6 simple recipes for making wine from birch sap at home

Birch sap can be not only a tasty drink, but also a raw material for homemade wine. It can be a good alternative to classic grape wine and has many beneficial properties. Let's look at making wine from birch sap, how to prepare the ingredients and the production technology itself. How to properly store and drink the resulting drink.

Subtleties of making wine from birch sap

Birch wine comes out light and soft. Since juice does not have a strong taste and aroma, recipes often contain other ingredients - berries, citrus fruits, honey, aromatic herbs. They give the finished drink an original flavor and make it memorable.

To prepare original birch wine, you need to take fresh, just obtained sap. It turns sour quickly at normal temperatures and may be unusable after just a day. To prolong its shelf life, you need to keep the jars in the refrigerator. You will also need raisins for the starter, citric acid to acidify the liquid, and honey for sweetness.

Preparing the main ingredients

The first stage of preparation is boiling the juice so that it becomes thicker. The liquid is boiled down to a third of its volume. You can cook it immediately with acid and granulated sugar or add them after boiling. During the cooking process, you should remove the foam that will form during boiling.

How to make wine from birch sap at home

The drink is prepared according to the classic version, which includes only the most necessary ingredients, without adding others. But it can also be prepared by following other recipes.

Classic recipe

What to take:

• birch sap – 20 l;
• sugar – 4 kg;
• acid – 2 tsp;
• raisins – 100-150 g (or 1 packet of wine yeast).

How to cook:

1. Mix the boiled juice with the starter or add yeast.
2. Put sugar and acid, dissolve, pour everything into a large bottle.
3. Place a water seal on the neck, place the container in a warm and dark place (the temperature for proper fermentation should be 20-25 ˚C).
4. Fermentation should end after 5 weeks. You should not allow a sharp or significant change in temperature in the room where the wine is standing.
5. Drain the juice from the sediment and place it again for further infusion for 3 weeks in a place that is not hot (10˚C).
6. Then filter and bottle.

Put it in storage.

With citrus notes

Ingredients:

• birch sap – 10 l;
• sugar – 2 kg;
• raisins – 100 g;
• slices of lemon, orange or lime.

Cooking takes place according to the classical method. The juice is left to ferment until fermentation stops completely. After draining, the liquid is filtered to remove sediment and pieces of citrus. Pour into jars or bottles, seal them and refrigerate.

With honey and cinnamon

You will need:

• birch sap – 6 l;
• sugar – 2 kg;
• honey – 1 kg;
• cinnamon – 2-3 sticks;
• good quality white fortified wine – 1.5-2 l.

Cooking features:

1. Dissolve sugar in heated juice until smooth, stir, add honey.
2. Add cinnamon and add grape wine.
3. Place in a cool room for 2 weeks.
4. Drain the liquid, filter, bottle.

After 30 days, the young wine can be consumed.

With a fruity accent

What to prepare:

• birch sap – 10 l;
• sugar – 5 kg;
• fruits, berries – 3 kg;
• blue grape raisins – 200 g.

Fermentation technology is standard. Fermentation takes at least a month. Then it should be filtered, poured into glass containers and stored.

With raisins and without boiling

According to this recipe, the raw materials do not need to be boiled, just heated. This is necessary to dissolve the sugar as quickly as possible.

What you will need:

• juice – 3 l:
• sugar – 0.9 kg;
• raisins – 0.3 kg.

The sequence of the drink preparation process is classic. Fermentation will continue until the liquid brightens and becomes transparent. No carbon dioxide bubbles will be released from the water seal tube.

With herbs

Ingredients:

• juice – 5 l;
• sugar – 2 kg;
• yeast – 1 sachet;
• herbs – thyme, oregano, lemongrass leaves.

How to cook:

1. Heat the juice and add sugar.
2. Add yeast and powdered dry herbs to the wort.
3. Pour into a container and leave to ferment in a cool and dark room.
4. After fermentation, filter the liquid, pour into small bottles and refrigerate.

Wine can be drunk only after infusion.

Further storage of the product

It is not recommended to drink freshly fermented wine. It should sit in a cool and dark place. This process takes at least 2-3 months. The drink becomes clear, light, and the taste improves.

This wine should be stored in a cellar, in dark glass bottles with tightly closed corks. The shelf life, like any alcoholic drink, is unlimited. It can be stored for years; during storage, the wine will become tastier and nobler. The minimum aging period is 1 year.

You are allowed to drink the drink every day, but in small portions. When used correctly, in moderation, it normalizes metabolic processes in the body, strengthens the immune system, and cleanses tissues of toxins. Due to the presence of acid in the recipe, wine should be consumed with caution for gastritis, gastrointestinal diseases, and urolithiasis.

Birch sap wine is an original alcoholic drink that anyone can prepare at home. This requires the most common ingredients: juice, sugar, citrus fruits, herbs.The wine is prepared using technology developed for grape wine; the recipe does not have any special differences.