In the open spaces of ancient Scandinavia, alcohol based on honey was called the "drink of the gods." And not in vain, because properly prepared honey wine is actually famous for its noble taste. Such a drink can become a real gem of any alcohol collection.
Among other things, home-made honey wine retains many healing qualities. It is a very extraordinary drink that combines delicious caramel flavor and an unforgettable floral aroma. Ready honey wine has a beautiful golden hue. By the way, you can drink it both cold and hot. For many years, the most sought-after are considered boiled varieties of wines with the addition of all kinds of fruits.
Beneficial features
Perhaps it’s no secret to anyone that both natural honey and homemade wine have many healing qualities. So, a bee product contains dozens of useful substances, such as potassium, sucrose, sodium, glucose, phosphorus, fructose, natural acids. All these components have a beneficial effect on the state of the body. Honey is allowed even for diabetics and allergy sufferers. With its help, infectious and colds pathologies are often treated. In addition, it is also often used to heal wounds and minor burns.
Homemade honey wine has been used successfully for the prevention of respiratory viral diseases. In addition, it strengthens the immune system.
Cooking technology
Even in the days of Ancient Russia, honey wine was popularly called mead, and was in demand both at various feasts and for treatment. This drink was not in vain always on the menu.
How to make honey wine with your own hands? The technology for preparing this drink is not particularly difficult. In fact, wine made from honey is exactly the same as from berries:
- First the wort is prepared. To do this, honey is almost half diluted with plain water. The result is a sweet liquid that needs to be boiled over low heat until it becomes clear.
- Then the yeast must be added to the resulting wort.
- For several days, the drink is fermented to a state of full readiness.
Due to the fact that there are not so many natural acids in honey, experienced chefs often add fruit and berry juices to the wort. So the wine gets a more rich, vibrant taste.
For the same purpose, various spices with a pronounced aroma are often added to the drink. The quality of the finished mead depends, as in the case of plain grape wine, on the aging time.
Sweet and semi-sweet honey drinks are obtained by additional mixing with diluted honey in ready-made alcohol. If you want to make fortified wine, you need to add quite a bit of alcohol to it. The more you mix it, the higher will be the strength of the finished drink.
Recommendations
Before you start making honey wine at home, you should definitely find out several key factors:
- To get a really good, tasty drink, you need to use linden or meadow honey. It is better to refuse to purchase a bee product of dubious quality, as it may contain harmful animals and vegetable fats. In addition, bad honey will certainly affect the final taste of alcohol.
- Mead is incredibly useful, but exclusively in small doses. This is especially true of the elderly and people suffering from various chronic pathologies.
- Pure honey has an extremely low acidity of about 0.4%. That is why, in the process of making wine, it is advisable to add natural fruit juices, such as pears, currants, apples or gooseberries, to the must.
- Honey is not as sweet as sugar. So for the preparation of wine it will need a little more than the usual for this product. For 100 grams of sugar, approximately 140 grams of honey is consumed.
- All devices that you will use should be sterilized with boiling water.
- When choosing the right honey, be sure to pay attention to its smell and shade. The best product is a bright golden color, without foam and turbidity, with a pronounced floral aroma. Candy is allowed.
Essential Ingredients
So, if you decide to use the honey wine recipe at home, pre-prepare:
- 0.6 kg of natural bee product;
- 3 liters of ordinary water;
- 0.5 kg of raisins;
- a glass of fruit or sugar syrup.
And in the process, a simple sequence of actions that can be called a classic mead recipe will help you.
How to make honey wine at home
First of all, you should prepare the yeast based on raisins. There is no need to wash it. Pour dried grapes with one liter of warm, pre-boiled water and leave it in this form for a couple of hours. After the leaven becomes cloudy and begins to foam, you can proceed to the next steps.
Add the prepared honey to the remaining water (2 liters). Thoroughly mix the components together.
Put the resulting honey mass on a slow fire and cook for an hour. As you arise, be sure to remove the emerging foam.
Wait for the cooked wort to cool and pour it into a glass container, such as a jar. Then add the fermented raisin sourdough to it. As a result, approximately a quarter of the free space should remain in your container.
Now put a special water lock on the neck of the can, if one is available, or an ordinary rubber glove with a small puncture. Place the workpiece in a dark but fairly warm place. Honey wine should ferment for about a month. The drink will need to be regularly poured into another container, separating it from the precipitate formed.
Deflated when the fermentation process comes to an end, a deflated glove will help. The absence of a cloudy precipitate at the bottom of the can also indicates the completion of cooking. At this stage, fruit or sugar syrup should be added to the container. After that, thoroughly mix the contents of the can and send the container to a cold, dark place, such as a basement.
Ripening honey wine can 1-6 months. The longer the process lasts, the tastier the drink. It is advisable to bottle the finished wine.
Honey Wine Recipe with Lemon
Unsurpassed aroma and low level of carbonation gives this wonderful drink hops. Many winemakers believe that this method of cooking mead can be done even by those who have never done anything like this with their own hands.
The composition of this wine includes:
- 2 kg of natural honey;
- 10 l of water;
- 9-10 fresh lemons;
- 20 g of hop cones.
Cooking method
As always, you must first make a must. To do this, honey is diluted with water and boiled at minimum power for a maximum of an hour. At this stage, only one thing is important - in time to collect the emerging foam, which contains pollen.
After the mixture becomes transparent, it is necessary to add prepared hops to it. Now the mass should boil for another couple of minutes, after which it should be removed from the stove.
Chilled wort should be poured into glass containers. Lemon sliced in large slices should also be sent here. Now close the jar with a capron lid and put in a dark, cool place for 2 weeks.
After the specified time, the wine can already be bottled. But at this stage, his fortress will be still quite small. So, if you want to get a drink with degrees, be patient.
Mead with raspberry juice
Ripe berries give the wine not only a pleasant sweet taste, but also an unsurpassed aroma. To make such a drink you will need:
- 4.5 kg of honey;
- 10 l of water;
- 2 liters of raspberry juice;
- 1 liter of yeast.
How to make wine
First of all, as always, a must is prepared. And after it cools down, you should add prepared yeast and juice to it. All this must be placed in a tightly sealed jar and shaken well for thorough mixing. Now the future wine must be sent to a dark place for brewing and fermentation.
After 2 weeks, the resulting mixture should be filtered and bottled. True, experienced winemakers recommend letting the drink stand for several more months to make the taste more expressive and sophisticated.