Elderberry wine at home. A simple and delicious elderberry wine. Uses of elder flowers
Interesting, tasty and healthy wines can be made not only from grapes, but also from various other fruits and berries, including elderberries.
Elderberry berries and flowers contain many useful substances, due to which it is widely used in folk medicine in various forms.
Wine can be made from both red and red berries.
We'll tell you how to make wine from elderberries.
Collect elderberries that are ripe or slightly overripe, growing in environmentally friendly places, not near the road.
Elderberry wine - recipe
Ingredients:
- elderberries – 3 kg;
- granulated sugar – 0.8-1.0 kg;
- lemon – 1-2 pcs. or 1 large ;
- cloves – 3-5 inflorescences (ground, broken);
- natural ground cinnamon - to taste (1-2 pinches);
- homemade rye bread crackers – 3-4 pcs. (or yeast 7-15 g).
Preparation
Preparing the wort. Wash the berries, peel them, place them in a saucepan, add sugar, mix and crush. Leave for 2-3 hours so that the berry releases plenty of juice, then pour in 2 liters of boiling water and mix thoroughly until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add spices and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes after boiling. Stir actively during the process.
Cool the wort, add lemon juice and crackers or yeast. Cover the pan with a lid or tie it with gauze and put it in a warm place for 1-3 days. As soon as the contents of the pan have fermented (bubbles indicate this), separate the clean wort from the cake using a colander, a sieve and clean gauze in several layers. During the process, the liquid is filtered well.
Fill the wort into the bottle approximately 3/4 full and install the water seal. That is, a tube is drawn from a hermetically sealed bottle through which gases formed during fermentation escape; the end of the tube is placed in a container of water. You can place this structure in the basement or on the veranda; the room temperature should be above zero. At a temperature of 12-18°C, the wine ferments for about 40 days. Then it is removed from the sediment, poured using a straw into clean bottles and stored, not tightly sealed. The wine can be hermetically sealed when it has completely fermented (in 2 months, when bubbles stop appearing). Elderberry wine can be poured into clean plastic bottles from under mineral water. Tighten the plugs tightly and hermetically. The result will be sparkling wine. Or can be used for this glass bottles, making sure to insure the cork with a braided wire. It is better to store bottles in a semi-horizontal position.
Elder flowers are also suitable for making wine, although of a completely different kind. In this recipe they serve as a flavoring agent.
Elderberry wine
Ingredients:
- elderberry inflorescences – 20 inflorescences;
- sugar – 4 kg;
- lemons 2 pcs.;
- a little yeast or a couple of homemade black bread crackers.
Preparation
We collect elderberry flowers and wash them in cold water. Prepare sugar syrup: dissolve 1 kg of sugar in 4 liters of water. Bring the syrup in a saucepan to a boil and boil for 2-3 minutes. Pour hot syrup over the flowers, add lemons, cut into slices (remove the seeds).
Cool until room temperature(or a little higher) and add yeast or crackers. Cover the pan with gauze and place in a warm place until fermentation begins (3-5 days).
Strain the fermented wort using a colander and gauze, squeeze it out, and pour it into a bottle. Fill the bottle 3/4 full with wort and install a water seal (see previous recipe). On average, wine ferments in about 40 days. The end of the main fermentation phase can be judged by the end of bubbles leaving the wine through the water seal. Then you can carefully remove the drink from the sediment, that is, strain it using a straw into a clean container and seal it tightly.
Of course, wine made from elderflowers is radically different in color, taste and aroma from wine made from elderberries.
Homemade elderberry wine is one of the most original spirits you can make yourself. Elderberry flowers, as well as red and black berries of this plant, are suitable for preparing the drink.
For wine we need:
- 3 liters of water;
- 5 grams citric acid;
- 3 kilograms of red or black elderberries;
- 4 carnation flowers;
- 150 grams of raisins;
- 1 kilogram of sugar.
Homemade elderberry wine
One of the most important rules for making wine is that you cannot mix red and black berries to make a drink.
Directly, the entire process of making wine from black and red elderberries.
To begin with, the collected berries (of the same color) must be thoroughly washed and crushed.
Then, you need to add a little citric acid and pour in 100 grams of sugar.
Our mixture must be steamed in boiled water, two liters will be enough. And cook for 15 minutes.
We need to wait until our mixture cools down and then strain it through gauze or other clean cloth.
Pour the resulting juice into bottles.
From 1 liter of water and 900 grams of sugar, you need to boil sugar syrup and pour it into a bottle of elderberry juice. Now it’s the turn of the raisins, pour all the raisins into the bottle. There is no need to rinse the raisins; this will only harm the process of making wine.
Then, you need to put a rubber glove on the jar of wine and secure it with a rope or elastic band. Next, you need to place our container in a room whose temperature should be 15-25 degrees.
After sediment appears at the bottom of the jar and the wine noticeably brightens, you need to take clean gauze and strain the wine.
The resulting wine must be poured into separate bottles and kept for two to six months in a room with a temperature of 12 degrees.
Homemade elderflower wine
You can’t squeeze juice out of elderberry flowers like you can out of berries. In wine, flowers will act as a flavoring agent.
We need to collect about ten flowers and wash them well.
For sugar syrup we need about one kilogram of sugar and four liters of water. You need to cook over low heat.
Now take one lemon, cut it and remove all the seeds from it. When the syrup is cooked, pour it over our flowers and add lemon.
It is necessary to start the fermentation process, and to do this, pour our mixture into a jar and add wine yeast, put a rubber glove on it. Place in a room with a temperature of 20-25 degrees.
After a couple of days, pour the wine into another jar and place a water seal and continue fermentation.
After the wine is ready, it needs to be bottled and tightly capped. In a few months your homemade wine will be ready.
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Preparation of moonshine and alcohol for personal use
absolutely legal!
After the collapse of the USSR, the new government stopped the fight against moonshine. Criminal liability and fines were abolished, and the article banning the production of alcohol-containing products at home was removed from the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. To this day, there is not a single law that prohibits you and me from engaging in our favorite hobby - preparing alcohol at home. This is evidenced by the Federal Law of July 8, 1999 No. 143-FZ “On Administrative Responsibility legal entities(organizations) and individual entrepreneurs for offenses in the field of production and turnover ethyl alcohol, alcoholic and alcohol-containing products" (Collection of legislation Russian Federation, 1999, N 28, art. 3476).
Excerpt from Federal Law RF:
“The effect of this Federal Law does not apply to the activities of citizens (individuals) producing products containing ethyl alcohol for purposes other than sale.”
Moonshining in other countries:
In Kazakhstan in accordance with the Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Administrative Offenses dated January 30, 2001 N 155, the following liability is provided. Thus, according to Article 335 “Manufacture and sale of home-made alcoholic beverages”, illegal production of moonshine, chacha, mulberry vodka, mash and other alcoholic beverages for the purpose of sale, as well as the sale of these alcoholic beverages, entails a fine in the amount of thirty monthly calculation indices with confiscation of alcoholic beverages , apparatus, raw materials and equipment for their manufacture, as well as money and other valuables received from their sale. However, the law does not prohibit the preparation of alcohol for personal use.
In Ukraine and Belarus things are different. Articles No. 176 and No. 177 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses provide for the imposition of fines in the amount of three to ten tax-free minimum wages for the production and storage of moonshine without the purpose of sale, for the storage of devices* for its production without the purpose of sale.
Article 12.43 repeats this information almost word for word. “Production or acquisition of strong alcoholic beverages (moonshine), semi-finished products for their production (mash), storage of apparatus for their production” in the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Administrative Offenses. Point No. 1 states: “Manufacturing individuals strong alcoholic drinks (moonshine), semi-finished products for their production (mash), as well as storage of devices* used for their production - entail a warning or a fine of up to five basic units with confiscation of these drinks, semi-finished products and devices.”
*Purchase moonshine stills For home use It’s still possible, since their second purpose is to distill water and obtain components for natural cosmetics and perfumes.
Making wine at home has long been a popular activity. Recipes from grandmothers, great-grandmothers, eminent families and different countries. The secrets of preparing aromatic, delicate, tasty, refined, natural drinks always remain in the spotlight.
What kind of berries and fruits are not used to make homemade wine. Most often these are grapes, apples, currants of all colors, cherries, gooseberries. The fruits are juicy, have a bright taste, individual aroma, low acidity, high sugar content. Great for making wine! Wine drinks made from these fruits and berries are common for homemade preparations. But there will probably be wine made from black elderberry original new product on the home table.
"Eye of the Devil"
Black elderberry is a branched, rather tall shrub, popularly called the “devil's eye”, buzok, and squeaker because of its shiny black berries. During flowering, the aroma can be heard several meters away. For good decorative qualities, unpretentiousness to growing conditions has earned widespread love. Actively used as ornamental shrub. Abundant flowering provides a rich harvest of berries. It is advisable to collect them no earlier than the end of August-September. The fruits are dense, reminiscent of bunches of grapes. Black elderberry berries contain a lot essential oils, biologically active substances, unsaturated carbohydrates, vitamins, tannins, an excellent remedy for anemia, contain bioflavonoids, have antimicrobial properties and the ability to bind and remove radionuclides from the body.
The influence of berries on the result
The availability of the plant, its prevalence, low maintenance requirements, and the abundance of the harvest create the necessary prerequisites for homemade elderberry wine to become just as common. The presence of a rich purple natural dye, which completely passes into the drink, makes the wine attractive in terms of organoleptic properties ( appearance). The original aroma and unique taste make it possible to include black elderberry fruits as a piquant additive in wine recipes based on other raw materials. They ripen in lush clusters, similar to small grapes. You need to collect whole bunches, since the berries are fragile and the risk of damaging the delicate shell is great, then the raw material will become unsuitable for making wine. It is very important to preserve the integrity of the raw materials, then the wine has the whole range of useful substances and vitamins. Black elderberry contains citric, tartaric, ascorbic, malic, and valeric acids, which makes wine based on it not only tasty, but also healthy.
It is often recommended to supplement the drink recipe with honey, cinnamon, raisins, and rose hips.
Not only delicious
In folk medicine, not only elderberries, but also the bark of the bush, inflorescences, and leaves have long been used. A hot drink made from the berries of the bush is extremely useful for such health problems as bronchopulmonary diseases, mastopathy, and kidney pathologies. Homemade wine is on a par with these drinks. It will not only be an excellent decoration for a cozy feast, but will replenish the collection of homemade preparations and take a well-deserved place among them.
Basic moments
In conditions proper preparation emphasis should be placed correctly.
- First, collect ripe berries rich purple color.
- The second thing is to collect them very carefully, without damaging the outer shell, since this preserves all the vitamins and the dye does not oxidize in the air. Also, the natural film on the surface of the berries has the properties of natural yeast.
- Third, choose the right recipe for making black elderberry wine.
There are many ways to process the material: you can squeeze the juice through some kind of filter (gauze, canvas), then implement the recipe. It is also common to obtain a base for wine from a rich decoction of berries. The second method has become more widespread, since when the berries are boiled, all the juice goes into the drink without any residue.
Each has its own merits
It is impossible to fully squeeze the juice out of raw berries; black elderberry contains a lot of tannins. Every recipe is worthy of attention. The squeezed juice will retain all the substances that are destroyed when heat treatment: vitamins, catecholamines, unsaturated acids. Raw material processing high temperature makes tannins and inorganic acids bioavailable to the body; they are almost completely (86%) absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract.
Wine recipe based on squeezed juice
- Process the berries with a juicer, or squeeze them by hand.
- Add granulated sugar in a 1:1 ratio to just the juice.
- Pour the separated pulp with a small amount of warm water and leave for several hours for natural fermentation to begin.
- Then combine together, pour into a glass container, and close with a water seal.
- Leave for at least 21–36 days.
- The wine will separate from the cream of tartar, pour it into bottles, and leave it to ripen for three to four months.
A simple decoction-based wine recipe
- Berries in the amount of 2.0 kg pour 8 liters hot water, cook for 2 hours.
- Be sure to strain, add 2 kg granulated sugar, reduce heat, simmer for another 1 hour.
- Cool completely, add 150 g of raisins. Leave to ferment.
- After completing the process, strain and pour into a clean container.
- Leave until fully cooked for 1–1.5 months.
You can take wine as a medicine, up to 100 ml per day.
