• Recipe Development

  European Snowball Bush

  Posted by Watershed on August 22, 2006 at 3:02 pm

  AKA highbush cranberry ( I think ) – Viburnum opulus.I’ve read of its use in Russia by peasants to make spirit but given that Russian peasants would drink diesel and turpentine in the worst days of the Soviet union it’s not much of a recommendation.Has anyone tried making a spirit from them? The fresh berries smell like wet dog but apparently that goes away when you cook them. The main appeal is they’re easy to pick and there’s plenty of them.Found one mention on the site – but using flour & a small amounf of berries.

  laskala replied 18 years, 4 months ago 6 Members · 6 Replies
• 6 Replies

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  markx

  Member

  August 22, 2006 at 3:41 pm

  I thought these were poisonous…..but then again I could be wrong. As I remember from my childhood the berries were sweet but had a stale taste and smell. A rather upleasant combination in my opinion.Kui ei ole surmatõbi, siis saab viinast ikka abi…

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  Rebel_Yell

  Member

  August 22, 2006 at 5:15 pm

  http://www.abchomeopathy.com/r.php/VibI would rather teach a pig to sing than argue with an Idiot.

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  byacey

  Member

  October 24, 2007 at 5:55 am

  We have these around here, called Kalyna in Ukrainian – they make good jelly and wine, although I’ve never tried distilling the wine. I usually use raspberries for my elite company’s visitin’ kinda homebrew; otherwise I just drink the apple ‘shine on most other occasions.

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  Uncle Jesse

  Member

  October 25, 2007 at 12:34 am

  Never heard of it. I have heard great things about kvass though.If only the best birds sang, the woods would be silent.

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  byacey

  Member

  October 25, 2007 at 1:20 am

  I’ve made Kvass, but it’s classified as a non-alcohol drink; even the kids there drink it. It’s made from fermented rye bread crusts and lemon juice with a little sugar, molasses and a few raisins tossed in. They ferment it for a day, strain it and put in a sealed bottle to give it some fizz. You want to keep this in the fridge if you don’t like exploding bottles. Kind of a Eastern European root beer. I put some in a two litre plastic Coke bottle once and forgot about it for 4 or 5 days. It was already streching the plastic bottle from the pressure when I noticed it. I took it outside carefully and tossed it in the parking lot – It went ping, ping, as it bounced a couple times, and then took off like a rocket when the cap blew off!!

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  laskala

  Member

  July 30, 2009 at 8:38 pm

  Just bottled guelder rose wine from last years pickings(Sept. 2008). Your right it does smell odd but the taste is exquisite.

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