Mead is not vodka made with honey, as many people believe, but rather a low-alcohol drink. From four to eighteen degrees. Drinking honey is compared to beer or wine. Their production is similar.
Honey is taken, natural, naturally good honey, mixed with water in a proportion - depending on your taste - from 1:2. They will have different names. This is simmered over low heat for one and a half to two hours, poured into a bottle and, as usual, there are taps and valves, depending on how you learned. Then it sits for 1.5 months, and the mead is ready,” beekeeper Valery Movchan reveals his recipe.
In fact, hop honey can be stored for up to six months. It all depends on the cooking technology. The stronger and sweeter the drink, the longer it will be stored. In addition, non-alcoholic drinks made from honey are also popular: kvass, sbitny. There is alcohol there, but in a small amount - within three percent, because it is also a product of fermentation with honey.
Excellent honey
Put 20 pounds of good honey and 9 spools of cinnamon into 6 buckets of water, boil in a cauldron until there are 3 buckets left.
Then remove from heat and let cool like fresh milk. Then taking a six-kopeck French bread, cut off the crust around, coat the pulp thoroughly the best yeast, lower it into the cauldron, putting a small pinch of hops there - as much as you can take with three fingers.
If the fermentation is too weak, you can add two more tablespoons of yeast; when the fermentation is sufficient for one hour, then take out the loaf, strain, pour into a good, very strong barrel, putting in the following perfumes, each separately, tied in muslin rags, namely: cardamom 9 spools, orris root in pieces 9 spools, cloves 6 spools, sturgeon glue 0.25 lbs.
Having sealed the sleeve in the barrel as tightly as possible, place it on ice deeply for 12 days; then pour into bottles, cork, tar and keep on ice; Can be used after 2 months.
Sugar raspberry honey
This honey is brewed in the same way as “excellent honey”, but do not boil 6 buckets of water per pound of sugar, but only 5 and boil until 4 buckets remain.
Then, after removing from the heat, after half an hour, pour one bucket of juice squeezed from fresh raspberries into the syrup and stir.
When almost cool, add yeast.
Next, do as it says “excellent honey”; if the color of the sugar raspberry honey is too light, then tint it with cochineal, do not rub the raspberry juice through a sieve, but squeeze it in a vice like butter.
NOTE. Thus, honey is also made from all sorts of other berries.
Sugar honey from black currant
This honey is prepared in exactly the same way as in previous recipes (“excellent honey or raspberry honey”), instead of raspberry juice, add blackcurrant juice, which is squeezed in a vice; if the color is too light, color it with blueberries.
Sugar honey from oranges
It is prepared in the same way as “sugar honey”, but instead of lemon zest add orange zest from 30 oranges.
Monastery honey for drinking
To prepare honey, the best, pure honey is taken, without the slightest admixture of wax. Take a well-tinned iron or copper cauldron, pour a garnet of honey and two garnets of water into it, stir and place on the stove.
From the time it boils, simmer for 3 hours over even, low heat. After these 3 hours, put the hops in honey, tied in a thin rag and not above the hops. Sew a clean pebble into the cloth so that the hops remain at the bottom.
For each garnet of this liquid put 2 lots of hops; Therefore, for a garnet of honey with 2 garnets of water, you need to put only 6 lots.
You need to cook with hops for 1 hour and, at the end of this hour, you need to measure with a splinter: if the liquid is less than the mark, you need to add hot water to the mark boiled water, even a little more, because when honey boils, it usually rises, so it is made much less when it cools completely. Add this water, boil once, set aside and cover.
While the honey is still quite warm, strain it through a rag or thin cloth into a wooden or glass bowl, but so as to fill only four-fifths of it, cover with tulle and place in a warm place from 18 to 20 degrees C, in winter near the stove, and in summer on Sun. After 2 days, the honey begins to foam or ferment.
If the honey stands in lowest temperature, then it will not ferment, but will even mold and spoil. The warmer the place, the sooner the honey will be ready. This usually takes 3-5 weeks.
After 3 weeks, you need to listen: if the honey makes a lot of noise, leave it some more, but if it stops fizzing and you can already smell the honey and its strength, then it’s ready. In general, if you want to have stronger honey, you need to let it stand quietly in a warm place until it stops fizzing, and if you want to have weaker and sweeter honey, you can strain it while it is still fizzing.
Before straining it, pour a glass of tea essence obtained from one teaspoon into these three garnets of honey. good tea and a glass of boiling water. Do not stir the honey liquid, but carefully drain it, straining through a flannel, and even repeating this several times until the honey is completely clean and transparent.
Honey strained in this way is already suitable for consumption, but after six months it will be better, and after a year it will be excellent.
In general, the longer it stands, the better and better it will become, even if it lasts twenty years.
Mezhgorsky honey
Thoroughly mix 20 liters of drinking water with 6 kg of honey and 4 egg whites. Cook over low heat for about an hour. Place a sprig of green rosemary, 1-2 g ginger, 2-3 g nutmeg, 5-6 g cinnamon, 6 cloves into the solution.
After the honey has been clarified, the ingredients will float to the surface during the boiling process.
Cool the drink to 25-30°C, filter into a keg, add 1/2 cup of brewer's yeast (30-40 g).
Active fermentation occurs at 17-20°C for 5-6 days. Take the barrel to the basement and let it sit for 7 months.
Then pour the drink into bottles and store on ice or in the basement.
Monastery honey
1/4 bucket of buckwheat (or linden) honey, 1/2 bucket of water. Stir well and boil for 3 hours. Add 80 g of hops in a linen bag with a granite weight.
Boil with hops for another 1 hour.
Strain the warm honey into a container to a level of 4/5 of its volume.
Quiet fermentation is carried out at a temperature of 18-20 C for 3-4 weeks.
Before filtering, add 10 ml of tea leaves and a glass of boiling water to the drink, let it stand for 6 months, then bottle it.
Common honey
- 5 kg honey,
- 3 buckets of water,
- 2/3 cup hop cones,
- 1 tbsp cinnamon,
- 1 teaspoon cloves,
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamom,
- 1 glass of yeast.
Boil the honey diluted with water, removing the foam, over low heat, put a gauze bag with hops into it, remove the foam again, boil to the desired thickness, cool slightly, remove the hops and pour into another container or barrel.
Place the spices in a bag, add yeast while still slightly warm, let it ferment for 1 day, seal it and put it in a cold, dry cellar for secondary aging.
The longer the honey is aged, the tastier and stronger it is.
Ancient Russian honey drink
- 5 buckets of water,
- 6 kg honey,
- 50 g dry yeast,
- 1.5-2.5 glasses of port wine or cognac.
Honey is first dissolved in 1 bucket hot water, then poured into a 5-bucket barrel, where 4 buckets are immediately added cold water, add yeast. All this is stirred well with a wooden paddle and left in a room at room temperature.
After 3-4 days the mixture will begin to ferment.
When it has fermented for 1 week, port wine or cognac is poured in, depending on what taste and strength you want to give to the drink.
After another 2 weeks, when fermentation is over, the barrel is tightly sealed and taken to a cold basement, the temperature in which should not exceed 5 degrees, and left there for six months to a year, until the liquid becomes transparent.
Then it is bottled and stored in a cold place.
The result is a pleasant, aromatic, healthy and quite strong drink.
Honey pink
For 10 buckets of water, take 65 pounds of red honey and boil it in an open cauldron, and then filter it several times through a bag containing 10 pounds. dried blueberries.
Fermentation occurs by adding 5 cups of yeast; lighten with 3 spools of fish glue. The bouquet is given with rose oil, which is placed in 6 drops per bucket.
Before bottling, this honey must stand on the glacier for two months, otherwise it will become cloudy.
It can be stored for about a year.
Ruble honey
They take 50 pounds of Kazan honey and 15 pounds. granulated sugar, or 40 lbs. Belogorod honey, 10 pounds of Kazan honey and 20 lbs. granulated sugar. If the brew is made from Kazan honey, then the boiling must be done in a closed boiler.
For fermentation you need 6 cups of yeast.
The bouquet of this honey is given with the following mixture. Divided into small pieces 1/2 f. orris roots and 1/8 lb. ginger oil, to which sometimes 30 to 70 drops of rose oil and 1 lemon spool are added; Having put all this in a bag, they lower it into a barrel.
Before corking, pour in a spoonful of vinegar or a bottle of sour white wine, or even the juice of two lemons. If it was brewed from Belogorod honey, then you need to add more perfume.
The honey is bottled after three months and the bottle caps are wrapped with wire.
Bottles of this honey are stored lying in a cold cellar.
Ginger honey
For 10 buckets of water take 2 pounds of granulated sugar and 10 pounds of ginger; the same ginger is subsequently dropped in a bag into a barrel.
For fermentation you need 7 cups of yeast.
It is bottled after 21/2 months in small bottles.
If it is well sealed, it can last for several years.
Honey is strong
OPTION I.
Dilute a pound of honey with 8 buckets of water and cook until reduced to half, carefully skimming off the foam.
Pour the cooled liquid into a clean barrel, the walls of which are smeared with sour rye dough; You can, while the honey is still warm like fresh milk, pour a bottle of yeast into it and leave it to ferment.
At the same time, put into it a bag of cinnamon 10 gold, cloves 4 gold, cardamom 2 gold, pepper 1 gold. and ginger 3 gold.
When the honey has fermented, leave it for six months, tightly sealed.
After that, bottle it.
OPTION II.
The best white honey 6 f. dilute in two buckets of water and cook, continuously skimming off the foam, until the solution becomes thick like molasses. Then strain it through a strainer.
Pour the brewed honey while still somewhat warm into a barrel and start with good white beer yeast.
If the fermentation is quite strong, then add another glass of vodka to each bucket, which will precipitate the yeast, and the honey will become strong and pure.
English honey
OPTION I.
One and a half buckets of river water, 2 pounds of pure sugar, 2 damasks of good molasses; mix and boil, skimming off the foam, and then pour into a wooden tub.
Dip the zest from 12 lemons into honey that has not yet completely cooled, adding eight tablespoons of brewer's yeast and, pouring into a barrel, shake frequently for four days in a row, and then leave to stand for twelve days.
Finally, bottle it and keep it in the cellar, in the cold.
OPTION II.
Having dissolved half a pound good honey in 4 buckets of water, boil, skimming off the foam; add various fragrant herbs and continue to boil until half the water has boiled away.
Then start with brewer's yeast, as stated above.
Orange white honey
For 20 pounds of good honey, pour 4 buckets of river water into the cauldron, put on fire and boil, skimming off the foam and gradually adding cold water until the honey becomes clear as amber. Then pour it into a tub and, after cooling, start the yeast with kalach or white bread.
As soon as the honey begins to ferment, take out the roll, skim off the foam and pour the honey through a sieve into a barrel.
After that, take ten oranges, grate the zest from half of them for sugar; and cut off the peel from five other oranges with a knife; zest and sugar, plain rind 1/3 lb. violets and 8 spools of sturgeon glue and a barrel of honey; orange pulp, remove the seeds, cut them up and put them in a saucepan, pour honey into it and, after boiling, strain through a napkin and also pour into the barrel.
Having sealed it and covered it with clay, put it in ice, where it is allowed to stand for twenty days, after which it is poured into bottles.
Strong Astrakhan honey
Having diluted a pound of honey in five buckets of water, put two bottles of brewer's yeast and 1 lb. wheat flour, and add 2 damasks of honey to fill up.
Boil 1 lb. hops in a bucket of water, poured into the same pot and placed in a warm place for 3-4 hours for fermentation.
This so-called head is poured into the dissolved syta and, having poured everything into a barrel, is taken to a cool place where the liquid ferments for three days.
After decanting the honey, pour it into another barrel and let it ferment for another 8-12 days, adding half a pound every day raw honey so that the drink does not lose its sweetness from long-term fermentation.
Birch sap honey
In early spring, collect birch sap and for every pound of good pure honey, put 12 ordinary glasses of it, cook over low heat for an hour.
After that, pour into a barrel and start with a slice rye bread smeared with yeast.
When the noise in the barrel stops, pour the liquid into bottles and, capping them well, place them in the cellar.
Green honey
Boil 10 buckets of honey in the usual way, and to give it a green color, boil 2 lb. in 3 pounds of molasses. fresh mint leaves and place together with honey in a barrel.
Add 5 more spools of fish glue, boiling it in water with mint.
After letting the honey sit quietly in the barrel for about a month, pour it into bottles.
Raisin honey
OPTION I.
Boil 12 pounds of good currant, trimmed of its branches, in water until it softens; then crush it in a wooden mortar with a wooden pestle and rub through a sieve. Place the pureed mixture in the water in which the currants were boiled, adding six bottles of the best molasses and enough fresh boiled water to make a bucket and a half in total.
Cook not for very long, skimming off the foam and, removing from heat, cool.
To cleanse honey, add 8 or 10 egg whites.
After letting the honey cool like fresh milk, pour it into a barrel and start with white beer yeast; and when it has fermented, pour it into a barrel and, plugging it up, leave it in the cellar for several months.
OPTION II.
Pure selected currants are pounded in a wooden mortar and then mixed with water and molasses in the following proportion: currants, sugar molasses, 20 lbs each. and 3 buckets of water.
Boil the mixture, adding as much water as it evaporates. Boiling and cooling can be done in an open container.
The cooled liquid, along with the shells and grains of the berries, is poured into a barrel, where rapid fermentation is carried out with a glass of yeast; when there is no longer enough yeast to separate, add about 20 drops of black Peruvian balsam dissolved in strong wine alcohol.
Then a solution of fish glue is added and taken to the glacier.
After 10 days, the honey is poured into bottles, being careful not to let the shells of raisins get into them.
Cranberry honey
OPTION I.
For 20 pounds of honey you need half a quarter of cranberries. Having diluted honey with four buckets warm water, pour into the cauldron, let it boil thoroughly, skimming off the foam, and when there is no more foam left on the liquid, pour fruit juice squeezed from a half-quadruple of cranberries into the liquid, and, after boiling once, let it cool until the hand can bear it; after which it is poured into a barrel.
After soaking 5 spools of fish glue in the same honey and cutting it finely, put it together with cinnamon, clove, violet and kishnets powder, taking three spools of each and tying them in a canvas bag.
OPTION II.
For a pound of raw red honey and a pound of cranberries, take so much water that after boiling for half an hour you get 4 buckets of wort. After cooling in an open container to 18°C, pour the wort into a keg through a sieve, add two glasses of brewer's yeast, and at the end of fermentation, lighten it with a glue spool.
For aroma, put a bag of 1/3 lb. into the barrel. orris root, in coarse powder, onto which pour 1/2 gold. mint or 1 gold. lemon oil.
Before bottling, the honey sits on the glacier for no more than a week, and then is immediately ready for consumption.
It is prepared in the spring from snow cranberries and is subject to rapid oxidation.
Instead of 1 pound of raw red honey, you can take 45 pounds. sugar or 55 lb. potato molasses.
Cinnamon honey
Having boiled, as was said above, half a pound of white honey and fermented with yeast, add 12 gold pieces of cinnamon, 6 cloves and 48 gold pieces of violet, scalded with boiling water, to the bag.
Finally, add 5 spools of fish glue and, having sealed the barrel, place it in ice.
Linden honey
Mix twenty pounds of the best white honey in twenty bottles of warm water and boil in a cauldron for about an hour; then let the liquid cool like fresh milk, and add good fresh yeast; and when fermentation is over, pour in two bottles of vodka or a bottle of wine alcohol.
Add a hop decoction to the soured honey, mixed in half with the decoction linden flowers, and are allowed to ferment for another three days, causing the honey to lose most of its sweetness. To make it sweet again, add half a pound of honey to the strengthened honey, boiled in a bucket of water until syrup thick, and leave to ferment again; then pour it through a sieve into a clean barrel with iron hoops and place it in the cellar on ice.
They begin to take honey from it only after four months or six months.
Good linden honey is clear like water, the taste is sweet, honey, the smell is aromatic, similar to the smell of linden flowers.
The longer it sits unopened, the better it becomes.
Raspberry honey
After boiling the honey, pour it into a tub and, after cooling, add enough freshly squeezed raspberry juice so that the honey takes on a raspberry flavor and color.
Then start it with the best yeast with kalach and, when the honey begins to sour, then strain it through a napkin, pour it into a barrel, add orris root and fish glue, and then put it in ice for a month, after which it is poured into bottles and capped , put it in the basement in the sand.
German honey
Dissolve 15 pounds of good molasses in 2 buckets of river water, pour this solution into a cauldron and boil over low heat, skimming off the foam, until a fifth of the liquid has evaporated.
The rest is filtered through flannel and, after allowing it to cool, is poured into a barrel; having seasoned it with yeast, put it in the cellar for six weeks to ferment.
At this time, the barrel sleeve is covered with a thin canvas.
When the liquid in the barrel has fermented, then one lot of nutmeg and the same amount of cinnamon are crushed into coarse powder and placed in a bag into the barrel, which is then filled to the brim with honey; Having plugged the bushing, leave it alone.
After six weeks, the honey can be bottled.
White sugar honey
Sugar is dissolved in hot water, and, if desired, hops are added and boiled. After boiling, pour it into a tub and, when it cools down, ferment it with yeast, of which you need eight tablespoons for half a pound of sugar.
When the honey has fermented, pour it into barrels through a sieve.
Then, taking some of this honey, boil it with sugar and any spices you like, and add this decoction to the barrel of honey; and when everything is settled, they bottle it.
Wedding mead
Boil 2.8 kg of honey in 15 liters of spring water. Add yeast and barley malt. Pour into the barrel.
Fermentation lasts 2-3 months.
Then add an aqueous extract of spicy plants (cinnamon, figs, mint), filter and bottle, tar.
Store in a cold room for 6 months to 1 year.
Common sbiten
1.5 liters of beer or water, 1.5 liters of honey, 2 tablespoons of vinegar, 1/2 tbsp. spoons of ginger, 1/2 tbsp. spoons of pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of galangal, 1/2 cup of vodka.
Boil half the beer - weak beer, re-prepared with the remaining malt, or water, add honey, vinegar, ginger, pepper, galangal, simmer over low heat for up to 1 hour, stir in vodka and serve hot.
For greater spiciness, you can dip a pod of red hot pepper into boiling sbiten for 1 minute.
Suzdal Sbiten
Dissolve 150 g of sugar and honey in 1 liter of water, add spices (cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger - to taste). Boil for 10-15 minutes, skimming off the foam.
Let it brew for 30 minutes, strain, heat, pour in 2 glasses of wine and drink hot.
Quick shot
Pour 4 cups of water into a saucepan, put on fire and bring to a boil. Add half a glass of sugar, 5 tablespoons of honey and various spices (cloves, cinnamon, Bay leaf- 1 piece, cardamom - 2-3 pieces), boil for 10-15 minutes.
Strain.
Pour in 1 glass of good vodka and serve hot in a jug.
Honey-birch kvass (berezovik)
Prepared once a year, during the birch sap rut.
Sap flow in birches begins early, approximately in mid-April, and lasts about two weeks - until the leaves appear.
To collect birch sap, select old trees, at least 25 cm in diameter at the height of human height. The two most painless methods for birch trees are sap racing. In the first case, in a tree trunk on the south side at a height of 1.5 m, a hole of 11-12 mm and a depth of 4-5 cm is made obliquely upward with a drill (gimlet). A sharpener (a wooden sleeve 10-12 cm long) is driven into it. drill a through hole of 4.5-5 mm.
The juice flows into a container tied under the sharpener. During the day, at the height of sap flow, you can get more than one bucket of sap from a good birch tree. At the end of the collection, the sharpener is removed and the hole is plugged flush with a wooden plug.
In the second method, break off the tip of a birch branch and put a bottle on it. The collected juice is immediately transferred to a warm room, filtered and poured into enamel dishes, can be placed in wooden tubs.
The juice spoils quickly, so for long-term storage it is fermented or pasteurized.
For fermentation, wort and fermentation are added to the juice.
To obtain wort, honey is diluted with heated juice at a ratio of 1:2(3) and boiled. The foam formed during boiling is removed with a slotted spoon. The wort is considered ready when foaming stops. It is poured into a container with birch sap (100-150 g per 1 liter).
Fermentation is made in advance, for which 10 g of bee bread along with 50 g of honey are diluted in 1 liter of warm juice. The vessel with this mixture is covered with gauze and kept for 3-4 days in a warm place until the liquid hisses. The finished fermentation is poured into the wort at the rate of 1 liter per 12 liters (bucket).
To prepare fermented yeast, you can use yeast, preferably freeze-dried: 10-15 g of yeast is added to the honey mixture, after a day this mixture is added to the wort (50 g per 1 liter).
Add one or two chopped lemons to each bucket of wort.
After completing all the above operations, the wort is ready.
It should ferment, and you will get honey-birch kvass of excellent quality. The fermentation process of the wort at 20-24°C lasts 4-5 days, then it is poured into champagne or plastic bottles, carefully sealed and placed in a cool place.
Within a month, the birch tree matures and brightens. Ready birch bark tastes like dry grape wine. It is consumed as a light alcoholic diet drink.
Berezovik, like birch sap, is a strong diuretic. It is useful for kidney diseases, as well as for edema to remove excess fluid from the body.
At temperatures from 5 to 12°C, birch bark can be stored for up to 7 months, then it peroxidizes and turns into the so-called birch cabbage soup, which our ancestors used to prepare many meat and fish dishes.
Meat and fish processed in birch cabbage soup are better digested, due to which the walls of the gastric tract are protected from premature wear.
Ever since ancient Rus' intoxicating mead was a traditional alcoholic drink. Every housewife mastered the art of brewing this drink and each had her own unique secret recipe. Not a single celebration or feast would be complete without this drink. Intoxicated honey was considered a “royal treat.” Mead was brewed both on the landowner's farmstead and in the monastery kitchens. Guests appreciated the mead maker’s art not only by taste qualities, but also in terms of the strength of the drink.
Mead was used to treat many ailments. It was used to treat insomnia, stomach diseases, bronchitis, and was used as a painkiller.
The secret of brewing the drink was kept in the strictest confidence in the family. Each recipe was unique. Only a small part of the recipes for making this drink have survived to this day.
Features of preparing intoxicated honey
The main component in the recipe for this drink is honey. Different varieties Honey requires cooking with a certain skill. Each type of honey has its own time for fermentation and aging. When preparing this drink, only natural ingredients of natural origin are used. There is an opinion that real intoxicated honey must be aged for many years.
The best intoxicating drink can only be brewed at home. When making mead, it is important to have patience and the desire to obtain a drink worthy of praise.
Pure honey mixed with water, without adding yeast, quickly begins to ferment when left in a warm place. If the house is cool, you can add yeast to the honey to enhance the process.
To add a berry flavor, you can pour cherry or raspberry juice into the drink. To preserve the delicate taste of honey, it is recommended to boil it in a container that is made of material that is not subject to oxidation (preferably in clay pot or cast iron cauldron). The less water is added to mead, the tastier the drink will be. Such a drink will take longer to “ripen”, but you will get more valuable product.
When cooking, be sure to skim off the foam and cook, stirring frequently. To enhance the taste, add hops, spices and berry juices if desired. At the end of cooking, the drink is poured into an appropriate container, keg or jug. The container is not covered with a lid or filled to the brim. During fermentation, liquid may overflow through the neck of the container.
During fermentation, the liquid becomes cloudy and becomes covered with foamy bubbles. When the fermentation process is complete, the dregs will settle on their own.
If foaming has stopped, then the liquid should be filtered several times through a clean canvas cloth and poured into bottles or barrels for further storage. The barrel must be well sealed; bottle caps can be tarred. Place the container with mead in a cool place.
Some experts prefer fizzy drink in the fermentation stage. This drink is poured into durable bottles, the cork is tied with wire and coated with resin.
Mead recipes
- honey with lemon;
- honey with raspberries;
- honey with cherries
- honey with birch sap;
- honey mash;
- honey with ginger;
- sparkling honey;
- honey liqueur.
Honey with raspberries
Honey is boiled, poured into a barrel, and cooled. Fresh raspberry juice, yeast, and orris root are added to the cooled liquid. At the end of fermentation, the liquid is filtered and bottled, tightly corked, and stored in a cool place. The recipe is simple and easy to prepare.
Honey with lemon
5 kg of honey is poured into 10 liters of hot water. Stir well and set to simmer. Stirring constantly, skim off any foam that appears. When the foaming stops, throw 200 g of hop cones into the kettle and boil. Remove from heat and allow to cool. 10 lemons are cut into thin slices and added to the liquid. Pour honey into bottles, grease the cork and put it in the cold.
Honey with cherries
5 kg of honey is poured into 10 liters of boiling water. Stir the mixture until the honey is completely dissolved. They set it to boil slow fire. Remove the foam periodically. Remove from heat and cool. The container prepared for mead is filled with 2/3 volumes of fresh and ripe cherries. Pour the cooled liquid over the cherries and add yeast. The dishes are put in a cool place and left to ferment.
When fermentation stops, plug in the cork and shake the barrel. Then the cork is opened again and the liquid is allowed to ferment. The process is repeated periodically for 4 months. After the aging period has expired, the liquid must be strained well two or three times and can be bottled. Place in a cool place. The recipe is suitable for making honey with different berries.
Effervescent honey
The peculiarity of this recipe is the short ripening period. For 30 liters of hot water take 5 liters of molasses. Boil over low heat, skimming off the foam, for about 4 hours. A bag of herbs and pour hot liquid. After fermentation is complete, it is bottled and the caps are screwed in with wire. Store in a cool place.
Honey with ginger
For 10 liters of hot water take 5 kg of honey. 2 kg of ginger is finely chopped and tied in a linen bag. Boil the honey, skimming off any foam that appears. At the end of cooking, allow the liquid to cool. A bag of ginger is lowered into the barrel and filled with honey liquid. Yeast is added. After fermentation is complete, bottle it and close it well. Store in the cold.
Honey with birch sap
500 g of molasses are mixed with 5 liters of birch sap. Boil over low heat for about an hour. A slice of rye bread is dipped into a barrel, filled with liquid and yeast is added. At the end of fermentation, it is bottled and stored in a cool place. The recipe is easy to prepare and can be used with any juice, depending on the desired flavor.
Honey - mash
For 30 liters of hot water, take 5 liters of molasses and 200 g of hop cones. Boil for 30 minutes, periodically skimming off any foam that appears. Strain through linen and pour into a barrel. Place in a cool place.
Add 10 g of yeast or rye bread crust to the cooled liquid, cover with a cloth and allow to ferment.
Liquid may spill out of the barrel; if necessary, add mead. At the end of fermentation, the honey is bottled, tightly closed and stored in the cold. A recipe for lovers of a more intoxicating drink.
Honey - liqueur
5 liters of hot water are mixed with 5 liters of honey. Cook over low heat for about 4 hours. Carefully remove the foam. At the end of cooking, remove from the stove and allow to cool. The liquid is poured into a barrel and 10 liters of alcohol infused with fruit or citrus are added. Store in a cool place.
Recipes can be modified depending on your taste preferences.
For a long time, honey was considered a valuable product in Rus', which was consumed in in various forms. They were treated with it, they pampered children with it, and they even prepared an intoxicating potion from it, which was considered an integral part of all feasts. Intoxicated honey was distinguished by a rare combination of beneficial properties and a slight intoxicating effect, so the feast in the old days was kinder and more soulful. At the same time, each housewife prepared a special honey and intoxicating recipe, which she kept secret.
The secret of making intoxicating honey has been passed down from generation to generation, so there are many different varieties.
In contact with
They reveal the imagination of our people, their soul - and the desire to please loved ones. Just an abundance of food and drinks allowed an ordinary person to relax and have a good time. After such feasts, the peasants actively took up work, which burned in their deft hands. At the same time, the number of alcoholics or beggars was minimal, since people took care of each other.
Intoxicated honey – harm or benefit?
Honey is a unique substance that contains a whole complex of minerals and vitamins.
Consuming a few spoons of honey strengthens the immune system, improves mood, and also has a beneficial effect on the functioning of all internal organs.
It is only necessary to observe the measure, since allergies often develop to honey. Of course, sometimes it is greatly overestimated, but most of the research confirms the uniqueness of natural honey.
Against the backdrop of the extreme usefulness of honey, people began to think about inventing an original intoxicating potion that would help to forget about worries. Of course, from the point of view of modern psychology, such an approach is doomed to failure, but in those days the existence of psychology was not even suspected. Simple people they were looking for a simple solution to their pressing problems - and intoxicating honey became their faithful companion.
Many experts believe that hop honey is dangerous drink, which is capable of destroying a person completely. Doctors have long believed that intoxicating honey is addictive. Some saw real alcoholism in the use of such a product, so they tried to fight the return to basics. Experts assured that the use of such low alcohol drink causes irreparable harm to health.
In fact, this point of view arose due to the fact that people do not delve into the essence of the problem. They believe that drunk honey is an analogue of vodka, so they perceive this ancient drink negatively. This perception is provoked by the fact that the Internet is now offering to make intoxicated honey, the recipe of which does not comply with ancient canons.
People, having read specific books or watched enough films, decide to try mead. Because of their own laziness, they go in search of suitable recipe on the Internet - and choose the simplest cooking option. The result is an inexpensive surrogate that is more reminiscent of a regular alcoholic drink.
If a person prepares real intoxicated honey according to ancient recipes and in compliance with all technologies, he receives a valuable drink. Of course, it will contain a certain percentage of alcohol, which is a fermentation product of honey. Only the proportion of alcohol will be relatively small, and mead will not pollute the body with harmful substances. Of course, completely useful product You can’t call it, but it shouldn’t be considered absolute evil either.
Intoxicated honey and its beneficial properties
Intoxicated honey is a valuable product that is prepared using natural ingredients.
The basis of this witchcraft potion is honey, which has long been considered a natural medicine.
It is also useful to consume honey instead of sugar, which can significantly reduce caloric intake.
Of course, during processing, some of the beneficial properties of honey disappear, and other properties are significantly reduced, but even after this, honey is very useful.
At proper preparation mead must be infused for several years to make the drink truly vigorous.
In the old days, it was believed that high-quality honey wine should be infused for several decades. It was enough to drink a glass of such a potion and a person would fall into the realm of dope. Of course, the cost of such a drink was quite high, so it was prepared for special celebrations. A barrel of aged mead could be placed on wedding table, when the feast was going on. True, everything still depended on the level of family income, since poor peasants chose simpler drinks.
Modern people are accustomed to hurrying everywhere and always, as life itself requires it. If you linger for a second, other comrades will quickly pass you by. In the same haste they are trying to prepare the elixir of life, as our ancestors sometimes called it. The result is a pathetic resemblance, which they try to pass off as a gift from antiquity. To save time, honey is diluted with water, a little alcohol is added - and they think that they have received a valuable drink.
In fact It takes a lot of time and patience to prepare high-quality hop mead.
Without this, it is better to leave your dreams and move on to more realistic projects.
For people accustomed to difficulties, I would like to advise looking for reliable recipes ancient drink– and then it will become an excellent general strengthening agent.
Mead also helps treat the most severe diseases of the respiratory system and has a beneficial effect on the psychological mood.
Just don’t abuse this medicine to avoid addiction.
In general, intoxicated honey is a valuable drink that will help strengthen the immune system and protect against colds. However beneficial properties only real mead possesses, and not its cheap analogues. Use quality products, don't be afraid to use old recipes– and your health will be the envy of many.
At the Bread Festival recently held in Stavropol, I met Andrei Alekseevich Grechushnikov. He was selling some drinks in dark glass bottles covered in sealing wax. I haven't seen anything like this since I was young.
- So what do you have, mead? - I asked the seller.
In no case. These are intoxicating meads prepared according to old Russian recipes that I inherited from my ancestors.
We met and started talking. Andrei Alekseevich Grechushnikov lives in the village of Ostrogorka, near the city of Lermontov in the Caucasian Mineral Waters. He has his own apiary for 150 bee families. He is a hereditary beekeeper. All of his ancestors he knows were involved in bees. They were also mead makers, brewing sbitny and intoxicating meads, which have been known in Rus' since ancient times. Remember the saying: “And I was there, drinking honey-beer...” This is what is said about these very intoxicating meads.
While we were talking, Grechushnikov was constantly distracted by questions from visitors to the exhibition, explaining that this was not mead, but intoxicated honey, a completely different drink.
Intoxicated honey cannot be classified as alcoholic products“, although it’s intoxicating,” Andrei Alekseevich explained. - It contains food grade alcohol, which is formed during the fermentation process and is a preservative.
Such alcohol is found in kefir, kumiss, even in bread, since during the preparation of these products there was a fermentation process. But they are not classified as alcoholic products.
The strength of hop honey is determined by the hops, but not by the alcohol. The longer the aging, the higher the strength; it also depends on the number of herbs added to the drink, and they can be from 25 to 32.
I admit, I still don’t fully understand the explanation why honey makes you drunk. It seems to me that this still comes from alcohol, but only of natural origin, and not obtained through chemical synthesis or distillation.
Probably its effect on human body, however, somewhat different, not as destructive as the alcoholic drinks we are used to. But if you drink a bottle or two, you'll undoubtedly get crazy.
I asked him to try it. Grechushnikov has prepared wooden barrels for tasting. He poured me a drink from one. Indeed, the taste is excellent. Nothing like mead, which I've tried more than once and don't like. There is a much more subtle taste here.
Not too sweet, but aromatic, smelling of honey and herbs at the same time. The strength is felt, approximately the same as that of dry wine. But, I agree, it’s somehow special, more warming than intoxicating. In a word, the uniqueness is obvious; I have never drunk anything like it.
I sell a lot at fairs, and almost everyone comes to me with a skeptical attitude, just like you, thinking it's mead. And they leave amazed and often take a bottle or two of my honey,” says the mead maker.
Grechushnikov spent more than a year going through the authorities, arguing that his products should not fall under the status of alcoholic beverages. And he achieved his goal. He has all the required documents confirming the non-alcoholic status of honey. Therefore, he produces his own honey and trades it completely legally.
Here is the composition of one of the honeys called “Evpatiy Kolovrat’s Cup”. Spring water, natural honey, hops, rose petals, celery, cardamom, ginger, cloves, black pepper, bay leaf, pollen extract, beebread extract.
Here are recommendations for the consumer. Has a calming effect, stimulates potency, improves libido, prolongs fertility female body. Normalizes metabolism in the body, strengthens the cardiovascular system, increases hemoglobin content in the blood, normalizes liver function, has an anti-sclerotic effect, and reduces the amount of fat deposits.
In addition to intoxicating meads, he also makes sbitni. These are ancient Russian drinks made with honey and herbs without hops. These warming drinks used to be very popular in Russia, especially in winter, but today they are almost forgotten.
The mead maker sells its products mainly at fairs and via the Internet, sending them by transport companies. He has only one store on the Black Sea coast, which is open exclusively during the season.
Those who buy intoxicating meads and sbitneys there, then, as a rule, become its regular online customers. It must be said that the mead maker’s products are not cheap, from 500 rubles per bottle to 4 thousand. But people are willing to pay for naturalness and excellent taste.
Sergey IVASCHENKO
Published with deception according to the publication:
I. Vinofrov. Home cooking beer, honey and wine. Complete Guide for every rural owner, landowner and economic citizen, compiled according to tried and tested recipes. Petrograd. 1917.
DICTIONARY OF OLD MEASURES AND CONCEPTS
Wine barrel - contains a volume of 12 buckets (140 liters).
Beer barrel - contains a volume of 10 buckets (120 liters).
Measuring bottle - volume 0.75 liters.
Bucket - contains 30 pounds of water (12 liters), or 8 bottles (1.5 liters each) or 16 bottles (0.75 liters each).
Vershok - a measure of length , approximately 4.4 cm; one-sixteenth of an arshin (0.711 meters).
Garnets - a measure of bulk solids and liquids, 2.8 liters.
The spool is a measure of weight, 4.2 grams.
Fish glue - obtained from the smooth bladder of fish; used to clarify drinks. Lot - weight measure, three spools, 11 grams.
Melissa is a lemon balm, a perennial herb with a lemon scent. Used as a spice.
White honey is honey extracted from different flowers.
Lipets honey (Kazan) - honey extracted from linden blossoms.
Red honey is honey extracted from buckwheat.
English pepper - red pepper.
Pud is a measure of weight, 16 kilograms, forty pounds.
Reaumur scale is a temperature scale that differs from the usual Celsius scale in the following ratio: 1 degree Reaumur equals 1.25 degrees Celsius, for example, 20 degrees Reaumur equals 25 degrees Celsius.
Malt is grain grain allowed to grow in moist heat and coarsely ground.
Wort is a brew made from flour and malt.
A pound is a measure of weight, 409 grams.
Quadruple - measure of bulk solids, 22.5 liters; one quadrangle is equal to 8 garits and is an eighth of a quarter (64 garnits).
The recipes given in the book are designed for preparing a large amount of the drink at home for a supply, often for an annual supply.
Today's capabilities of people, especially the urban population, do not correspond to such thriftiness.
Therefore, all components of recipes can be reduced by four, five, ten times, taking into account your own conditions and capabilities.
GENERAL RULES FOR COOKING HONEY
In the old days they were proud of honey, and whoever drank more honey mash and was not drunk was considered indestructible.
Landowners, monks and nuns were involved in the brewing of honey, and in the Polish and Little Russian provinces - almost everyone, so that in every village hut one could find ready-made honey, and in the landowners' houses there were two- and three-year-old meads, from one glass of which “one would knock you off your feet.” ", like vodka. Honey served as the first treat at all feasts and celebrations, just like vodka today, taste and dignity were valued by its strength. In addition to intoxication, honey also has healing properties that cure many ailments, such as rheumatic tumors, catarrh of the stomach, wounds, coughs, insomnia and many other diseases.
Many people claim that warm houses with beehives are the best remedy for consumption and that everyone who breathes honey air never suffers from chest disease.
Unfortunately, honey is now in limited use.
Each type of honey requires the ability to cook it, a certain amount of time for fermentation and processing, and, in addition, a considerable investment in material and utensils. Like honey, it should have a honey price, and not rubles and fifty dollars per bottle. For this price you can buy decent wine. This means that breeders have no reason to make good honey if there is no demand for it, and therefore there are almost no one-year-old honeys on sale.
The best meads can be prepared at home: giving it time to ferment, pouring it into barrels and bottles and having the patience to wait until it matures is also a kind of merit, and all this is quite possible. Pure honey or molasses, mixed with clean water, can easily be fermented without cooking, without hops, without yeast and without spices; thanks to fermentation, an excellent honey wine is obtained by itself. To do this you need one good honey add one and a half garnz of water, mix well and place in a warm place for fermentation, if possible at 18-20 degrees Reaumur temperature.
If the temperature in the room is not 20 degrees, then you need to pour a glass of liquid yeast or 1 lot of pressed yeast onto 1 garnet of pure honey. And if you want to get a berry taste in honey, then add half a bottle of raspberry or cherry juice to the honey itself during fermentation, counting without water.
To obtain honey of a delicate taste, honey must be boiled in a stone pot, just so that the honey does not burn, and therefore it must be cooked over low heat, constantly stirring and adding a handful of hops or spices, or berry juice. When cooking, take 2 garnets of soft water for 1 garnet of honey and cook until two and a half garnets of the entire mixture remain. Of course, by adding water, the honey will ferment sooner and will be ready before a year, and if there is less water, then the honey will be fattier, as a result of which it should last longer, but it will also be more expensive.
When honey is boiled, you need to skim off the foam. When all the foam is removed, pour the liquid into a barrel or keg, depending on the amount of mash. The barrels should not be corked, but only covered with a thin muslin; they should not be filled to the brim, otherwise there will be no room for fermentation.
At temperatures below 20 degrees, honey will ferment longer.
During fermentation, foam appears at the top, and the entire liquid becomes cloudy and noisy due to the release of carbonic acid. At the end of fermentation, the turbidity settles to the bottom and the liquid distills itself. If there is no foam left on the top, this means that the first fermentation has ended and then you need to immediately distill through a flannel tag and pour into other barrels or bottles and seal them tightly so that the honey acquires its smell. When filtering honey, you need to place some clean dishes under the bag, because cloudy honey will come out first.
When clear liquid comes out, transfer the bag into a barrel and continue filtering, adding little by little into the bag, passing honey through it a second time: it will pass clean into the general mixture.
This first fermentation with the help of yeast or those formed due to air is nothing more than the conversion of sugar into alcohol.
Honey, after the first fermentation, acquires taste, and then during the next fermentation in bottles it acquires strength and smell, so it becomes more expensive.
For getting good drink, you need good material: raw honey of the best quality with or without wax, i.e. table or purified, and the flow is the cleanest strain, without beebread: the water should be soft and clean.
Then you need to look after the dishes so that: cauldrons, barrels, kegs and bottles are clean and not musty. Honey is kept in a dry and cold cellar, away from dairy products and vegetables.
The barrels should always be closed, and the bottles should be tightly corked, tarred and placed in damp sand, which in the hot summer does not interfere with soaking with salt water from time to time.
Those who do not like intoxicated mead should try it from time to time, extracting the liquid from the barrel using a liver or a pump and filtering through cloth, and when the honey has fermented to the desired taste, then pour it into another barrel, plug and cover the hole in the funnel and take it to cellar.
If you do not allow the honey to completely ferment, you will end up with effervescent honey, which must be kept in strong bottles, tied with wire and resinized, like champagne. If the honey does not stop fermenting in the cellar, then you need to light the barrel with sulfur burned on coals. It happens that honey oxidizes after fermentation, then you need to take 1 pound of molasses for each bucket of honey, boil it thoroughly, dilute it with honey and pour it into the barrel. It happens that the honey becomes cloudy after standing for some time, then you need to carefully pour it into another barrel, pass it through felt or cloth in two rows, seal it again and put it back for a while.
LIGHT HONEY.
RAISINS HONEY
Boil 24 lbs. pure raisins, grind them in a wooden mortar, then rub them through a sieve in the water in which they were boiled and pour in 12 bottles of boiled water and 12 bottles. molasses, the best one, so that 3 buckets come out, then let it cook for a while and skim off the foam. When the honey is removed from the heat, let it cool, and to keep it clean, dip 15 - 20 egg whites into it. While the honey is still slightly warm, it must be seasoned with white brewer's yeast, allowed to ferment, poured into barrels, sealed well and placed in the cellar on the 3rd month and then consumed.
CRANBERRY HONEY
Place 38 lb. in water. white honey, dilute it with 6 buckets of boiling water: when it gets cold, remove the wax and put it to boil, skimming the foam as often as possible until it boils away. Then remove from heat, pour in cranberry juice prepared from four cranberries, and let it boil again along with the juice. Then, after removing from the heat, pour into a barrel, put in 4 small vanilla sticks, cut lengthwise, and 11/2 lots of glue diluted in honey.
The barrel must be tightly sealed and placed on ice for 2 weeks. After 15 days, the honey must be poured into strong bottles, sealed and stored in the sand, in the cellar, taking care that it does not freeze in winter. Use no earlier than 3 months.
RED HONEY
Dilute 1 pound of white honey with 8 buckets boiling water, and when it gets cold, remove the wax, put it to boil, skimming off the foam that will boil; when it is all removed, put 1/2 pound of hops into the kettle and boil again. When it cools down, add 2 lots of loose glue, cloves, cardamom, sultanas and cinnamon, which should be crushed and tied into rags. All this is lowered onto the laces up to half the barrel. In addition, fry 4 tablespoons of fine sugar, dilute it with honey and pour into a barrel. This is done to give the honey color. Then do the same as with other honeys.
LEMON HONEY
Take 10 pounds of good white honey and dilute it with two buckets of boiling water; when it cools, remove the wax from above, put it back on the fire and skim off the foam; finally, when it is no longer there, then lower 1/2 lb there. hops and boil with it twice, then let it cool, then cut 10 lemons into thin slices (without grains) and take 2 lots of glue, which you put in a barrel, seal it with a stopper, cover it with clay and put the barrel on ice. After 15 days, pour into champagne bottles and place in sand in the cellar.
RASPBERRY HONEY
After boiling the honey, pour it into a tub and let it cool; pour in enough fresh raspberry juice to give the honey the taste and color of raspberries; season with yeast, which should be spread on the roll and placed in a tub. When the honey begins to sour, then strain it through a linen into a barrel, add fish glue and violet root into it and put it in ice; after a month, you can bottle it, seal it and put it in the cellar in the sand.
GREEN HONEY
You need to dilute 30 pounds of white honey in 6 buckets of boiling water; when it cools, remove the wax, let it boil again, skimming off the foam, and as soon as the foam stops boiling, put three eighths of hops into the kettle, boil again and let it cool. Then take 11/2 pounds of green mint, remove the leaves, mix them with granulated sugar, put them on the fire and let them bloom so that it does not burn; then add 1 1/2 tablespoons of pureed boiled spinach to it, dilute it with honey and pour it into a barrel, where you pour all the honey, into which you also need to pour half a lot of diluted glue and put a piece of kalach or cod soaked with yeast.
When the honey has infused and is pure, it must be left alone for 15 days so that it gets stronger and then bottled, also stored in the cold.
OAK HONEY
Having poured 3 buckets of water into a tinned cauldron, which remains from washing the foundations, add to it clean molasses, as much as you need, and then lower a stick or oar into the cauldron, on which you make a note of how much water is in the cauldron; after that, pour another 11/2 buckets of water and bring to a boil, skimming off the foam for 3 hours over low heat from birch or oak wood, because pine honey will smell like smoke.
Then put 3/4 pound of hops in a bag, tie a pebble to it and lower it into the kettle. Boil honey until there is as much honey left as was noted on the stick, i.e. 3 buckets.
If the honey is cooked a little and the liquid boils before three hours, then the boiler must be topped up hot water. When the foam stops boiling, then the cauldron must be removed from the heat, allowed to cool and poured into a barrel that was full of grape wine, and in addition, pour a few more bottles, cover them with linen and put them in the cellar. So they will be useful for topping up the barrel, which is placed in a dark closet, covered the hole with wet canvas, and left to ferment. After three or four days, the honey will begin to hiss, then it is topped up from spare bottles so that the barrel is full.
After a month and a half, the honey is carefully poured into another small barrel, and the cloudy honey from the very bottom is filtered through felt or passing paper, bottled and placed in the cellar.
The keg is easily plugged with a cork and gradually topped up from the bottles. After a month or a month and a half, the honey almost stops fizzing, then it is carefully placed in the cellar, also covered with a wet canvas, and when it completely stops fizzing, it is sealed tightly and left until next year until the end of July. Then the honey is brought into the rooms, the corks are uncorked and allowed to stand for several days until it becomes transparent. Then it is poured into bottles, the corks are greased and placed in the cellar until consumed. The later they start using it, the better it will be. This honey can last for decades.
HONEY CHERRY
After pouring 6 garnets of water into the cauldron, put 15 garnets of honey there, put it on low heat until it boils until the foam stops boiling, which must be skimmed off during boiling. Then remove from the heat, let cool and pour into a barrel, into which you had previously poured 54 garnets of cherries, but so that the barrel is not too full, you must leave 2 - 2 1/2 inches of free space to the brim.
Having filled with yeast, place it in a cool basement (but so that it is not very cold) in an inclined position so that the yeast can flow out during fermentation, after eight days the cork is plugged tightly and the barrel is shaken, then the cork is beaten again, the barrel is put in its original place and left rest for 14 days, after which the same thing is done, i.e. the barrel is shaken and again placed in the same position. After 4-5 months, when the berries have turned into a varied mass, the liquid is filtered through a yellow bag, clarified with glue, then it needs to be bottled, corked, tarred and placed in the cellar.
BIRCH HONEY
For 1 pound of good molasses, take 4 bottles of birch sap, put on low heat and boil for an hour. Then they pour it into a barrel, seasoned with a piece of black bread spread with yeast.
When the juice has fermented well, that is, it stops making noise in the barrel, then it should be poured into bottles and, properly corked, put in the cellar.
WHITE HONEY
Take 1 pound of white honey, put it in a tub, pour 8 buckets of boiling water into it and do not touch it until another day. On the second day, remove the wax from the water, which will rise to the top, and pour it into the cauldron and put it to boil until all the rubbish settles to the bottom, then put 1 pound of hops in there and boil 4 - 5 more times, then pour in the honey. into a barrel, let it cool and put in it two lots of violets, 6 - 7 cardamom seeds and 3 lots of fish glue, boiled in water.
Having put in all the spices, you need to seal the barrel and put it on ice for two or 2 1/2 weeks. After this time, it can be drained and bottled, which must be kept in sand in a cold cellar. Use no earlier than three months later.
ORANGE HONEY
Dilute 30 pounds with 6 buckets of water, boil, skimming off the foam and at the same time adding a little cold water until the honey is clear.
Drain it into a tub, season with yeast with white bread or kalach.
When the honey begins to ferment, then take out the roll, skim off the foam, and strain the honey into a barrel. Then take 15 pcs. oranges, zest 7 with sugar, and carefully cut off 8 with a knife, then take three-eighths of violets, fish glue 12 gold. (which must be plucked into small pieces), put all the zest into a barrel, cut the oranges into pieces, remove the grains, put them in a saucepan, pour honey, boil and strain into a barrel, with honey, which is then sealed, covered with clay and put on ice.
After 12 days, pour the honey into bottles, seal and resin.
ASTRAKHAN HONEY
After putting one and a half pounds of honey in a tub, pour 7 1/2 buckets of water and stir well. Take one and a half pounds of wheat flour, pour it into a fire pit, add 6 bottles of yeast (brewer's yeast) and dilute it with 6 bottles of honeycomb; add one and a half pounds of hops and boil them in one bucket of water, pour them into the same pot, then put them in a warm place to ferment for 3-4 hours.
Then this head is poured into the rest of the fill and, after pouring into a barrel, is placed in a cold place for three days for fermentation.
To make the honey stronger, it is decanted into another barrel and left to ferment for another 12 days, adding one and a half pounds of raw honey every day during these days, so that it long fermentation didn't lose any sweetness.
ENGLISH HONEY
Sugar 4 pounds, molasses 8 bottles, pour three buckets of water, set to boil, skimming off the foam, then pour into a tub or tub.
After letting the honey cool a little, put the zest cut from 24 lemons into it, pour in 16 tablespoons of yeast and drain the barrel, which is often shaken for 4 days, then left for 12 days without touching, and only then bottled. and put it in the cellar.
HONEY – BRAZHKA
For 3 buckets, take half a bucket of molasses and a handful of hops, boil for half an hour, skimming off the foam, then pour through felt or passing paper into a barrel, which you need to fill full and stock up on a few more bottles. Place it in the cellar.
When the honey in the barrel is completely cold, then pour in a spoonful of yeast or put a crust of bread there, cover it with canvas and leave to ferment. At this time, you need to top up the barrel, because foam will begin to float out of the bottles during fermentation. When the foam stops, then the honey is poured into bottles and, having been properly corked, taken to the cellar.
SPICED HONEY
Take 9 pounds of the best white honey, pour 3 buckets of water and bring to boil, skimming off the foam; it is necessary to boil until the liquid becomes thick, like a stream. After removing from the heat, you need to strain through cloth, let it cool a little and, pouring it into a barrel, when it begins to ferment well, pour one glass of French vodka into each bucket, then all the yeast will settle down and the honey will be pure and strong. All spices, such as cloves, cinnamon, lemon balm, violet, cardamom, etc., are dropped in a bag through a sleeve into a barrel. After letting it sit for a month, they shake it up and, when it settles again, pour it into bottles, seal it and put it in a cold place.
HONEY-FIBER
For 3 buckets of boiling water, take 1/2 a bucket of molasses, boil for 4 hours, skimming off the foam and adding boiling water. When it’s cooked, they pour it into a barrel, putting a bag of spices in it, let it ferment, then pour it into clay jugs, seal it, and grease the corks.
They are stored in damp sand in the cellar, otherwise the jugs will burst. After a few months it can be consumed.
You can add a glass of lemon juice.
HONEY "BABII"
Put 2 pounds of good molasses into a cauldron, pour 3 buckets of water into it, and boil over low heat until 1 bucket boils. After removing from heat, cool in the refrigerator to 17 degrees, then divide the wort in half, pour two-thirds into bottles and pour 6 cups of yeast into it to ferment.
When a sour smell begins to come out of the bottles, the clean liquid must be drained using a siphon into a barrel that holds 2 buckets and the second half of the wort, which remained without fermentation, must be poured into it. Having mixed both worts together, add a solution of fish glue, of which two ten
Then, for the smell, a mixture of crushed into coarse powder is dipped in a bag: 1 gold. cinnamon, 2 gold English pepper, half a spool of cloves, 2 gold. cardamom, half a spool of vanilla and 1 pound of orris root, onto which are poured 20 drops of rose oil and 40 drops of lemon oil.
After letting the honey sit for 3-4 weeks, pour it into bottles. If anyone wants the honey to have a reddish color, then half a pound of galangal is added to all the spices. Keep honey on ice.
SIMPLE HONEY
Sew 2 pounds of hops into a linen bag, put it in a cauldron, pour 2 buckets of water into it, put the water to boil, then remove the hops from the cauldron and put it in cold water to cool.
Then squeeze the juice out of it and pour it into the cauldron in which it was boiled. Then put 20 pounds of honey in there and stir well with an oar until it dissolves. Then add 3 buckets of cold water, remove the wax, strain and put it back to boil, skimming off the foam as often as possible.
It is necessary to boil until three-quarters of the bucket boils. Pour into a barrel, leaving at least a quarter of empty space. Once it cools down, pour in half a glass of yeast, seal and let ferment in a warm place for 4 - 5 days; on the sixth day, put it in the cellar for 3 days so that it settles well, then pour it into bottles and put it in a cold place.
PINK HONEY
This honey is used in the same way as cranberry honey, with the only difference that instead of cranberries you need to take 1 pound of fine sugar, dissolve it in a frying pan, put half a pound of nutmeg in it, dilute it with honey and pour it into the barrel with the rest of the honey. The barrel must be corked and placed on ice, and after 15 days it must be bottled, corked and placed in the sand in a cellar.
STRONG HONEY
SIMPLE HONEY
Dilute 1 1/2 pounds of honey or good molasses with 12 buckets of water, bring to a boil and skim off the foam as carefully as possible. When half has boiled away, then remove from the heat and let cool, then pour into a tub, the walls of which must be smeared with rye sour dough (this is done for fermentation) or pour 3 bottles of liquid yeast into the tub, then put 6 ashes in a bag. cloves, 15 gold cinnamon, 4 1/2 ash. ginger, 3 gold cardamom and 1 1/2 ash, English pepper. When the honey has fermented, seal it tightly, put it in the cellar, and no earlier than 6 months later, pour it into bottles and seal it again.
HONEY OF BORDEAUX
They take 40 pounds for 2 pounds of raw red honey. cream of tartar and pour in enough water to make 8 buckets of wort. After letting it cool down to 12 degrees Reaumur, they leave it at this temperature for 3 or 4 days so that it begins to ferment. When the yeast stops separating, it means fermentation is over, then the wort must be strained through 2 flannel tags placed one inside the other and put 2 spools of fish glue to clarify.
Place on ice and after 4-5 weeks bottle.
This honey is similar to Bordeaux wine.
WINE-LIKE HONEY
Take 1 pound of pure white honey, dissolve it in 3 buckets of water, boil until half of the liquid boils and stir as much as possible all this time.
Remove from heat, let cool, then pour one half into bottles, and pour the other into a barrel of good grape wine and put it in a warm place, and cover the hole in it with a cloth. When fermentation begins, yellow foam will begin to flow out of the barrel, and therefore the barrel must be topped up with honey from prepared bottles. Fermentation should end within 3 months. Then, to give the honey a taste, add one sixth by volume of white or red wine and orange juice, seal the barrel well, put it in the cellar to stand there for at least a year, and then bottle it.
Those who do not want to top up the honey with wine, then put the barrel in the cellar and, after a month, put ginger, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon in a bag, and all this is left in the barrel until the time comes to bottle it.
GINGER HONEY
1 pound of granulated sugar is poured into 5 buckets of water and sewn into a 5 pound canvas bag. ginger, which is then lowered into the barrel. For fermentation, pour in 3 1/2 cups of yeast. It should be bottled no sooner than after 10 weeks in half a bottle of seltzer. If it is sealed well, it can remain on the glacier for many years.
HONEY – STRONG LIQUEUR
Take 2 buckets of one and a half honey, i.e. for 1/2 bucket of water take 1/2 bucket of honey, which is boiled for 4 hours, skimming off the foam and adding boiling water; When the foam stops rising, remove from heat, cool and pour into a barrel. Then take 1 bucket of wine alcohol infused with anything, for example, orange and lemon peels, cherry or plum pits, caraway seeds, etc.
WINE HONEY
After pouring 6 buckets of water into the cauldron, put 30 pounds of honey in it and put it on the fire to boil. At this time, it is necessary to stir the cauldron as often as possible, not allowing the honey to burn and skim off the foam on top. When the honey is cooked, it should be allowed to cool until the warmth of fresh milk and poured into a barrel. Having dropped the yeast in there, the barrel must be plugged, leaving a small hole for air.
When the honey ferments, it will give off a wine smell, after which you need to put the barrel of honey in the cellar.
To give honey pleasant taste and smell, you need to put 3 evils in it during fermentation. cloves and 9 gold cinnamon and 3/4 ash. ginger and cardamom, all this is tied into a linen bag and lowered into a barrel
Then they bottle it.
POLISH HONEY
For this honey, take 1 pound of white honey and 1 pound of warm water. The food is poured into a cauldron and boiled for an hour, then, after allowing it to cool, fresh yeast is added to make it sour. Then pour 2 bottles of wine alcohol into it. Then take a measure, which includes 1 pound of honey, fill it full with good hops and, pouring the same amount of water, pour into honey, which is allowed to stand for three days so that it loses its sweetness. After this, take another 1 pound of honey, pour in the same amount of water and cook until it becomes like thick syrup; when it cools down, pour it into strong honey, mix and let it stand, and when it starts to sour again, strain it through a sieve into a strong barrel with iron hoops and put it in ice.
