Cowberry wine at home: recipe

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Since ancient times, lingonberries have conquered people with their healing properties and a storehouse of useful substances. The berry contains antioxidants, mineral s alts, acids (acetic, malic and citric), carotene, pectin and vitamins B1, E, B2, B. It contains a minimum amount of proteins, which slows down the fermentation of lingonberries.

Where lingonberries grow and its beneficial properties

Berry bushes themselves are frost-resistant and unpretentious plants. Due to the content of benzoic acid in them, lingonberries are stored for a very long time and the berries do not require special attention. The progenitor of the shrub is the island of Crete, from which the first records of lingonberries came from. Today, this plant is found in the Far East, the Urals, the Caucasus and Siberia. Cowberries grow where the soil is acidic and the climate is cold.

The first mention of the berry comes down to the records of ancient Roman writers. Legends were made about its beneficial properties, extolled as a cure for many diseases. In Russia, it was believed that lingonberries can cure diseasesurinary system. During periods of scurvy, the population was treated with infusions from the berry or decoctions from the leaves of this shrub. They also have many beneficial properties. Decoctions from the fruits of the shrub can strengthen the immune system and improve vision.

How to make lingonberry wine

Increasingly, you can find wine drinks prepared at home. The quality of labeled wines is falling, and their value is rising. This is why homemade alcoholic drinks are becoming popular.

It will be difficult for a beginner to make wine from lingonberries at home. It is necessary to fully adhere to the manufacturing recipe, carefully control the fermentation process and use only high-quality ingredients.

Recipe with honey and cherries

Honey will add a tart aftertaste to the drink, and cherry berries will help sweeten wine from lingonberries.

Fortress of homemade wine - 12-14%, volume - 6 l.

Ingredients for cherry wine

• lingonberries - 5 kg;
• cherries - 1 kg;
• bee honey - 500 gr;
• water - 4 l;
• sugar - 1.5 kg;
• wine yeast - according to instructions;
• fermentation tank (8-9 l bottle).

To prepare a quality wine product with a rich taste, it is recommended to use only red or pinkish fresh berries in the preparation of the drink. White cranberries will produce little juice.

Cooking process

1. First of all, it is necessaryprepare cherries (900 gr.) and lingonberries for use. You should sort through each one, and choose only fresh and ripe, with no signs of spoilage.
2. Then rinse the cherries and lingonberries under running water and separate the pits from the cherries.
3. Pour 100 g of cherries and honey with hot water for 20 minutes.
4. Knead the berries well, cover them with a kilogram of sugar and mix.
5. Sterilize the container for further fermentation, prepare a water seal or a medical glove.
6. Place the berries in the prepared container, add wine yeast or unwashed raisins and pour them with two liters of warm water.
7. Stir the wort and keep it at room temperature for six days.
8. Next, you need to separate the juice from the cake, filter it through a triple gauze and pour it back into the fermentation bottle.
9. Stir the remaining sugar with the honey mixture and pour into the wine, mix thoroughly and put away in a place to ferment (for 15-17 days).
10. When the fermentation process of the wine drink is over, it can be bottled.
11. After stand for about a month in a cool place.

Classic recipe

The recipe for this wine drink is considered dessert. Has a light ruby color, pleasant taste and delicate aroma of berries.

Drink strength 13-16°, volume 6 l, shelf life 2 years.

Ingredients

You will need the following:

• sugar - 2.5 kg;
• lemon juice - 2 tbsp. l.;
• water - 6 liters;
• lingonberries - 6 kg;
• wine yeast.

If there is no wine yeast in the house, you can simply not wash the berry. Unwashed lingonberries contain special natural yeasts that help neutralize the effects of benzoic acid. Also, raisin sourdough or 6-10 pieces is suitable for the wine fermentation process. unwashed raisins.

Preparing a classic drink

1. Prepare the berries for wine, rinse under running water.
2. Crush the berry with a mortar or chop in a blender.
3. Place the mass in a fermentation tank, add yeast or sourdough, warm water and 900 g of sugar to it.
4. Mix the ingredients thoroughly, tie the neck of the container with gauze folded in three layers and leave in a warm place for a week.
5. After seven days, the wine must be filtered through gauze and poured back into the fermentation bottle.
6. Add 800 g of sugar to wine alcohol, stir.
7. Fix a water seal or glove on the neck of the bottle, put it in a dark place for 6 days.
8. On the seventh day, strain the wine drink through cheesecloth, add the remaining sugar and mix well.
9. Leave to ferment for another four days.
10. After filter it from sediment twice and pour into small bottles.
11. Put in the cellar or on the balcony (if winter or autumn) for three months.

Recipe with mint and wormwood

The process of making lingonberry wine with wormwood is quite complicated. But with careful execution, even a novice winemaker can cope with the manufacture of such a homemade drink. Wormwood gives alcohol a certainzest and adds astringency to the wine.

Fortress 16-19°, Volume 5 l.

Ingredients for wine with herbs

Prepare these ingredients:

• lingonberries - 5 kg;
• wine - 5 l or vodka - 1 l;
• sugar - 2 kg;
• fresh mint - 30 gr.;
• fresh branches of wormwood - 500 gr.;
• wine yeast - according to instructions.

Cooking

1. First of all, you need to sort out the lingonberries and wash them.
2. Next, crush the berry.
3. Spread lingonberries, mint, sugar (1.5 kg) and medium branches of wormwood in a suitable container.
4. Pour the mass with water (5 l), if in the future vodka or wine will be added to the drink.
5. Wrap the neck of the container with gauze folded three times and put it in the cellar or on the balcony for two months.
6. After drain the resulting alcohol into a fermentation tank, filtering twice through gauze.
7. Remove wormwood branches from the remaining mass.
8. Squeeze the lingonberries and mix the resulting juice with the remaining sugar.
9. Pour this mixture into the wine container and mix thoroughly.
10. Install a water seal or a thin rubber glove on top of the container.
11. Leave homemade alcohol to infuse in the same place for another month.
12. After the required period, filter the lingonberry wine and bottle it.
13. Keep in a cool place or cellar to avoid future fermentation.

Homemade wine is ready!

Contraindications for use

Like all alcoholic beverages, lingonberry house wines should be consumed in moderation. This berry, of course, is useful, but in excessive volumes it can cause intoxication. It is also not recommended to use it for people with kidney failure and heart problems, children, pregnant women.

Cowberry drinks are not recommended for people with low blood pressure. The components of the berry can affect its even greater decrease. In diseases of the stomach and high acidity, its use is also prohibited due to the content of various acids in it. People with kidney disease should also use this berry with caution, they should consult a specialist before taking it.

Cowberry homemade wines are not very popular due to the fact that it is considered very capricious for winemaking. Nevertheless, alcoholic drinks from this berry have useful properties and have a unique taste and aroma. All the difficulties of preparing lingonberry wine according to the recipe and the long waiting time are more than compensated, you just have to taste the taste of the finished drink.