Blackthorn is a well-known shrub whose berries look like plums. This is not surprising - yet it belongs to the plum family. Its berries are more round, but the same purple, dark blue or black shade, which is characteristic of some varieties of plums. But it differs in taste from them - it is more astringent, although just as sweet-sour.
Thorn berries are used to produce all kinds of drinks - from compote to wine, and their taste remains invariably wonderful and delicate, and the aroma greatly surpasses similar derivatives from plums. The main principle is to collect the thorns after the first frosts, like a mountain ash, then the smell and nutrients that the berries contain are better preserved. If you freeze the thorny fruits, they will become much sweeter, so it is the wine that is best prepared from fresh berries.
Like other fruits and berries, it is difficult to make wine from thorns without yeast. Still, own sugars in most fruits are not enough for high-quality fermentation. But to try recipes (both yeast and without them) is in any case, because thorny wines, despite the taste similarity to grape wines, have their own unique zest.
Here is the most common recipe for making thorn wine. Unfortunately, it cannot do without yeast, but the result is very interesting. For this method of preparation, you need 2 and a half kg of berries proper, one and a half kg of sugar (per liter of water) and yeast.
Washed seedless berries (fresh ones can be used, but also frozen) will crumble to a state of gruel, fold into a saucepan, boiling water is added, and the turn is boiled for several minutes. As it cools, the mass overflows into the bottle, where it will wander. Since such wine from thorns without yeast does not work out very well, they are still added and diluted with the contents of the third sugar syrup. Further according to the scheme: a water shutter and rest for a week.
When the turn finishes wandering and sinks to the bottom, the wine is filtered into another container and ends the fermentation (it will take another week). The final stage is filtering and bottling. Get a clear drink with a strength of about 10% red.
Of course, there are people who know how to make wine without yeast. But in the case of thorns, firstly, you will need an additional 2 liters of grape wine (per 5 kg of berries), and secondly, another question is what happens - wine from thorns without yeast or thorny liquor. But the recipe is interesting. Prepared, as in the previous case, berries for 2 weeks are poured with wine. Throughout the entire time, the bottle is shaken so that the turn is constantly mixed with it. After 14 days, the drink is tasted. Too sour - sugar dissolves in the same wine and is added to the bottle. After a couple of days, during which nothing is already mixed, the process is completed. It remains to filter out the precipitate, filter the product itself and pour into suitable bottles.
Experienced winemakers (including those involved in the fascinating process at home) still agree that yeast is necessary for wine. However, even if you agree that without yeast it was not quite wine, but rather liquor, it is still tasty and simply impossible to flavor!