The drink obtained by fermenting grape or fruit juices is called wine. The process of making wine was described by the ancient Romans and Greeks; the drink made from grapes was called “vineri”, which means “giving strength”. Many peoples have been preparing wine from berries and fruits for thousands of years, but the essence of the chemical and biological fermentation process was revealed only in the 19th century.
It has been established that the fermentation of sugar-containing liquids occurs as a result of the proliferation of microorganisms in them - yeast fungi. Yeast spores, getting into any food and liquid, cause them to sour and ferment. In order to prevent the proliferation of yeast fungi, they use heat treatment, freezing or using various preservatives.
If the purpose of fruit processing is to produce wine, the most favorable conditions are created for the proliferation of yeast fungi: heat and oxygen with a sufficient amount of protein (nitrogen), mineral and sugary substances.
Wine contains organic acids, mineral salts, phosphorus, nitrogenous substances, pectin, and sugar. Enzymes that act on sugar and other carbohydrates and produce alcoholic fermentation are called alcoholase.
Vitamins B1, B6, B12, PP, C, pantothenic and folic acids in small quantities are found in wine; vitamin P is present in grape wine in fairly large quantities.
Wine, especially red grape wine, has radioactive and bioenergetic properties; in addition, wine has bactericidal properties.
Any wine contains 2–5% of various substances that, in homeopathic doses, have a positive effect on the human body. Moderate consumption of wine complements a person’s diet, strengthens his health and increases the body’s resistance to certain diseases.
Wines are classified according to their sugar and alcohol content:
- table - 9–14° without sugar;
- dessert semi-sweet - 9–15° with a sugar content of 3–10%;
- dessert strong - 17–20° with a sugar content of 3–13%;
- dessert sweets and liqueurs - 13–16° with a sugar content of 16–32%;
- sparkling (fizzy - artificially carbonated).
The production of fruit and berry wines is divided into several stages.
Preparing containers and equipment
The best wine containers are oak barrels, glass cylinders and enamel containers (pots, buckets). The barrels are soaked and steamed. If necessary, new barrels are leached. Empty barrels are fumigated with sulfur before storage.
For crushing berries and fruits, crushers and meat grinders with special attachments are used; for large fruits (apples, quinces, pears) - shredders.
Juice is extracted from the pulp using both special presses and electric juicers. The metal parts of the press must be made of stainless steel.
Not a large number of The pulp can be squeezed out without tools by placing it in a bag made of rare canvas fabric.
Preparing berries and fruits for processing
Only ripe fruits and berries are used to make wine.
Soft berries (raspberries, strawberries) are washed on a sieve or sieve, immersed in water, allowed to drain and crushed with a masher to obtain pulp. After washing, hard fruits are cut, pits are removed and crushed using crushers, stainless steel meat grinders or juicers.
Getting juices
The juice from the grape pulp is poured into cylinders (enamel containers), covered with gauze and left to ferment for 2–3 days at a temperature of 25–28° C.
Add plums, gooseberries, cherries, black currants after chopping boiled water(15–20% of the weight of the pulp) and heat to 60–70° C, stand for about half an hour while stirring.
The separation of juice from the pulp can be done with any available device: a press, a juicer, or manually through a sieve or colander using a linen bag. The pulp obtained during the first spin is used again. To do this, the pulp is poured with warm water in a ratio of 1:5, left for 2–3 hours, squeezed and filtered.
In some cases, to improve juice separation, pulp fermentation is used by adding sugar to the pulp (100 g per 1 kg of pulp). The mixture is kept for 3–4 days at temperatures up to 20° C. After which the pulp is squeezed out, the pulp is diluted with water and after 3 days squeezed out again.
Wort preparation
The taste of wine is mainly determined by the ratio of sugar and acid contained in the fruit. The optimal ratio of acid and sugar in grapes for alcoholic fermentation is why more than 80% of grapes grown in the world are used to make wine. But at the same time, excellent wine can be made from raspberries, strawberries, currants, cherries, plums, apples, quinces, apricots, rowan berries, etc. At home, it is difficult to determine the percentage of sugar and acid content in fruit and berry raw materials, so when making wort You can use the indicative indicators given in Table 1 for grapes and Table 2 for berries and fruits.
Table 1
table 2
For the formation of alcohol, the optimal sugar content in the wort is 25%, therefore, to improve the taste of the wine and achieve a certain strength, berry juice is diluted with water to reduce acidity and sugar is added.
Each category of wine corresponds to a certain content of alcohol, sugar and acids. Thus, 100 g of oral table wine contains 8–11 vol. % alcohol, 1–1.5 g of sugar, 0.7–0.8 g of acid, for dessert wine these figures are respectively 15; 15–20 and 1, 2; for liqueur - 16; 40 and 1.5. When adding sugar, remember:
- 20 g of sugar per 1 liter of wort increases the strength of the wine by 1 degree;
- excess sugar inhibits the fermentation process;
- every kilogram of sugar when dissolved increases the volume by 0.6 liters;
- when making dry wines, sugar is dissolved in water and added immediately at one time; in dessert wines, sugar is added fractionally on the 1st, 4th, 7th, 10th day, dissolving it in a small amount of fermenting wine.
Table 3
After adding sugar and water, the wort is placed in containers (glass bottles, barrels), filling them to ¾ of the volume, after which berry starter is added at the rate of 20 g/l of wort for table wine and 30 g per 1 liter for dessert wine.
Preparing sourdough starter
Sourdough - wine yeast - is prepared by fermenting raisins or grapes. 150–200 g of raisins or ripe grapes and 50–60 g of sugar are placed in a bottle, topped up with boiled water to ¾ of the volume and left for fermentation for 3–4 days.
You can prepare a starter from raspberries or strawberries: 2 cups of mashed berries and 100 g of sugar, pour a glass of water and shake well. The starter is ready in 3-4 days.
Brewer's and bread yeast should not be used, because... they worsen the taste of the wine and, in addition, they die as the alcohol accumulates (at a strength of 13% vol.).
Fermentation
Bottles or barrels with wort are placed in a darkened room with a temperature of 18–20 ° C, the fermentation process is activated by sourdough and ammonia(0.2–0.4 g per 1 liter of wort).
A label must be attached to each bottle or keg indicating the date and amount of sugar added, leaving space for notes on subsequent operations (adding sugar, pouring, clarification). A distinction is made between violent and quiet fermentation: violent fermentation takes place in the first 1–2 weeks and is accompanied by foaming with the rapid release of carbon dioxide; Quiet fermentation lasts from three weeks to three months, depending on fermentation conditions and raw materials.
To isolate the fermenting wort from the surrounding air, a water seal or fermentation tongue is installed on the container. The water seal consists of a tube, one end of which is inserted into the stopper of the bottle, and the other into a jar of water. The figure shows Various types fermentation gates.
The simplest and effective way Insulating the wort from the atmosphere is a regular plastic bag or rubber glove, which is placed on the neck of the bottle and tied with an elastic band. In this case, excess carbon dioxide is released under the gum. During the fermentation process, it is necessary to periodically shake the container so that the yeast that has settled to the bottom is included in the fermentation process.
Fermentation valve for a bottle: 1 - fermenting wine; 2 - pulp cap; 3 - rubber stopper; 4 - glass tube; 5 - rubber tube; 6 - glass with distilled water
Fermentation tongue installed in the tongue hole of the barrel: 1 - wooden barrel; 2 - tongue (gate)
To activate the fermentation process, the container with the wort is opened 2-3 times for 1 hour to allow air to enter, while the wort is poured into another container or air is artificially pumped into the container with the wort.
The optimal fermentation temperature is 18–20° C; when the temperature rises above 23–25° C, the container with the wort must be cooled.
After the end of quiet fermentation, the wine is tasted. The absence of sweetness, yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottle, and the transparency of the wine above the yeast layer indicate the end of the fermentation process.
Transferring and fermenting wine
Transfusion is carried out using a siphon (rubber tube) or decanting (pouring over the edge), while trying not to touch the sediment. The tube is lowered within 3 cm of the yeast sediment, and only clear wine is drained. The remaining sediment is poured into a smaller bottle, allowed to settle, drained again, and the grounds are filtered through a cloth filter.
The wine removed from the lees is filled into clean cylinders up to the neck, sealed with corks or rubber caps and placed in a cool room (10–12° C) to settle for 1 month, after which removal from the lees is repeated. The resulting wine material is conditioned with sugar, dissolving it in a small amount of wine when heated.
Amount of sugar: for semi-sweet wines - 50 g/l, for dessert wines - 100–160 g/l, for liqueur wines - 200 g/l.
Dry wine, as well as dessert wine, should not remain on the lees; after the end of quiet fermentation, it is removed from the lees, poured into bottles up to half the neck and sealed with a steamed cork stopper, then filled with resin. Store in a supine position at 2–15° C, because at a higher level it may deteriorate.
Wine can be aged from six months to 2~4 years or more, resulting in a bouquet of wine that improves over the years.
Before bottling for storage, it is necessary to filter and clarify the wine. Filtration is carried out through a canvas bag or through filter paper (paper napkins).
Some fruits (plums, pears) produce cloudy wine, in which case it is necessary to clarify or glue the wine with gelatin, tannin, fish glue or protein chicken egg. In this case, it is necessary to make test lightenings and select The best way, which does not change the taste and color of the wine.
For 10 liters of wine, take 0.1–0.2 g of gelatin or glue, which are pre-soaked in cold water, change the water 2-3 times during the day. Swollen and squeezed gelatin (glue) is dissolved in a small amount of heated wine, then the solution is poured into a vessel with wine, mixed and left for 2-3 weeks. After which the sediment is removed, bottled and capped.
To lighten the egg white, carefully separate the white from the yolk, add a little water and beat it into a strong foam. The protein is mixed with a small amount of wine, poured into a vessel with wine, everything is mixed again and clarified for 2-3 weeks. For 10 liters of wine, 1/3 of protein is required.
Tannin brightens wine with low acidity and no astringency (to taste). Tannin (pharmaceutical) is dissolved in distilled or boiled water, approximately 1.5 g per glass, settled, filtered. The required quantity is determined experimentally. Wine is poured into 3-4 transparent (white glass) bottles and 1, 2, 3, 4 teaspoons of tannin solution are added, after a week they see which bottle has clarified better and, after calculating required amount tannin, pour it into the bottle, after 7-10 days the wine is ready to be removed from the sediment. After this, the wine is aged for another month, drained, bottled and corked.
Now you have a general idea of the technology for making wine at home. Our website contains recipes for preparing wine and various berries and fruits using proven methods. It’s your job to choose and try them.
Winemaking is an interesting activity, a great way to show your creativity and please yourself and your loved ones with a tasty and high-quality drink. True, in order for homemade wine to truly be such, you need to use special equipment and raw materials and strictly follow the technology. We have already touched on this topic when we talked about, which is still industrial production. Now we want to delve deeper into the topic of home winemaking raised earlier, starting the conversation with an overview of the basic equipment and components needed to create wine.
Raw materials: grapes and yeast
Obviously, wine cannot be made without grapes: ripe, good quality, a variety suitable for winemaking. What is needed is grapes - drinks prepared “using wine technology” from apples, plums, berries and other fruits, although tasty, are not wines in the truest sense of the word.
Yeast is the next necessary component. Ideally, you should buy special yeast for winemaking. If this is not possible, yeast starter is prepared from sugar and directly from grapes (or raisins), apples, plums, berries - they have natural yeast on their surface. True, the result of their use will be less predictable than when using a specialized product. Bread and alcohol yeasts are not suitable for winemaking, as their pungent odor interrupts the delicate aroma of wine.
Capacities
The most important equipment for a winemaker is containers for fermenting and storing wine. If it is possible, although undesirable, to do without other equipment, then it is impossible to produce a good drink without suitable containers.
The best wines are fermented and aged in oak barrels, but they need to be soaked, steamed, smoked, and new barrels need to be leached. All this takes time and makes sense if you plan to be in the winemaking business for a long time and make hundreds of liters of wine per year. Large glass bottles, cylindrical tanks or cylinders made of stainless steel or food-grade plastic - a good choice for the beginning winemaker. These materials are easy to care for, durable and will not spoil the taste of the drink prepared in them.
It is best to store wine in dark glass bottles, this has been proven by time. Although if you have a dark and cool place to store homemade wine, you can use regular light bottles or even cans. Don't forget about stoppers or lids.
Crushers
If you want to prepare only a few liters of wine or to ensure a particularly gentle process of crushing the berries, it is quite possible to use a wooden crush for this or pass the berries through a meat grinder (or through an electric juicer - then you won’t even need a press). True, this kitchen appliance should only be used if its parts in contact with food are made of stainless steel.
If you have a relatively large number of berries, and if you do not want to deviate from the production technology, you need to purchase a special crusher. They can be very small, mechanical, and impressive, electric, allowing the processing of grapes on an almost industrial scale. Some crushers are equipped with a destemmer.
Press
Just a little pulp (pressed grapes), for several bottles of wine, can be squeezed through cheesecloth. In other cases, you need a press. The simplest wine press is an oak or beech basket with holes and a structure driven by physical effort that squeezes juice from the pulp. The juice flows out of the holes into a container placed under the press.
Electric presses are usually made of stainless steel (less often cast iron) and have more complex design. The most common are hydraulic presses, but pneumatic ones can also be found on sale. Both of them have high productivity; the pulp remains almost dry after use.
Water seal
A small but important accessory is needed to ensure that the carbon dioxide formed during fermentation leaves the wort, and the ingress of oxygen is minimized, since it can oxidize the wine too much.
You can make the simplest water seal yourself by drilling a hole in the stopper of the fermentation container - insert a tube into it, and lower its other end into a container of water. Of course, there are also ready-made water seals on sale.
Wine filter accessories
In home winemaking, membrane filters and filter presses with or without a pump are most often used. There is no fundamental difference between their use, except that the use of filters with a pump allows you to clean the wine much faster.
Filters are used to remove yeast and give the drink a pure and unclouded color. Some winemakers do not use filtration, considering the presence of natural impurities in the wine as a peculiar highlight. However, after fermentation is complete, it is still necessary to pour the wine into another container, since spent yeast can greatly spoil its taste.
Sometimes, in order to make the wine clearer, they carry out the so-called fining - cleaning with gelatin, fish glue, tannin, egg white, white clay. Accordingly, you may need some of these substances.
A small amount of wine is poured without special equipment or using a rubber tube. It is advisable to pour hundreds of liters using a pump.
If you're serious about home winemaking
You may need a laboratory scale, a hydrometer to measure strength, a refractometer to measure the sugar level in must or finished wine, and a pH meter to determine acidity. With increased production volumes, bottle washing and capping machines, sealing wax and sealing wax will not be superfluous.
Whether to use sulfites is up to each winemaker to decide for himself, but there are many who support their use. If you decide to use them, then you will need potassium metabisulfite (pyrosulfite) or another specialized drug.
Winemaking is not easy, but very exciting! Perhaps it's worth a try?
Making wine at home is quite complicated. technological process. How it is carried out depends taste qualities drink Homemade wine can be made from a variety of raw materials, but the quality depends mainly on the correctness of the events and adherence to the recipe. Of course, not everyone makes good homemade wine the first time, but with experience comes skill.
1 The essence of homemade wines
Overall, the wine is alcoholic drink, obtained by fermentation of sugar-containing components. In addition to water and ethyl alcohol, homemade wine includes organic acids, sugar, mineral salts, nitrogenous and pectic substances, pantothenic and folic acid, vitamins B1, B6, B12, P, PP, C. Fermentation with the formation of alcohol occurs when exposed to sugar and some carbohydrate enzymes.
Based on the raw materials from which it is “extracted,” homemade wine is divided into grape, fruit (apples, pears, quince, etc.), berry (strawberries, raspberries, currants; this also includes stone fruits - cherries, peach, plums, apricot), fruit (a mixture of berries and fruits), raisins (from dried grapes), vegetable (flower petals, juice of melons or trees).
One of the main indicators of wine is its strength, i.e. alcohol and sugar content. According to this indicator, the following categories of wines are distinguished:
- table (strength 8-13° without sugar);
- dry (8-11° and sugar no more than 0.4%);
- semi-dry (9-12° with sugar up to 3.5%);
- semi-sweet (9-13°, sugar - 3-8%);
- dessert semi-sweet (6-12° with sugar up to 15.5%);
- dessert sweets (11-18°, sugar - 12-18%);
- liqueur or intensely sweet (15-20° with a sugar content of 20-30%);
- strong (up to 22°, sugar - 11-15%).
Sparkling or fizzy drinks with artificial carbonation are separately noted.
The taste characteristics of the drink are largely determined by the acid content and their combination with the sugar level. Homemade wine can be of the following types: fresh; medium (pronounced taste with normal acidity), tart, sour.
2 Features of home manufacturing technology
Making wine at home takes place in several stages. First of all, the preparation of raw materials is carried out. Fruits and berries can be used in the form of pulp, juice, syrup, jam, jam, caramel. During the preparation process, sugar can be added if necessary, heat treatment can be adjusted, etc.
The most important stage is the fermentation of the pre-prepared wort. The strength of the drink and its main characteristics depend on the activity of this process. If the need arises, seed elements are used to activate the reaction. The conditions required for such a process depend on the type of raw material.
The taste of the drink is determined by the final stage. At this stage, sediment is removed, filtration is carried out, and the wine is clarified. The final stage also includes bringing the degree of fermentation to the required level, i.e. so-called post-fermentation is carried out.
3 Preparatory activities
Serious home winemaking requires a serious approach to the preparation of containers, containers and equipment. The most popular container for preparing and storing homemade wine is a wooden (preferably oak) barrel (keg), glass bottle or enamel container (tank, bucket, pan). After draining the wine, it is recommended to fumigate used containers with sulfur before storing them.
Equipment is needed for chopping fruits and squeezing juice. When chopping, special crushers or a meat grinder with an attachment can be used, and for working with large fruits, shredders can be used. The preparation of juice from the pulp is ensured by a press or juicer. For small quantities, it is rational to use a canvas bag.
Raw materials for homemade wine are always prepared from ripe (fully ripened) berries and fruits. Large dense fruits are cut and pitted, and then crushed. The berry raw materials are washed using a sieve, and after the water has drained, they are kneaded.
The first stage is the primary fermentation of the pulp. Grape or raspberry pulp is poured into a container, covered with gauze on top and left for 30-50 hours. at a temperature of 24-29°C. Some types of raw materials after grinding (plums, cherries, currants) are supplemented with boiled water (20-22% of the pulp), heated to a temperature of 55-65° and kept for 25-35 minutes (with stirring).
The next preparatory step is separating the juice from the pulp. Aged pulp can be squeezed out by any in an accessible way allowing you to separate the juice from the pulp. The squeezes are filled with warm water in a ratio of 1:5 and infused for 2.5-4 hours, and then squeezed again. If necessary, sugar is used for this procedure (1 kg per 10 liters of pulp), exposure is 3.5-5 days at a temperature of no more than 22°C.
4 Preparation of must for wine
The main fermentation process takes place in the wort, i.e. in finally prepared raw materials. The taste of the final product largely depends on the composition and quality of the wort. It is at the stage of preparing the wort that the combination of sugar and acid is formed. And most importantly, the amount of sugar ensures the strength of the drink. The optimal alcohol content in the final drink is achieved when the sugar content in the juice is 23-25%, which is best provided by grapes. If its content is not enough, then the juice is diluted with water and sugar is added in the required amount.
Special standards help you navigate by sugar content. Thus, we can provide the following data on the sugar content in some grape varieties: cabernet - 20-22%, white muscat - 25%, black muscat - up to 27%, aligote - 16-20%, Tsimlyansky - 25-28%. For various berries and fruits, the sugar content is less pronounced: raspberries - 8-9%, blackberries - 8-11%, cherries - 7-15%, black currants - 7-14%, gooseberries - 6-11%, plums - 8-14 %, apples - 7-22%, pears - 9-15%.
To calculate how much sugar to add, it is worth considering the following nuances:
- adding sugar in an amount of 20 g/l increases the strength of the drink by an average of 1°;
- the increase in wort volume when adding each kilogram of sugar is 500 ml;
- Excess sugar begins to slow down the fermentation process.
Sugar is added according to the following scheme: dry wines - immediately in 1 batch; dessert varieties - in equal parts on the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th days of fermentation.
Fermentation can be activated by introducing a starter, i.e. wine yeast. Grape sourdough recipe: 200 g of grapes are mixed with 60 g of sugar, add water (350 ml) and leave for 4-5 days. Raspberry starter: berries (2 cups) are mixed with sugar (120 g), filled with water (250 ml) and kept for 4-5 days.
5 Fermentation process
The wort is poured into containers and moved to a darkened room where the temperature can be maintained at 18-20°C. Exceeding the temperature more than 25° is not recommended. During fermentation, the container must be isolated from contact with air, but gases must be removed. For these purposes, a water seal is used - a hose passing through a sealed plug (lid), with one end located in a container with wort, and the other in a container with water.
Violent fermentation occurs for about 7-12 days, after which a period of “quiet” fermentation begins, lasting from 20 days to 2 months. After fermentation is complete, you can taste the drink.
If there is no sweetness and sediment from the starter, and the transparency of the liquid is good, then we can talk about the completion of the fermentation process.
6 Final stage
After fermentation, the wine must be carefully poured into another container using a siphon or over the edge, but without raising the sediment. The poured drink is tightly corked and kept in a cool place (11-14°) for 30 days, and then re-transfused. It is at this time that the taste is assessed and sugar is added if necessary. Simultaneously with the introduction of sugar, the wine is slightly warmed up. Next comes storage. If desired, the drink undergoes a clarification process. For this you can use gelatin, tannin, egg white.
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Winemaking and the process of preparing wine from grapes is a real art, the rules and basic secrets of which must be learned over many years. If you know some cooking conditions and follow the instructions, you can make high-quality grape wine with your own hands. It is clear that this will not be a masterpiece, but if all conditions are carefully observed, it will be guaranteed to be better than those wines that are usually purchased in stores.
Below we will present to your attention the process of preparing wine from white and red grapes and cherries in ordinary home conditions. All recipes are quite simple, often the cooking process requires only sugar, berries and a little water, as well as following a certain technology.
Before you start preparing wine from cherries or grapes, you should make sure that the equipment for preparing wine and containers are prepared. To avoid contaminating the juice with various pathogenic bacteria, such as mold, such containers should be as dry and crystal clear as possible.
Bottles, barrels and buckets can be smoked with sulfur. This is what is usually done in modern industry. You can also rinse all containers with boiled water, and then wipe everything very thoroughly with a dry cloth.
After preparing the necessary containers, you will need to prepare the necessary ingredients. Among them are:
- 10 kg of grapes;
- Approximately 100-200 grams of sugar in proportion to a liter of juice;
- Water in the amount of 100 ml, but sometimes it is not required.
Water is needed if the juice is very sour. In this case, it is important to remember that the use of sugar itself reduces acidity. In all other cases, the process of preparing and diluting wine with water significantly worsens its overall taste, so it is not recommended to do this.
The most popular grape wine recipe
Processing and harvesting must be done in such a way that the yeast necessary for fermentation remains on the cherry or grape fruits. To do this, berries should be removed from the bushes in dry weather. There was no rain for about two or three days before harvest.
The step-by-step process of making wine from grapes at home will be correct if you take only fully ripe berries. If the grapes are unripe, if there is a lot of acid in them, and fermentation begins in the berries, it will certain time can spoil all the squeezed juice, that is, the wort. In addition, it is strongly recommended not to collect and add carrion to the collection, as it gives the wine an unpleasant taste, reminiscent of the taste of earth. All picked berries should be processed within no more than two days. Next, the following sequence of actions is carried out:
- All harvested grapes must be very carefully sorted, all leaves and twigs, as well as rotten, unripe or moldy berries must be removed.
- After this, the berries need to be crushed, and the resulting pulp and juice placed in an enamel bowl. A plastic basin is also suitable.
- The container is filled with the mixture to approximately three-quarters of its volume.
- You need to crush the berries with your hands, so as not to damage the seeds. They contain substances that give wine a bitter taste. If there are a lot of fruits, they should be crushed as carefully as possible with a special wooden rolling pin.
It is best to use wooden devices, since contact with metal often causes severe oxidation, which significantly impairs the taste of the wine. For this reason, the berries are always mashed wooden spoons and rolling pins or hands, and the resulting composition is placed in an enamel bowl or pan; you can also use containers made of special food-grade plastic or wood.
The container with pulp must be covered with clean material to protect the composition from flies. All this is placed for about 3 days in a dark place, where constant temperature is 25 degrees. After 15-20 hours, the juice starts the fermentation processes, and a cap of collected skin immediately appears on the surface. It needs to be beaten a couple of times a day, constantly stirring the pulp with your hand or a stick. If this process is not carried out, the composition can turn sour quite quickly.
The process of preparing and extracting juice
After about three or four days, the pulp becomes an order of magnitude lighter, a slightly sour smell appears, and a slight hiss is heard. All this suggests that fermentation has started successfully, which means that it is time to squeeze out all the resulting juice.
The topmost layer, which consists of the peel, must be collected in a separate container and carefully squeezed with a special press or by hand. The entire volume of juice that drains from the sediment, as well as the mixture that is pressed from the pulp, must be filtered through previously prepared gauze. You need to pour from one container to another two or three times. Such transfusion not only effectively removes small particles, but also saturates the juice with oxygen beneficial to the wine. All this ensures the normal functioning of wine yeast, and at the very initial stage.
When working with unripe fruits or fruits growing in northern latitudes, it is often necessary to add water. The amount of water is in the proportion of 100 ml per liter, no more, as a large amount of water will spoil the overall quality of the wine. It's much better to leave some increased acidity wine, since during normal fermentation the total concentration of acids decreases slightly.
The resulting pure juice is used to fill containers intended for fermentation. Filling is carried out to a maximum of 70% of the total volume. For this purpose, it is better to use bottles made of glass, and jars are also suitable if the volume of the bottles is insufficient.
Water simple shutter
To prevent homemade wine from becoming sour, it must be protected from constant contact with air. This ensures the release of a by-product from fermentation, that is, carbon dioxide. This process can be carried out by installing a structure called a water seal on a special container with juice. A classic water seal made of a tube, a jar and a lid is ideal. A simple medical glove with a hole made in one finger has proven itself relatively well.
The design features of the water seal are not particularly important, but if convenience is achieved, it is better to put a regular classic water seal on the bottles used, and put a seal or glove on the containers themselves.
Active initial fermentation
Immediately after installing the water seal, all used containers in which the juice has already fermented will need to be provided with the most comfortable temperature conditions. The optimal temperature regime for homemade red grape wine in this case is the range from 22 to 29 degrees. For white, a mode up to 22 degrees is suitable. It is strictly forbidden to allow the temperature to drop below 15 degrees. If this is allowed, the fermentation of the yeast will stop, that is, the sugar will not be converted into alcohol.
Sugar addition process
There are several features and patterns regarding how sugar should be added. It is worth highlighting the following requirements:
- 2% sugar in grape juice gives approximately 1% alcohol in the finished wine drink.
- In almost all regions of the country, the total sugar content of grapes much less often exceeds 20%. Without added sugar, the wine can turn out with zero sweetness, but with 10% strength.
- On the other hand, the maximum possible strength of home-made wine is approximately 14%, usually 12%. If this alcohol concentration is exceeded, the yeast will immediately stop working.
It is impossible to determine the initial sugar content of grapes under normal home conditions without the use of a special device. It is called a hydrometer. Many people believe that it is possible to rely on numerous average values for varieties, but this is also ineffective, since it will be necessary to obtain data on the level of sugar content of the selected variety in a particular climatic zone. In areas that are not wine-growing areas, no one usually makes such complex calculations; for this reason, one has to rely on taste characteristics guilt. It should be sweet, but not too much.
In order to maintain an optimal level of fermentation throughout the preparation of wine, the total sugar content of such must should not be more than 20%. To ensure this important condition, sugar is added in parts, that is, fractionally. After fermentation begins, the wine should be tasted. As soon as the taste of the wine becomes sour, as soon as the sugar has been processed, you will need to add sugar in the amount of 50 grams per liter of juice formed. For this purpose, approximately two liters of wort are poured into a separate container, and sugar is diluted in it. Only after this the resulting syrup is poured back into the bottle or barrel.
A similar procedure is repeated approximately three times and must be carried out in the very first 14-21 days of fermentation. As soon as the overall sugar content decreases very slowly, this will be proof that there is enough sugar.
Directly dependent on the general temperature regime Depending on the amount of sugar and overall yeast activity, the fermentation time for homemade wine is approximately 50 days.
Important! If fermentation does not stop even after 50 days after installing the water seal, in order to avoid the appearance of a bitter taste, it is worth pouring the wine into another container so that there is no sediment. The grape juice is also placed under a water seal and fermented under the same conditions.
Wine maturation
The time during which the final taste is formed lasts approximately 60-360 days. Longer aging of homemade grape wine is not advisable, since it does not improve the basic properties of the drink.
The container with wine, preferably filled to the very top, is again placed under the water seal or very tightly closed with a lid. Wine should be stored in a dark place. This can be a basement or cellar, where the temperature is usually maintained from 5 to 12 degrees. In the absence of such premises, young wine It will be necessary to ensure a ripening temperature of approximately 20 degrees, but no more.
As for aging wine, red grape wine should be aged for 60-90 days, white - 40. If during aging a sediment of 2-3 cm appears at the bottom, you will need to pour the drink into another container using a special wine straw. Similar steps must be carried out until the precipitate ceases to form. As a result, homemade grape wine will gradually lighten.
Stages of wine bottling and pasteurization
After aging, the wine is bottled, leaving about 3 cm free at the top. In order for the product to be stored at home for a long time, it will need to be pasteurized. This procedure is carried out at a temperature of 70 degrees in a regular water bath. Then all containers are sealed with corks and, to ensure maximum reliability and safety of the wine, they are filled with wax.
The amazing taste of homemade nectar...
Good wine is always a decoration festive table. A ruby or golden noble drink, with a rich and refined aroma, sweet or semi-sweet, dessert - it is always appropriate. In addition to the fact that drinking homemade wine is pleasant, many of the types are even beneficial for the body in small doses: it is not for nothing that the Apostle Paul advised one of his brothers to drink wine to heal the stomach.
Unfortunately, many store-bought wines suffer from quality issues - the naturalness of the drink is also questionable, and adding alcohol to it is also not a reason for delight. Therefore, families often cook. This is usually the prerogative of men, but women often make amazing tasting wines. Preparing wine material
Let's start with the standard one. To make excellent wine, you need to purchase ripe and high-quality grapes. It is better to do this at a market where they sell homemade products - this way you will know for sure that the berries have not been treated with chemicals.
Wash the berries (not very carefully, so as not to wash away the wild yeast from the skin), pick them from the bunches, put them in an enamel pan or other container and press well until a significant amount of juice is formed. Leave in a warm room at 20-25 0C for fermentation. After approximately 2 weeks (the period ranges from a week to 15 days), the wort will be ready. This can be felt by the characteristic alcohol smell. Now is the time to drain the juice and add sugar (depending on how sweet and strong you want the final drink to be). Usually this is at least 100 g per liter of fermented juice. Maximum quantity - 250-300 g.
Then we pour the fermented juice into special bottles, filling the vessels approximately 2/3 full. This is necessary so that there is space for gases that form foam during fermentation. We install a water seal - insert a flexible tube into the juice, close the neck tightly and cover it with dough, and lower the tube into a bottle of water. This will keep oxygen out of the juice, preventing the juice from oxidizing. If you don’t have such a bottle, you can get by with ordinary 3-liter jars, closing them with special lids for wine - the lid also has a tight closure, a cap that is slightly removable and space for water.
Monitoring the fermentation
We place the bottles in a warm and dark place (it is necessary that the wort is not exposed to sunlight) and forget about it for 2-3 months. We monitor the fermentation - at first it will be very intense, this will be visible in a bottle of water - gas bubbles will constantly be released through the water barrier. After a month, the active fermentation phase will end and bubbles will not be released as often. After 2-3 months, we can assume that the alcohol concentration has increased and the wine can be drained.
Carefully pour the wine into a saucepan, add sugar from 100 to 400 g per 1 liter (you can add honey right now, it will add a special aroma to the wine). When draining the wine, a suspension resulting from fermentation will remain at the bottom - approximately 1/4-1/5 of the original volume of juice. It cannot be used due to hazardous substances. When draining, make sure that it does not get into the finished wine.
After adding sugar, pour the wine into a thoroughly washed container, put the water seal back on and leave it in a cool place for 2-4 months to complete the final fermentation. As soon as you notice that the air bubbles have stopped releasing, that’s it, the wine is ready. We pour the wine into bottles or jars, leaving sediment at the bottom, seal them, and then send them to a cold place - to the cellar or to the balcony.
Nuances of home technology
From the remains of the pulp when the juice is drained for the first time, you can also make a second-class wine. To do this, fill the pulp with water, add a little sugar and leave for the same period - 5-10 days. Further operations are similar to preparing regular wine. Sometimes, if the juice is very rich in aroma and sugars, before the first fermentation you can pour a little water into it - up to 20-30% of the volume. Of course, the taste will change a little and will not be as concentrated.
To prevent the drained wine from having sediment, you should get a transparent polyethylene tube and pour it by placing the vessel on a raised platform (table or chair). In this way, you can control the depth of the incoming wine. The amount of sugar added to wine varies. In liqueur wines put 200-250 g per 1 liter, in dessert wines it is enough to add 100-150 g.
When pouring wine into bottles, leave a 3-finger gap between the neck and the liquid. If you plan to store wine in a residential area room temperature, pasteurize the wine at a temperature of 68 0C for 15 minutes to half an hour.
You can add a little alcohol to the wine, directly into the finished product. Such wines are called fortified due to the increase in alcohol content. But they are less tasty than regular ones made from pure juice.
Fruit and berry wines
Wines are made from various fruits and berries, which include apples (see). For this it is better to take apples different varieties, since summer ones have a lower concentration of tannins and organic acids. Usually they mix summer and autumn varieties in a ratio of 1:3. When preparing apple wine, apples are passed through a vegetable cutter or shredder and this mass is left to ferment. After fermentation, the juice is pressed.
Unusual thick and tart wines are obtained from mountain ash. Especially good for this chokeberry. If wild rowan is used for production, the fruits must be collected after frost in order to reduce the bitterness in the drink.
Blackcurrant juice produces amazing wines (see). It is used to make liqueur, dessert, dry and semi-dry wines. To slightly soften the taste of the wine, blending is carried out with red or white currant juice. Red currants do not have the same aroma, so it is better to mix them with cherry, raspberry or blackcurrant juice.
Raspberries are great for making excellent liqueur and dessert wines, but they should not be used for making dry ones. Strawberry wines are also very good, but to make them you should take only bright berries, with a pronounced aroma and taste. It also makes good wine. In order for the bouquet of wine to be rich, ripe berries of hairy varieties should be selected.
Usually fall into the categories of dessert, dry and semi-dry wines. When extracting juice from berries, you should not crush the seeds due to the hydrocyanic acid they contain. Plum wine should be prepared from Hungarian wines. Before pressing, they are steamed until the surface is covered with small cracks in the skin.
Bright orange dessert wines are prepared. They have a delicate taste and exquisite aroma. Similar wines are also made from cranberries. The peculiarity of the berry is that it should be collected after the snow falls, since then the concentration of sugar in it will increase and the concentration of acids will decrease.
With a little effort, you can already put a bottle of aromatic homemade wine on the New Year's table, because everything ingenious is simple and there is nothing complicated about it either! You just need time, patience and imagination.
By the way, one of best snacks cheese is considered for wine, and most can be served with a variety of wines, both fruit and berry.
