Many gardeners grow chokeberry, which in our country is most often called chokeberry, as an ornamental shrub. An unpretentious winter-hardy plant, which is characterized by early fruiting, not only decorates the garden, but also gives people the opportunity to improve their health. After all, the berries contain many vitamins (A, B, C, E, PP), microelements (boron, molybdenum, iodine, fluorine, iron, manganese, copper). Use chokeberry has a beneficial effect on the condition of blood vessels, reduces high blood pressure, and increases the level of immunity.
Chokeberry berries are sweet and sour, tart, black, about 7 mm in diameter, ripen in late August - early September. Aronia is used to make jellies and mousses, dried for making tea, preparing fillings for pies, and making compotes. Homemade dessert wine is also produced from the berries - aromatic, moderately tart, pleasant sweet and sour in taste, dark burgundy in color. The strength of the drink varies between 10-12%. Dry wine from chokeberry is too sour (the sugar content of the berries is no more than 10%), and the strength of the drink will be low. But not everyone likes sweet wine.
How to prepare chokeberry?
Chokeberry, as some winemakers call the berry for short, is harvested on a warm, dry day. Typically, the chokeberry harvest occurs in September, but if the weather permits, you can cut the berry ridges in October, right up to the first frost. When collecting, you need to be careful, since chokeberry juice leaves marks on clothes that are difficult to wash.The whitish coating that is present on the berries does not need to be washed off. Otherwise, the yeast that lives on the berry skin will die. True, if the rowan was frozen, you will have to add wine yeast or unwashed raisins, otherwise the wine will not ferment. By the way, raisins are often added to wine even from fresh chokeberries so that fermentation occurs actively.
To make chokeberry wine at home, you will need the highest quality berries. Rotten, unripe fruits and fruits spoiled by birds (birds love to damage chokeberry berries) must be gotten rid of, otherwise the taste of the drink will suffer. The ridges on which the berries are held, as well as accidentally plucked leaves, will also have to be removed.
By the way, only the chokeberry itself should be unwashed during the winemaking process. The fermentation container should be thoroughly washed, doused with boiling water and dried. Also important is the cleanliness of your hands, spoons for mixing the wort, sieve, (gauze), and tube through which the wine will be poured from the sediment. It is advisable to choose dishes made of glass, stainless steel or with an intact enamel coating for fermentation. Sometimes, in the absence of one, plastic containers are used, but this can negatively affect the taste and aromatic qualities of the wine. Containers made of aluminum or copper are absolutely not suitable for winemaking due to their tendency to oxidize.
Chokeberry wine recipe
Ingredients
- Berries – 10 kg;
- Sugar – 2 kg;
- Water – 2 l;
- Raisins – 100 g.
Cooking process
- Sort out the chokeberry berries, mash them unwashed (with your hands, a wooden masher, using an electric meat grinder), place in a container of a suitable size;
- Add half of the prepared sugar (1 kg) and all the raisins (unwashed) to the berry mass. Mix the contents of the container thoroughly until the sugar dissolves;
- Close the container with the wort with a lid or bandage it with gauze. Take the container to a warm place (about 18-25 degrees) for a period of 3 to 10 days. You will need to periodically (twice or three times a day) stir the contents of the container with your hand or a wooden spoon to prevent the wort from becoming moldy;
- When the berries swell and are on the surface, and strong foam appears when stirring, it’s time to start filtering the chokeberry wort. The timing varies from 3 to 10 days depending on the room temperature and the degree of fermentation activity. So, squeeze out the pulp (the pulp and skin of the chokeberry that floated to the surface). There is no need to throw it away at this stage. Filter chokeberry juice through cheesecloth and pour into a fermentation container. Put a water seal or a punctured medical glove on the neck and take the container to a warm room;
- Add a kilo of sugar and water at room temperature to the remaining squeezed pulp, mix well. Take it into a warm place, after covering it with a lid or tying the container with gauze with the next portion of wort. Wait 5-7 days, stirring occasionally. Strain the wort, then discard the pulp;
- Remove the water seal (glove) from the container where the chokeberry juice ferments. Use a spoon to sting the foam and pour in a new portion of wort. Put the water seal (glove) back on and leave to ferment for 20 to 60 days;
- The following facts indicate the readiness of a wine: the appearance of sediment, the wine becoming lighter, the absence of bubbles from the water seal, or the fall of the glove. When all these signs manifest themselves, it is time to remove the wine from the sediment through a thin tube;
- The resulting wine does not taste as good, so it is better to let it mature. To do this, pour the filtered drink into a container of suitable volume to fill it and take it to a cool place (for example, a cellar) for 3-6 months. As sediment appears, you will need to pour the wine into another container, otherwise the wine will be bitter;
- Pour ripe black rowan wine into suitable bottles and store in a basement, refrigerator or cellar for about 5 years.
Recipe for wine from frozen chokeberries
If there are a lot of chokeberries at your dacha, and large containers are not available, you can freeze the berries to use them later. If you wish, you can make wine from frozen berries all year round according to the previous recipe, but it is possible to speed up the process somewhat by getting rid of the pulp immediately after squeezing the juice. By the way, sometimes the taste of wine made from chokeberry is slightly changed by adding initial stage add a little cinnamon and cloves to the main ingredients.Ingredients
- Frozen chokeberry – 5 kg;
- Sugar – 2.5 kg;
- Water – 3 l;
- Raisins – 200-250 g.
Cooking process
- Thaw chokeberry berries. Squeeze out the juice, pour it into the fermentation container, and dispose of the pulp;
- Add the remaining ingredients to the juice, stir;
- Place a water seal on the neck of the container (or put on a glove). Keep in a warm place for 1-2 months;
- When fermentation is complete (sediment appears, the wine becomes lighter, the glove deflates, and the gurgling from the water seal stops), drain the wine from the sediment;
- Pour young wine from chokeberries into a container to the top, transfer to a cool place for at least 3 months. Filter the wine until sediment stops forming.
Homemade wines are not only tasty, but also very healthy, and they do not contain any artificial additives. It is always a pleasure to drink such products in any company.
Chokeberry wine, which can be prepared in several different ways, is considered especially valuable and useful.
Chokeberry contains great amount a variety of useful substances.
The wine made on its basis has a unique and pleasant aroma, dark and saturated color and a very pronounced and mild taste.
Its dosed use allows you to saturate the body with all the necessary nutrients.
Classic way
Now there are a large number of different recipes for its preparation. But the most useful is still considered to be wine made according to the classic recipe.
Ingredients:
- purified water – 2 l;
- granulated sugar – 4 kg;
- rowan berries – 10 kg;
- dark raisins – 100 g.
Rowan berries should not be washed before use.
On its surface are the fungi necessary for fermentation, the same applies to raisins.
Important! It is better to take spring water or regular tap water, which has previously been settled and passed through a filter.
Chokeberry wine is prepared as follows:
- The berries are carefully sorted, those that have traces of rot or foreign damage are removed.
- Without washing the rowan, grind it with a blender or pass it through a meat grinder.
- The resulting puree is placed in a basin, one liter of water is added and half the sugar is added. The water should be at room temperature.
- The top of the container is covered with gauze and left in a warm place to ferment for 14 days.
- After the specified time has passed, the juice is filtered through a fine sieve and placed under a water seal.
- The pulp is filled with the remaining liquid and sugar is added to it. Leave to ferment for five days. The mixture must be stirred daily.
- Then the juice is filtered through cheesecloth, the pulp is thrown away, and the liquid is added to the juice under a water seal and again left to age for 7 days.
- After this time, the wort is decanted into a clean container and again left under the water seal. This operation is repeated every seven days until the fermentation process is stopped.
- Then the wine is poured into bottles, filling them to the top, and sealed. Sent to a dark place for 90 days to mature.
After this time, the wine is filtered again and either corked again, or they begin to taste.
Cooked according to classic recipe The alcoholic drink has a strength of about 15 revolutions. Its maximum shelf life is 60 months.
Attention! To prevent the finished wine from becoming bitter, rowan berries should be collected after the first frost. You can't pick berries after it rains. In this case, there will be no fungi necessary for fermentation on their surface and the wort will simply turn sour.
The video clearly shows how to make homemade chokeberry wine:
Making wine according to this recipe really takes quite a lot of time and effort. But the result is worth it.
If you are already tired of ordinary chokeberry wine, then you can prepare this delicious drink according to other recipes.
From chokeberry with cinnamon
Adding this spice to this alcoholic drink gives it a slight stickiness. In addition, it harmoniously complements its aroma and makes it more appetizing.
To prepare you will need:
- vodka High Quality– 500 ml;
- granulated sugar – 4 kg;
- ground cinnamon – 5-7g;
- rowan berries – 5 kg.
Cinnamon gives the drink a special aroma.
Cooking steps:
- Peeled but unwashed berries are crushed. It is best to use a special pestle, but if you don’t have one, you can grind the rowan using a blender.
- All the sugar and cinnamon are added to the resulting slurry.
- The mixture is thoroughly mixed and placed in a bucket, covered with a cloth on top and left for intensive fermentation. The air temperature should be at least 30 degrees.
- After 9 days, the juice should be filtered from the pulp. The liquid is sent under a water seal until fermentation is complete. The pulp should be thrown away or used at your discretion.
- When the fermentation process is complete, vodka is poured into the wine, filtered through cheesecloth and bottled, which are hermetically sealed.
- The finished rowan wine is sent to the cellar for ripening for 180 days.
Reference! If you don’t have ground cinnamon, you can use cinnamon sticks. For this amount of ingredients you will need two pieces.
Aged wine is very similar to homemade liqueur. You can drink it as pure form, and adding a little to tea.
In the bank
If you don’t have a lot of chokeberry, but you want to enjoy the unique taste of wine made from it, then you can prepare this delicious drink in a regular three-liter jar.
Ingredients:
- rowan berries – 700 g;
- sugar – 1000 g;
- water – 500 ml;
- raisins – 100 g.
This recipe is suitable for those who do not have large glass bottles and a spacious basement.
The wine is prepared as follows:
- The berries are washed and poured whole into a container.
- Add raisins, a third of sugar and pour in water.
- Make a small hole in the center of the plastic lid and cover the jar with it.
- Every day for 7 days, the jar must be gently shaken to mix its contents.
- After 7 days, another third of the sugar is added to the jar.
- After 30 days, pour all the remaining sugar into the container.
- After this, the container is not touched until the sugar is completely dissolved and the rowan berries have completely settled to the bottom.
- When this happens, the wine is carefully drained from the sediment, filtered and bottled.
The simplest recipes
There are two more recipes for preparing this tasty and healthy alcoholic drink. Both of them differ from previous methods in their simplicity and high speed of preparation.
First
It is prepared from the juice of frozen berries. You will need exactly three liters of it.
- Heat the juice to room temperature and mix with 3 liters of water and 2.4 kg of granulated sugar.
- Pour the resulting mixture into a bottle, add 200 g of unwashed raisins into it and place under a water seal.
- When fermentation stops, drain the wine from the sediment using a rubber hose and strain.
- The resulting drink can be drunk immediately, but if you let it sit for 3 months it will become even more aromatic and tender.
Second
Crush one kilogram of berries, add 400 ml of water and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes.
Then pour the resulting liquid into a separate bottle, pour 600 ml of water into the pulp, add 2 g of cloves, citric acid and cloves each, and boil again. Strain the broth again, mix the liquid with the first solution, and discard the pulp.
Pour 500 ml of vodka into the resulting drink and leave to cool. Insist on this fast wine not necessary.
Reference! The wine prepared according to the second recipe is not actually such an alcoholic drink, but rather a wine drink. However, it has good taste and aromatic qualities, so it will be quite appropriate even on a festive table.
- When preparing wine you should use freshly picked rowan berries. The container in which it will be fermented must be dry and sterile.
- Experienced winemakers believe that raisins must be dark, as it best starts the fermentation process.
- Despite the fact that wine prepared according to some recipes is ready for consumption immediately after the final straining, It’s better to let it brew for three months. After this period, it will reveal its taste and aroma in in full, besides, the concentration of nutrients will become maximum.
Important! Chokeberry wine perfectly improves immunity. To do this, take it three times a day for a month, 30 ml.
Homemade wine from this type of rowan, prepared according to any recipe, always turns out tasty and aromatic.
It will become a real table decoration and will help replenish the deficiency of vitamins in the body. The main thing is to follow the recipe exactly.
Video instructions for making a water seal with your own hands
Beginning winemakers often do not fully understand what it means to put the wort under a water seal. You can do this in two ways:
- A thin latex glove is put on the neck of the bottle, and several thin punctures are made on the fingers with a needle. For reliability, you can secure it with tape. When the glove swells, it means the wine is fermenting; when it falls, it means the fermentation process is over.
- The jar is closed with a lid, in the center of which a hole is made. A thin rubber tube is inserted into it, so that one end is lowered into the wort, and the other into another container filled with water. When gas bubbles stop flowing into the second vessel, the wine is considered ready for decanting.
In the video, an experienced winemaker talks about how to prepare a water seal with your own hands:
Homemade wine is distinguished not only by its pleasant taste qualities, but also medicinal properties, especially if the drink is prepared without the use of vodka. The recipe for making chokeberry wine is quite simple, although it takes two months to prepare. However, this process is not only worth the effort, but even beginners can do it, since it does not require large quantity specialized utensils and special skills. Let's look at the features in the article.
The ripening time of chokeberry fruits occurs at the beginning of autumn. The peculiarity of this plant is the following - if you do not collect the fruits after ripening, they will remain on the branches until spring. Therefore, a natural question arises - when is the best time to harvest.
The quality of the resulting wine largely depends on the time when the berries were picked from the bush.
Wild wine yeasts die at low temperatures, so it is extremely important to harvest rowan before the first autumn frosts in order to avoid the death of beneficial microorganisms.
For the same reason, it is highly not recommended to wash the fruits before preparing the drink, since most of the bacteria will simply be washed away, and without them the fermentation process will not begin. 
Thus, best time The chokeberry harvest occurs around the second half of October. Depending on your region of residence, these times may vary.
Let's figure out what kind of kitchen equipment we might need to make chokeberry wine at home:
It is worth noting that the easiest option for creating a water seal is to use an ordinary medical latex glove, in which a tiny hole is pierced with a needle in any finger. However, this is not entirely reliable way, since the smell of fermentation will be present in the room, and the future wine may “suffocate”.
Did you know? In ancient times, in Rus', a variety of drinks were called wine, be it mash, beer or mead. Only representatives of the nobility drank wine directly, so it is difficult to say when exactly this drink began to be prepared. However, it is known for certain that it was from the moment of joining Russian Empire Crimean peninsula winemaking became ubiquitous.
It is best to use a nylon or metal screw cap (it all depends on the neck of the bottle) in which a hole is made. It is necessary to insert a rubber hose into this hole, secure it securely and hermetically, for example, with glue, and lower the other end into a jar of water to prevent air from entering the bottle. 
Nylon cover
In order to prepare such a drink from chokeberry, you will need the following ingredients:
- 5 kilograms of chokeberry berries;
- 1 or 2 kilograms of granulated sugar (depending on what kind of wine you want - dessert or sweet);
- 50 grams;
- 1 liter of water.
It is not recommended to wash raisins before use, since during washing, wild wine yeast, usually contained on its surface, will be removed from it, and this will negatively affect the fermentation processes. 
Recipe homemade wine from chokeberry is quite simple to make. Let's consider the main stages of creating this aromatic drink.
Did you know? Chokeberry berries contain special yeast bacteria - wild wine yeast, which are necessary for the successful fermentation of wine.
Preparation of chokeberry berries. The harvested crop should not be washed, but it does need to be sorted. Bad berries are thrown away, and all the rest are separated from the stalk, after which they need to be poured into a large container and carefully crushed with clean hands. Technology lovers can use a food processor or meat grinder.
Connection of components. Next, add sugar to the resulting puree of mashed berries and mix thoroughly with your hands to obtain a homogeneous mixture. Add a handful of raisins inside (they will improve fermentation). Mix everything again and cover with gauze, which will protect the contents from insects and debris. 
In this state, leave the wort to infuse for about a week (from 7 to 12 days) in a relatively warm place, where the temperature will be between +18–25°C. A decrease or increase in temperature can cause the fermentation process to slow down and stop.
Important! During the entire infusion period, it is necessary to stir the wort daily with clean hands to avoid the appearance of mold on the surface.
Juice separation. After about a week, you can begin the next step in making wine. You can find out quite simply whether the mixture is ready for this. - you will notice that the berries have already swollen significantly and risen to the surface of the liquid. In addition, if you dip your palm into the mash, a foam characteristic of fermentation will appear around it. This suggests that you can proceed to the next steps - separating the pulp from the juice.
The pulp is collected by hand and squeezed out using gauze. Kitchen appliances are not very suitable for this, as they quickly become clogged and produce only a small amount of juice. The rest of the juice must be passed through a fine sieve. 
All the resulting juice must be poured into a separate bottle (the container in which the wine will be prepared), but you should not throw away the cake - it will come in handy.
The juice you now have may contain small particles and significant sediment. This is not scary, and there is no need to remove it now - in the process of future filtration the wine will be purified.
The remaining pulp. It must be set aside for re-fermentation. To do this, add the remaining sugar to the cake and add water. Make sure that the water is quite warm, but not warmer than 30°C and not colder than 25°C, because at other temperatures the wine yeast begins to die.
The container with pulp must be covered with a lid to limit the access of light, and left for 5 days in a warm and dark place. During this entire period, you must remember to stir the mixture and drown any floating berries. 
Water seal and its installation. The juice that was obtained before must be poured into a large bottle, where it will ferment in the future. It is necessary to install a water seal in the neck of the bottle to limit the access of air and remove excess gases.
The water seal can be either specialized or made by hand. If you are using a glove, pull it over the neck and secure it tightly with an elastic band or thread. Drill a hole in the lid that would correspond to the tube you selected. Insert the tube inside and secure tightly.
To do this, you can use glue or another method - with inside cover, insert the empty handle housing into the end of the hose and heat it with a lighter. The outer end of the tube will expand and tightly close the hole in the lid.
Place the cap on the bottle. Dip the outer long end of the rubber tube into a jar of water -
this is necessary so that gases leave the container, and the wine does not “suffocate,” and oxygen does not penetrate into the bottle. 
Important! The short end of the tube on the inside of the lid should be as high as possible above the wine mixture.
The bottle with the wort now needs to be placed in a warm and dark room. It is advisable that the temperature here be at least +18°C.
Second portion of juice. We extract it from already settled pulp, which we take out from the shelter. To do this, simply pass the mixture through a colander or sieve. This must be done carefully so that the drink does not turn out cloudy.
The spent cake is now subject to disposal.
Adding juice to the main container. To do this, simply remove the water seal, remove the foam on the surface of the liquid with a spoon and pour the juice obtained from the pulp into the main container, after which it is tightly closed again. 
The process of active fermentation. It will last about 1.5-2 months. During this entire time, the wort will need to be filtered. The first month the procedure is repeated every week, and for the remaining time -
every two weeks.
To carry out filtration, you need to remove the water seal, remove the foam from the surface of the liquid and carefully pour the wine from one bottle to another using a thin dropper tube, leaving all the sediment at the bottom of the jar.
The end of fermentation will be indicated by the disappearance of its manifestations - for example, bubbles will stop appearing in a jar of water, and the glove will deflate, and the liquid will become lighter in color.
When the fermentation process is over, you will need to last time strain the young wine through a straw, freeing it from residual sediment, and pour into bottles intended for storage.
However, if you are not satisfied with the sweetness of the resulting drink, now is the time to sweeten it. You can’t just pour sugar into a liquid: it is placed in a clean piece of cotton fabric, tied with thread to form a bag, and dipped into a container with new wine. 
The bag of sugar should not sink: secure it closer to the surface, install the water seal again and leave the wine to stand for another week. During this time, the sugar will most likely completely dissolve.
Now it's time to send the young wine to ripen.
Maturation of wine. When the drink is bottled, it’s time to send it to mature in some cool and dark place. A cellar or refrigerator is quite suitable for this. However, if you sweetened the wine at the end of the fermentation process, do not cork the bottle too tightly, as gases may be released during the week.
The product matures in 2 to 4 months, after which it becomes ready for consumption.
What can be combined with
To prepare a delicious fruit and berry wine, which is also very healthy, you can add other fruits or berries to the chokeberry. Pears and grapes go well with chokeberry.
The preparation of this drink with the addition of other fruits is practically no different from the main recipe - the main thing is that the ratio of them to rowan is 1 to 1.
Video recipe for making chokeberry wine
During preparation, the fruits are cored and cut into small pieces, and the berries are ground or crushed to a puree consistency, after which everything is covered with sugar, and then the fermentation processes begin.
For an extraordinary aroma and interesting flavor, you can add cherry or cherry leaves to the fruit and berry mixture. The rest of the recipe is the same.
Wine prepared at home should be stored in a dark and cool place - preferably in a tightly sealed dark glass container.
The ideal storage room is a cellar. The temperature should be within +10-12°C, although for dessert wines it is permissible to increase the temperature to +13-14°C.
It is desirable that the humidity in the room be between 65–80%. 
The lying position of the bottle ensures contact of the liquid with the cork, which prevents air from penetrating inside the container.
If all these conditions are met, homemade fruit and berry wine from chokeberry can be stored for about 5 years.
Important! Bottles of wine are placed horizontally, and it is advisable not to touch them during the entire storage period, since any shaking is stressful for the drink.
If you know some of the features of making wine at home, you can make a very tasty drink:
- Ideal container for making wine - wooden. It has pores through which the air necessary for the life of fermentation bacteria enters. However, in modern conditions its use is practically impossible, so the most the best choice - glass. It is acceptable to use plastic, but it can be toxic. But metal utensils cannot be used under any circumstances, as the oxidation process occurs in them.
- Making homemade chokeberry wine without adding sugar is not recommended, since the berries contain very little sugar and a lot of tannins. Wine without sugar will be too sour and tart.
- The more sugar, the sweeter the drink will be in the end.. IN in this case If you take 1 kilogram of sugar for 5 kilograms of rowan berries, you will get a dessert wine.
- Chokeberry pulp is prone to mold. Therefore, stirring the wine composition should be regular and frequent throughout the entire period, from mixing the ingredients to separating the pulp from the juice.
- The taste of a wine drink largely depends on its age. - excerpts. Therefore, the more the product is stored in peace and darkness, the richer the bouquet and taste it will have.
Homemade wine made from chokeberry has not only a pleasant taste and aroma: it also has a beneficial effect on health - it normalizes high blood pressure in hypertension, improves the condition of blood vessels and the heart. Chokeberry wine is incredibly aromatic with a pleasant tart and slightly astringent note. In addition, the drink takes on the lion's share of the valuable properties inherent in chokeberry, which makes it a priority compared to analogues prepared from other berries and fruits.
How to make homemade chokeberry wine - a simple classic recipe
Ingredients:
- chokeberry - 5 kg;
- unwashed – 55 g;
- filtered water – 990 ml;
- sugar – 2 kg.
Preparation
Chokeberries for wine should be selected only when they are ripe, without rotten berries, and ideally slightly frostbitten or collected after the first frost. We sort through the berry mass and get rid of unnecessary specimens. Now knead the rowan well so that not a single one remains intact. You can use a masher for this purpose or simply crush the berries with clean hands.
At the next stage, the resulting pulp must be put into primary fermentation. To do this, mix it in a suitable container with sugar (700 g) and unwashed raisins and place it indoors at room conditions for seven days. Be sure to stir the contents of the vessel every day to avoid souring.
After a week, using a piece of gauze, strain the fermented pulp and separate the juice from the pulp. Pour the liquid base into a fermentation vessel, install a water seal on it or put on a rubber glove with one finger pierced with a needle.
Mix the pulp remaining in the gauze with granulated sugar (1.3 kg), add filtered water and let it ferment again, covering it with a towel or cloth and remembering to stir daily. After another seven days, we squeeze the pulp into gauze again, get rid of the pulp, and add the liquid juice to the main fermentation vessel, removing the water seal or glove for a minute. During the entire fermentation process, every week it is necessary to drain the base of the wine from the sediment, first removing the foam. As soon as the bubbles in the water seal system stop releasing or the glove is deflated, you can drain the young wine from the sediment for the last time and bottle it for further aging in a cool place. In order for the taste of the drink to become balanced and harmonious, it needs to stand for three to five months.
How to make homemade chokeberry wine using a simple recipe with vodka?
Ingredients:
- chokeberry - 400 g;
- cherry leaves - a handful;
- filtered water – 1.6 l;
- sugar – 200 g;
- - a pinch.
Preparation
For those who do not want to prepare wine according to the simple classic recipe outlined above, due to the length of the process, we suggest preparing the drink in a simple and in a fast way with the participation of vodka.
To implement the idea, just as in the previous case, we select only high-quality berries. They can be either fresh or frozen. IN the latter case the drink will be less tart and astringent. We grind the berry mass with a pestle or knead it with our hands, after which we place it in a saucepan along with the washed cherry leaves. Pour filtered water into the berry mixture with leaves and place the vessel on the stove burner. After boiling, with occasional stirring, reduce the heat and simmer the mixture for about fifteen minutes.
Next, strain the broth and squeeze it out a little, add granulated sugar and citric acid to the liquid base and stir until all the crystals dissolve. After it has cooled completely, mix the resulting rowan sweet and sour liquid with vodka, pour it into bottles and let it sit on the refrigerator shelf for three weeks. After time, the finished drink can be tasted.
Many summer residents consider chokeberry to be a useless plant, the berries of which are unsuitable for winemaking. It's time to debunk this myth. We'll consider best recipe homemade chokeberry wine, repeatedly tested in practice. The cooking process is not complicated, but in addition to fruits, water and sugar, patience is also required.
First, you need to carefully sort the berries, removing unripe, spoiled, rotten and moldy ones. The taste of the future chokeberry wine largely depends on the thoroughness of sorting the raw materials. Not a single bad berry should get into the drink.
Containers in use must be sterilized with boiling water and dried, especially if they have come into contact with other products, such as milk. Otherwise, there is a risk of infection and spoilage of the wine.
Ingredients:
- ripe chokeberry - 5 kg;
- sugar – 1 kg;
- unwashed raisins – 50 grams (optional);
- water – 1 liter.
Chokeberry wine recipe
1. Preparing rowan. Mash 5-6 kg of chokeberry with clean hands. Each individual berry must be crushed.
You cannot wash rowan berries, because there is wild yeast on the peel, which will cause the juice to ferment. All dirt will then settle at the bottom and will be removed by filtration.
2. Mixing ingredients. Place the crushed rowan into a 10-liter non-metallic container (plastic, glass or enamel).
Add 500 grams of sugar to the chokeberry. I do not recommend making wine from chokeberries without sugar, since the natural sugar content of the berries is low (up to 9%), as a result the wine will turn out weak (maximum 5.4 degrees) and will not store well.
To be sure of fermentation, I advise you to add a handful of unwashed raisins, on the surface of which there is also wild wine yeast, to the container with wine. The quality of the drink will not suffer from this. After adding sugar, stir the wort thoroughly until smooth.
Bandage the container with gauze to protect it from insects, and place it in a warm place (18-25°C) for a week. Stir the juice and pulp (particles of peel and pulp that float to the surface) 3-4 times a day throughout the entire period to prevent mold from appearing on the surface.
3. Juicing. After 3-7 days, the rowan berries will swell and rise to the top. If you immerse your hand in liquid, a characteristic foam will appear. This indicates that it is time to squeeze out the juice.
You need to collect the pulp with your hands and squeeze out the juice. You can use a press, but not a juicer, which will quickly clog. The squeezed pulp should not be thrown away; it will still be needed.
Filter all the resulting juice (remaining in the container and squeezed out of the pulp) through a regular kitchen colander or cheesecloth. You can ignore the small particles that got into the liquid during filtration; we will remove them later. Pour the purified juice into the fermentation container, filling no more than 40% of the volume, so that there is room for a new portion of juice, foam and carbon dioxide that will be released during fermentation.
4. Working with pulp. Add 0.5 kg of sugar and 1 liter of warm water (25-30°C) to the squeezed pulp. Mix well so that the liquid rises above the pulp. Cover with a lid and leave for 5 days in a dark place at room temperature.
The pulp must be stirred again every day, drowning the berries that have floated to the surface, otherwise mold will appear.
5. Installation of a water seal. Install a water seal of any design on the jar with the previously obtained juice (you can wear a medical glove with a small hole in one of the fingers), then put it in a dark room with a temperature of 18-27°C for fermentation.
Wine under water seal 
Glove like shutter 6. Getting a new portion of juice. After settling for a week, carefully strain the pulp through a colander. There is no need to specially press, since you only need high-quality juice, not dregs. The recycled pulp and peel can be thrown away; they have given up all their useful substances and will no longer be needed.
7. Mixing juice. Remove the water seal from the jar with the first portion of juice, use a spoon to remove the foam that has accumulated on the surface, then add the juice obtained at the previous stage. After this, install the water seal back on the fermentation tank.
8. Fermentation. The process lasts 25-50 days. The end of fermentation is indicated by the absence of bubbles from the water seal during the day (the glove has deflated and no longer inflates), sediment has appeared at the bottom, and the wine has become lighter. After this, you will get a young chokeberry wine with a sharp taste, which requires ripening to improve its organoleptic properties. It's time to drain the wine through a straw into another container without touching the sediment.
At this stage, the drink can be sweetened to taste or secured with vodka (40-45% alcohol) in an amount of 2-15% of the wine volume. Hardening promotes storage, but the taste and aroma become harsher.
9. Maturation. Fill the containers to the top with wine, close tightly (if sugar was added for sweetening, it is better to keep it sealed for the first 7-10 days) and transfer to a refrigerator or basement at a temperature of 8-16°C. Leave to ripen for 3-6 months. If sediment appears, filter once every 30-45 days.
The finished chokeberry wine can be bottled and hermetically sealed. If stored in a cellar or refrigerator, the shelf life is 3-5 years. Strength – 10-12% (without artificial fixation).