine with a very pleasant smell, unusual taste.
The fruits are kneaded, combined together. The cooled syrup, boiled from 7.5 glasses of water and 3-4 kg of sugar, is poured into a container with a vitamin mass, left in a warm place for fermentation, covered with gauze. After three days, the mass is filtered, poured into a new container.
From bird cherry leaves
Useful properties are possessed not only by fruits, but also by other parts of a shrub or small tree. Wine is made from fresh fragrant leaves, but since there is no wild yeast on them, ammonia is added to speed up fermentation.
Greens are placed in boiling water, covered and insisted for three days. On the 4th day, the liquid is poured into a glass container, combined with sugar, raisins, a spoonful of ammonia is added, a tube or water seal is inserted. After four days, the wort is sweetened again and after five days the rest of the sugar is poured.
The wine is infused for 1.5 months, after filtration - another 3.
To prepare a drink from 400 g of leaves you will need:
- 7 liters of water;
- 100 grams of raisins;
- 4 kg of sugar.
Wine made from the green mass of bird cherry improves the digestion of food, accelerates the recovery from colds. To increase appetite, they drink it in small doses.
Storage rules
So that the wine, made independently from berries, does not age quickly, does not lose its strength and pleasant taste, when choosing where to put the bottles, you need to take into account the basic requirements:
- It is necessary to store the drink in a place out of reach of sunlight.
- Before serving, wine made from red or black bird cherry is advised to be kept at 12-15 degrees of heat. Temperature fluctuations are allowed within 2.5 ° C.
- Humidity in the basement, cellar, on a closed balcony should be at least 60, maximum 80%.
- Bottles with an alcoholic drink, corked, are recommended to be laid horizontally.
In plastic dishes, wine loses its aroma and taste.
