Two weeks on the move - birch sap wine recipes. Birch wine is an amazing drink with a long history! Birch sap wine without boiling

Soon, and maybe already now, spring sap flow will begin in the birch trees, which will last only two, at best three weeks. This short time we will also be on the move, stocking up on the most useful potion that nature itself gives us for free. And, as is often the case, one of the most enjoyable forms of storing birch sap is still homemade wine.

As the sunny autumn days come to an end, deciduous trees begin to store sugars and nutrients in their roots to provide initial leaf growth the next spring. It is this process that leads to discoloration and leaf fall. In the spring, when the sun begins to warm the soil and wood, the reserves accumulated in the roots rush up. This process is called sap flow and birches, to our delight, among other flora, have decently succeeded in this.

After a month or two of quiet fermentation, the wine can be removed from the sediment and filtered. When the fermentation stops completely, remove the drink from the sediment, pour it into a clean, dry container, install a water seal and send it to ripen in a cool place for 6 months. Check the airlock periodically to make sure fermentation has stopped completely. Drain the wine if sediment appears. After six months, it can be bottled if desired. The result is a light dry wine with pleasant fruity and earthy tones on the palate. Such a drink will be a worthy alternative to prosecco in yours.

Recipe for birch wine "in English"

There are a huge number of recipes for birch sap wine with cultural yeast. This old English recipe seemed to me the most successful and easy to prepare. It can also be prepared with wild yeast and raisin sourdough.

Heat birch sap to about 75 ° C and maintain this temperature for about 20 minutes. Remove from heat, pour into a fermenter, add sugar, raisins (do not add if cooking with sourdough), citrus zest, mix until sugar is completely dissolved and let cool to 25 -27 o C. Add citrus juice, yeast (or raisin starter), yeast feed or concentrated grape juice. Cover the throat of the fermenter with gauze and leave in a warm place for 5 days. After 5 days, strain the wort through several layers of gauze into a clean, dry fermenter, install a water seal and send it to a quiet fermentation (2-3 months). Then proceed according to the instructions from the first recipe (aging for 6 months in a cool place, periodic removal from the sediment, bottling).

Not everyone knows that birch wine was widespread in our country several centuries ago. It was prepared in large quantities and stored in wooden barrels, periodically enjoying a tasty and healthy drink. By the way, the creation of wine allows you to save almost all the useful trace elements of this wonderful gift of nature.

Rules for making wine from birch sap

Birch sap is a "capricious" raw material that requires a special approach. In order to get delicious wine from birch sap at home, you need:

  • Use exclusively fresh juice without the slightest sign of souring. If it turns out to be of unsuitable quality, then the wine will not work or will have an unpleasant taste and smell of mash. And when using the technology with pre-brewing, the spoiled product will generally curl up, and it will not work to make a wort out of it.
  • Be sure to add acid, which can be used as a lemon, lime or regular store-bought citric acid. This is necessary in order to enhance the weak taste of raw materials and ensure their safety.
  • Prepare the starter from raisins, necessary to start fermentation. The fact is that yeast is contained in a fresh liquid in a minimal amount, they may not be enough to create full-fledged alcohol.

Cooked birch wine will surely appeal to women, because it has a pleasant acidity, aroma and taste of champagne.

How to make wine from birch sap

Most often, pre-brewing technology is used to obtain a fragrant drink. This is necessary to thicken the liquid, remove various possible dirt from it. For four days, you should also prepare a starter, for which you need:

  • Pour 100-200 grams of raisins, 50-70 grams of sugar, 0.5 liters of boiled water at room temperature into a liter bottle or jar.
  • Mix everything thoroughly, cover the neck with gauze and transfer to a warm, dark place for fermentation. It is recommended to shake the container several times a day to prevent souring.
  • After the appearance of hiss and foam, move the starter to the refrigerator.

Prepared sourdough starter from raisins can be stored for no more than 15 days, and after that it becomes absolutely unusable!

We offer to make wine from birch sap according to the classic recipe:

  • 25 liters of juice should be boiled over low heat until its volume is reduced to 20 liters. In the process, it is recommended to remove the emerging film or foam, as dirt is concentrated in them.
  • Add 6 kg of sugar to the still warm liquid, mix thoroughly. If desired, refined sugar can be replaced with 200 grams of liquid natural honey.
  • Cool the future wort to a temperature of 24-25 degrees. During cooling, it is important to remove the emerging crust!
  • Add pre-prepared sourdough, 8-10 grams of citric acid or juice from 6 medium lemons to the liquid.
  • Pour the wort into a fermentation container, install a water seal and place in a dark, warm place for fermentation.
  • After the end of fermentation, the young wine is drained from the sediment and tasted. If desired, at this stage, you can add more sugar or fix with alcohol.
  • Pour the wine into bottles, filling them to the very neck, cork tightly and rearrange in a cool place for 20 days to mature.

If desired, you can make a drink using dry cultural yeast, as well as adding some other components. For this you need:

  • Heat 9 liters of juice to 75 degrees, and then maintain this temperature for about twenty minutes.
  • Remove from heat, add 2 kg of sugar, zest from two oranges and four lemons. Stir the resulting mixture and cool to 25 degrees.
  • Add juice from oranges and lemons, one package of industrial yeast for white wine, as well as make-up for them to the cooled must. Stir and leave under gauze for 5 days.
  • On the 6th day, pour the wort into another container, install a water seal and leave in a warm, dark place for 3 months for quiet fermentation.
  • After the end of fermentation, the drink is removed from the sediment, bottled and kept for 6 months in a cold room.

In such a wine made from birch sap without boiling, you can add various aromatic herbs, spices, and replace a couple of lemons with limes. Mix them together with dry yeast. To achieve maximum transparency during maturation, it is recommended to remove the drink from the sediment 2-3 times.

Spring is the time of flowering, but it begins with a period of birch sap. A fresh and tasty drink quenches thirst, but soon begins to deteriorate, so you need to decide where to use it in order to preserve its properties. Birch accumulates resources in itself during the year, and in the spring transfers them to the crown to nourish the blossoming buds. A person uses the liquid to improve and maintain tone.

The popularity and usefulness of birch sap

Birch sap is popular due to the fact that it does not require labor costs, only the timely replacement of the container. For a period of 3 weeks, depending on the tree and productivity, you can get 300-600 liters of liquid. It can be used fresh or prepared in several categories of drinks, adding fruits and other additives, put in the winter.

Birch sap has beneficial properties, because it contains enzymes, several types of sugars, antibacterial components, trace elements (potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, copper). Due to this, the liquid has a number of effects:

    strengthens the heart muscle;

    improves immunity;

    has anti-inflammatory properties;

    nourishes the brain.

Thanks to its neutral, slightly sweet taste, it quenches thirst well. Regular consumption of birch sap allows you to restore vigor, remove signs of fatigue. The liquid stimulates the activity of the kidneys, has a diuretic effect.

Methods for making wine from birch sap - with and without boiling

Wine from such raw materials was originally known as a Belarusian drink with honey. Several centuries ago, every village stored barrels of alcoholic drinks in their cellars. The climate of the country does not allow keeping a vineyard suitable for further processing, therefore, berries and fruits act as the basis for alcoholic beverages.

For winemaking, several types of recipes are used, depending on the result that a person wants to get. To do this, boil birch sap, add yeast, or use a method without this component. Each method has its own requirements. Among the methods there is also wine from birch sap at home without boiling.


How to make wine from juice with yeast?

The classic way to make wine from birch sap is with yeast. An old recipe suggests that raw materials are mixed with sourdough, and then kept for a certain time. Initially, honey was used in the process, now sugar is used. Auxiliary components are used to give taste notes.

Raw material features

Birch wine must be made from fresh raw materials without impurities. Therefore, it is pre-filtered through a funnel with a filter. If the juice is already sour by the time the wine products are made, then when the cooking starts, flakes will appear.

To give taste to the raw material, an acidifier is added. This is citric acid or a natural analogue, the juice of 1 fruit per 25 liters of base or under other conditions provided for in the recipe.

Choice of dishes

To make homemade wine, you can not use a metal container, except for stainless steel cans, since the material interacts with the liquid. Because of this, the technology will be disrupted, and the drink may not work. An additional factor is the appearance of a specific aftertaste in the finished drink.

The ideal option for fermentation utensils is a glass bottle or a wooden barrel. If it is planned to make a yeast version of the drink at home, then it will be easier to observe the process through a transparent medium.

Ingredients

If you use ready-made wine yeast, then they are diluted in liquid according to the instructions. The taste of such a drink resembles mash, especially if you use more sugar. The volume of the starter will be larger, and the sugar in the base will interact more actively, which is why a sharp accent appears.

Technology step by step

To make wine on birch raw materials, you can use a simple method: take 25 liters of raw materials, add 5 kg of sugar and an acidifier, bring to a boil and boil down to a volume of 20 liters.

Then the solution is cooled, yeast is added, stirred, the whole is poured into a fermentation container. To remove excess bubbles, a water seal or its household counterparts are installed.

Every year, collecting liquid from a birch is an opportunity to use the natural power of plants. The use of juice allows you to saturate the body with vitamins and minerals, enzymes. To keep it in its original form, you can roll it up for the winter using a preservative or prepare drinks based on kvass or wine.


Wine made from birch sap is an ancient Slavic tradition. Initially, the housewives used fresh juice and honey instead of sugar, but now this technology has been adapted as much as possible to modern possibilities. If desired, other ingredients can be added to the traditional birch wine recipe to make the taste original.

Yeast birch wine recipe

One of the classic birch sap wine recipes at home is yeast wine. You can buy special wine yeast in the store or use raisins (200 g). In addition to this ingredient, you will need (25 l), 5 kg of white sugar, 10 tsp. citric acid and honey optional.


Making wine from birch sap is a long and laborious process. You need to choose high-quality fresh juice and follow all the rules and monitor the temperature at all stages, otherwise the product may not work out.

Cooking method without yeast

The recipe for birch wine at home without yeast is slightly different from yeast. To prepare it, birch sap (30 l), 7.5 kg of sugar and zest (it is enough to remove the peel from 3 large fruits). You can do without it, but the zest adds brightness to the taste.

Birch sap is placed in a large saucepan and brought to a boil. Then sugar and lemon peel are added to it and kept for some time on low heat. When the liquid in the pan begins to evaporate, it is removed and cooled to room temperature. Then the cooking process and its timing do not differ from the classic yeast recipe: the wine must ferment, it is removed from the sediment and stored for some more time in a dark room. After the second removal, the drink is ready to drink.

At home, you can try different variations of this recipe. This wine should not be stored for a long time, it is better to use it immediately after preparation. Shelf life in a cool place (refrigerator or cellar) can be up to a year.

Birch wine with orange instead of lemon is a great alternative to the usual taste.

Birch sap wine without boiling

If possible, you should try to make homemade wine from birch sap without boiling. This recipe will require birch sap (5 l), sugar (1-2 kg), 1 l of any fortified wine and lemon pulp.

In the process of preparing a drink, you will need a barrel designed for at least 7 liters of liquid. Pour the juice into it and add all the other ingredients. The barrel is corked and sent to the cellar for 2 months. If there is no cellar, any dark and cool room will do.

After this time, the liquid from the barrel is poured into glass bottles, which can be sealed tightly. They should be stored for another 3 weeks in a horizontal position (in the same room). Then the bottles can be opened, the sample taken from the wine and put on the table.

There are a huge number of birch sap wine recipes that everyone can do. The main thing is to choose high-quality and fresh birch sap. It should not show signs of souring. During cooking, you can experiment and combine different ingredients. Each housewife will get a special drink that will differ in color, sweetness and strength.

Making wine from birch sap - video

Related Articles