Alternative types of homemade wine. Technology for making wine at home. Cleaning wine from impurities

The amazing taste of homemade nectar...

Good wine is always a decoration for the holiday 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 the wine in a residential area at 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). To do this, it is better to take apples of different varieties, since summer ones have a lower concentration of tannins and organic acids. Usually summer and autumn varieties are mixed 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. Chokeberry is especially good for this. 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, cheese is considered one of the best snacks for wine, and it can be served with a wide variety of wines, both fruit and berry.

The emergence and development of home winemaking is rooted in the dark depths of centuries. Evidence of wine consumption has been found in many ancient monuments. One such evidence is the biblical parable of Noah and his sons, which describes how “Noah began to till the land and planted a vineyard,” and then drank the wine.

Images on the walls of the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs describe the history of winemaking - the process of growing and harvesting, and their jugs, just as they do today, are signed with the date of manufacture and the name of the owner. This suggests that the Egyptians owned the secrets of making a noble drink.

Wine was popular even in ancient human civilizations; it was used in many religious cults, being a symbol of blood. This symbolism is still preserved in the Orthodox Church today - consecrated bread is soaked in Cahors, which represents the body of Christ and His blood.

Secrets of winemaking: The oldest wine was discovered fossilized at the bottom of a vessel; according to scientists, this vessel was made in 5400-5000 BC.

In most states, wine was considered a drink of the upper class of the population, which was available only to the elite of society and priests. It has an exquisite taste, its properties vary depending on the method of cultivation, collection and production of wine. As is known from the history of winemaking, almost any grape variety is suitable for making wine at home, but it is better, nevertheless, to use special wine varieties, since the pulp of their fruits is juicy and accumulates the required amount of sugar.

Secrets and features of home wine making

Wine is formed through fermentation. This process occurs due to the reaction of sugar and yeast in the drink. Yeasts are small bodies that are capable of rapid reproduction. These substances accumulate on the surface of grape fruits, which is why the berries are not washed before preparing wine at home, but only wiped. Sugar is contained inside the berries and is added proportionally in the right amount.

To make wine, houses wait until the grapes are fully ripened, when they gain maximum sweetness and contain less acid, but there are certain winemaking secrets. In the southern zones, the saturation of grapes with sugar is high, and if the fruits are ripe, the resulting mixture turns out to be a strong drink; it is impossible to make a light table wine, so the harvest
going unripe.

Raw materials for winemaking

The quality of the wine obtained by making it yourself at home directly depends on the time of harvesting the fruits. It is not recommended to cut the crop in the early morning hours, since the dew has not yet had time to evaporate. Also, harvesting should not be carried out immediately after rain - streams of water wash away the yeast. It was noted that harvests harvested in the first half of the day retain more aroma and transfer it to the drink.

The brushes are cut off with ordinary garden shears, placed in a convenient container and transferred to a room for further processing.

Equipment for making homemade wine

The most important thing in winemaking technology is the determination of sugar and acid content in raw materials. In order to find out the percentage ratio, hydrometers-sugar meters are used. The acid content is determined using a chemical reaction. When alkalis are added, acids form a middle salt, and this allows the amount of acids to be calculated. But such weapons are not always included in the winemaker’s kit when making a drink at home.

For garage winemaking, you need a container - a wooden barrel or any other wooden container. There should be no rotten staves on the surface of the winemaking barrel. Further, depending on the purpose of the wine, the ridges, which contain a lot of tannins, are almost completely removed if the wine is used young. They give the wine a darker color and better preservation, but
This can make the taste of the young drink rough.

Crusher mills are a tool from a winemaker’s set that grinds grape berries and crushes them so that each berry can release its juice.

In winemaking technology, grids or graters are used to separate grape stems.

If you don’t have enough specialized accessories or utensils to make wine at home, you can find them not only in a specialized store, which are relatively few in areas where the craft of winemaking is undeveloped. Accessories and utensils are offered in online stores for winemakers with delivery by mail or courier to the desired address. In the range of online services, the products presented include a wide selection of accessories, which allows you to find equipment with the required parameters and make high-quality wine at home, assembling your own winemaker’s kit.

Home winemaking technologies

By type, homemade wine can be dessert, table, sparkling or effervescent, strong. Blending is also very popular - a mixture of fruits and berries for making a wine drink at home according to various recipes.

To make wine, the cut and unwashed grape harvest must be turned into must. To do this, be sure to start by separating the ridges of the grapes. As mentioned earlier in the article, ridges impart a rough flavor to young wine. The berries are then crushed using a wine crusher. It is important to ensure that all the berries are crushed. Grapes for red wine do not immediately go to the press, but are infused for greater color saturation, since a significant part of the coloring pigments is contained in the skin of the grapes.

Grape varieties for white wine recipes are pressed almost immediately. The first part of the liquid, which separates itself as it drains, contains the most sugar. Then the wine is pressed in three stages, a greater number of press presses for making table wine at home is not usually practiced. Gravity flow is combined with the first extraction, everything else goes into the second-grade drink.

The wort turns out to be cloudy and slippery due to the pulp and dust contained on the surface of the berries, so it may take time to clarify the liquid. To do this, it is infused at home for 1 to 3 days in a wooden barrel.

At the bottom of the barrel, a sediment of pulp tissue and particles of small debris forms, which is then left, draining 5/6 of the liquid.

If the grapes have less sweetness than needed, then according to the recipe, sugar is added at the beginning of fermentation of the wort. Depending on the grape variety, the sugar and acid content in it is determined; using this data, proven formulas are used to calculate the proportions of the missing sugar to obtain the required strength of the finished liquid.

A proven recipe for garage winemaking. There are many interesting ways to prepare dry white wine at home; the proposed method belongs to the classics of winemaking. The wort is prepared at home traditionally, then to prevent it from fermenting during the settling period, it is treated with sulfur wicks. The wort prepared for fermentation is poured into a barrel (cylinder) to three-quarters of the capacity. Fermentation is carried out at a temperature of 18-24 degrees. At low temperatures, yeast stops working. Due to elevated temperatures, they can lose their properties completely, so it is important to monitor the fermentation temperature of the mixture at home. The fermentation process takes about a week and produces a lot of foam.

After this, a drink of the same type is added to the bottle. Then there is a weak fermentation for 3-4 weeks, upon completion, taste the mixture for sugar, if it is not felt, then you can change the fermentation tongue to
an ordinary lid. If you can smell the sugar, it is dangerous to clog the container - it may burst. After fermentation is complete, the drink is left to “rest” at home for a couple of weeks, then removed from the sediment and transferred to storage; the desired temperature is less than fifteen degrees; ventilated basement cellars are well suited. Over months of storage, the liquid is transformed, rarely when the taste of a fresh drink is acceptable, it is often sour or bitter, despite the chosen recipe. As it infuses, the wine reveals its taste, gains its best properties and turns into an exquisite, sophisticated drink.

See also:

So, to realize oneself as a home winemaker, the entire arsenal at hand has been prepared, the room in which sacred ceremonies with the future drink will take place has been chosen, and there is an understanding, albeit superficial for now, of how fruit and berry juice turns into wine. It's time to watch on wine making technology, which in general terms is the same for any raw material, and certain nuances inherent in wines from specifically selected raw materials in no way violate the integrity of the main principles, requirements and rules of winemaking, which is what I wrote about.

Preparing berries and fruits

Let's start, of course, with the direct handling of raw materials for wine - the berries or fruits with which we have to work. Already at this stage, inexperienced winemakers make serious mistakes that can waste all subsequent work. These errors include, for example, the collection of unripe or overripe raw materials, or the presence of both in the total mass of the harvest collected for wine. It happens that the selected raw materials contain rotten, bruised or stale berries - that is, something on which acetic bacteria have already fully developed (with the help of heat and air), capable of killing the wine even at the stage of its birth.

Unripe berries and fruits are much less evil than overripe and stale ones, but they contain catastrophically little sugar for full fermentation, while the aggressiveness of the acid is off the charts. These parameters are quite difficult to adjust manually; as a result, the wine, as a rule, turns out weak, unstable to disease and tasteless. Hence the conclusion: berries and fruits for future wine must be collected well-ripened, without signs of any spoilage, and used as quickly as possible, carefully sorting them out and removing debris. Winemakers in very rare cases resort to washing the harvest intended for wine. After all, some of the wine yeast, sometimes a significant one, is washed off with water. And if they wash it, then only heavily contaminated raw materials, being careful not to abuse the duration of water procedures.

Crushing and fermenting raw materials

The next stage, when the raw materials are selected, is the extraction of juice from berries and fruits, the basis of the future wine. It would seem that with the presence of productive juicers in many farms, the problem of efficient juice extraction is a thing of the past. However, pure fruit and berry juice is fermented reluctantly due to noticeable losses of “yeast material” remaining in the cake. In addition, extractive and other substances, important components of the taste and aroma of wine, are retained in the cake. Therefore, if you use a juicer, it is advisable to combine the juice with the cake so that fermentation is complete. But it is better to follow the proven method in winemaking - crushing the raw materials. For example, using an electric meat grinder, or, if we are talking about “soft berries” like raspberries or strawberries, manually. A mixture of juice with fruit and berry pulp or husk, called pulp in winemaking, is actually put into fermentation, at the very beginning of which the so-called fermentation occurs, gradually separating the pulp from the juice. After a few days, during which the wort should be stirred from time to time to prevent mold from appearing, the pulp pushed out by the gases is removed and squeezed out in any suitable way, then combining the squeezed juice with the main one.

Wine fermentation and filtration

The juice freed from the pulp, in which wine yeast is already developing with might and main, actually marks the next stage of winemaking - rapid (or main) fermentation, during which the future wine gains the main, let's say, alcoholic turnover. The duration of this stage can vary - from several days to several months. This depends on the raw materials, the conditions for fermentation mentioned above, on the viability and quality of the yeast and, of course, on the goals of the winemaker himself, if, for example, he decided to make a stronger wine than table wine.

In any case, the winemaker’s task at this stage is to feed the yeast with small portions of sugar and, if necessary, nitrogenous substances such as ammonia. In addition, from time to time you should mix the lower layers of the future wine with the upper ones so that the yeast breathes fully and, therefore, continues to develop. At this same stage of fermentation, it is useful to periodically aerate the wort (about the procedure itself in the next chapter), as well as take a sample from the future wine, assessing how effectively the sugar is fermented. With proper fermentation of the wort, sour rather than sweet tones should prevail in its taste, which indicates optimal processing of sugar into alcohol. Otherwise, the yeast should be helped in this processing by more actively aerating the wort and no longer resorting to sugar feeding.

Typically, no later than two weeks after fermenting the sugar, winemakers carry out the first filtration of the wine to remove sediment that accumulates in the lower layers of the drink. The wine enters the stage of quiet (or bottom) fermentation, when the release of gases becomes less noticeable or disappears completely. At this stage, when sediment continues to fall and the wine is already becoming transparent, the winemaker’s main concern is constant filtering of the drink at 10-12 day intervals and aeration - at least once a month.

Filtration, or, in winemaking terms, removing wine from sediment, differs in execution from what we call straining. The more the wine clarifies, that is, becomes transparent, the smaller the sediment particles, sometimes taking on the appearance of a light suspension. Straining the drink even through dense filters gives little benefit, not to mention the unnecessary and harmful duration of the procedure itself. Therefore, winemakers act differently - they pour the wine using a thin hose into another container, trying not to pick up sediment. Time after time, as the drink becomes clearer, which is greatly facilitated by aeration, this filtration method reduces sediment, reducing it to nothing. The complete absence of sediment, even in the form of a light coating, and the complete transparency of the drink itself - this, in fact, is the birth of a young wine, quite suitable for a feast, but still far from maturity, established taste and aroma.

Making wine at home, of course, differs from making this drink on an industrial scale. When making wine at home, no dyes or preservatives are used, which means that such drinks are less safe and, undoubtedly, more tasty. After all, every housewife has the right to use proportions that are optimal specifically for her “signature” wine. However, the general principles of the technological process are observed in both cases. How to make wine at home is described on this page.

Making homemade wine from juice

The raw material for producing wine at home is the juice that is squeezed from the pulp and skin of the fruit. The pulp provides the bulk of the juice, and the skin enriches it with coloring, tanning, and aromatic substances. On average, from 1 kg of fruit you can get from 500 to 700 ml of natural juice.

How to make wine from juice at home, and what stages does this process consist of? The fruits or the juice obtained from them begin to actively ferment, and the sugar they contain is transformed into alcohol and by-products that promote fermentation.

But since the juices of most fruits and berries contain more acids than sugar, the wine from them will turn out to be too sour and tasteless if you do not resort to the help of various additives.

There are many home winemaking methods that allow you to give your wine the desired condition.

You can reduce the acidity of wine from juice at home by diluting it with water.

You can mix several types of juices with different acidities.

You can simply reduce the acidity if you add honey or regular sugar to it when making wine at home.

As for sugar, it is perhaps one of the main components of fruit wine, because it is thanks to it that the wine can be stored for a long time.

Using technology, you can add sugar syrup prepared in a standard way to homemade wine.

Making sugar syrup for wine from juice at home

Before you make homemade wine, you need to prepare sugar syrup. For 1 liter of sugar syrup: 420 ml of water, 1 kg of sugar.

Heat the water to 70-80 °C, then gradually add sugar with continuous stirring. When the sugar is completely dissolved, you need to bring the syrup to a boil and cook for about 10 minutes, skimming the foam from time to time. Cool the finished syrup.

Keep in mind that homemade wine juice syrup you make ahead of time may begin to crystallize or the sugar will settle to the bottom of the container. In this case, according to home winemaking technology, the syrup needs to be slightly warmed up again.

Experienced winemakers add a little citric acid (less than 1 g per 1 kg of sugar) to the syrup to avoid crystallization.

The amount of sugar added to juice when preparing homemade wine determines the strength of the future drink. According to rough estimates, the fermentation of 1 kg of sugar produces 500-600 ml of alcohol. Therefore, in advance you need to correlate the amount of sugar taken with the desired amount of alcohol that you would like to get in your product. It should be noted that the technology for making wine at home does not require special accuracy; you can limit yourself to an approximate measurement of the density of the liquid medium (the more sugar in the juice, the higher its density).

Experienced winemakers use a special device to determine sugar levels - a saccharimeter. It is easy to use: pour juice into a three-liter jar almost to the level of the neck, wait for the foam to settle, and immerse the device, which has previously been cleanly washed and wiped dry, into it. It should float freely in the juice without touching the walls of the jar. After some time, the saccharimeter will show the percentage of sugar in the juice.

But here you need to take into account the fact that, in addition to sugar, juice also contains up to 4% of other insoluble substances, therefore, in order to get an accurate indicator of the sugar content in juice, you need to subtract 4 units from the initial reading of the saccharimeter. This will be the reliable value.

Acidity of wines when produced at home

One of the important indicators of wine quality is acidity. According to wine making technology, this indicator must be calculated at the stage of juice fermentation: more acidic juice ferments more actively, thereby reducing the risk of mold or harmful bacteria forming in the wine.

But too acidic raw materials (berries and fruits) can lead to the suppression of yeast growth.

The average normal acidity according to wine preparation technology ranges from 6 to 10%.

In industrial winemaking, special ultra-precise instruments are used to determine the acidity of juice, but at home it is quite enough to remember the acidity indicators of the most common berries and fruits: gooseberries (1.9%); raspberries (1.5-1.6%); black currant (3%); red currant (2.4%); lingonberries (2%); blueberries (0.9%); blackberries (0.8%); apples (0.7%); plums and strawberries (1%); cherries and apricots (1.3%); peaches (0.8%); pear (0.4%).

Black and red currant juices are considered the most sour. To reduce their acidity, boiled water cooled to room temperature is usually used.

How to make wine from juice at home with yeast

Yeast is used to stimulate fermentation in the juice. They multiply quickly if they are not in a too concentrated sugar solution with a small alcohol content, which is known to inhibit the growth of yeast.

Wine yeast fungi are “noble”, that is, specifically cultivated, contributing to the production of alcohol, clarification of juice and wine, and subsequently giving it a certain taste, strength and aroma.

There are “wild” fungi that live on the surface of fruits and berries along with other microorganisms. They cause strong fermentation in the wine, but die very quickly, which is why the finished drink will be quite light, slightly cloudy and without a bright taste and aroma.

How to make wine from juice at home: yeast starter

9 steps to making yeast starter at home
5-7 days before you plan to squeeze fruit and berry juice, you can start making yeast starter.

Step 1. You need to squeeze 200 ml of fresh natural juice from selected fruits or berries.

Step 2. Add 15 g of sugar and one pinch (0.1 g) of ammonium phosphate to the juice.

Step 3. Stir the juice and boil for 10-15 minutes with the lid closed.

Step 4. Cool to room temperature (20-24 °C).

Step 5. Pour “noble” yeast whey into a clean container, pour in the prepared juice, filling the container to three-quarters of the volume, and close the neck with a cotton wool stopper.

Step 6. Place the container in a warm place for 24 hours.

Step 7 When the whey and juice foams strongly, pour it into a clean liter bottle.

Step 8 Separately, boil 600 ml of juice, add 60 g of sugar and a pinch of ammonium phosphate, cool to a temperature of 25 C.

Step 9 Pour the prepared juice into a bottle with foamed whey, seal with cotton wool and let stand in a warm place for 1-2 days. When its contents begin to foam, the starter is ready.

How to make wine at home: preparing raw materials

Before making wine at home, you need to prepare the raw materials: fruits and berries must be carefully sorted, leaves, cuttings and twigs removed, spoiled areas cut out from the fruit, then washed thoroughly under running water and slightly dried.

When preparing raw materials for stone fruits (cherries, apricots, peaches), you need to remove the pit, and for apples, quinces and pears, cut out the core and carefully remove all seeds.

To make the process of squeezing juice easier, the fruits need to be chopped using a meat grinder.

Before you make wine from juice at home, make sure you have the right utensils. When chopping fruits, you cannot use metal utensils. The exception is stainless steel containers.

How to make wine at home: preparing pulp

There are several ways to prepare pulp (fruit mass) in order to obtain more juice.

Method 1. Add a little warm water to the pulp and let it ferment slightly.

Method 2. Freeze the pulp and let it thaw. After this treatment, squeeze the juice out of the pulp.

The juice from the pulp is directly obtained by pressing, using for this purpose either a manual screw or hydraulic press, or a juicer.

Many home winemakers re-squeeze the pulp to obtain more juice. For this purpose, the pulp is once again diluted with chilled boiled water, mixed, allowed to brew and the juice is squeezed out.

The next stage is clarification of the juice, since after pressing it contains many impurities. The juice is filtered through linen cloth. If necessary, this procedure is repeated twice.

How to make homemade wine: preparing the must

The next step in the process of making homemade wine is preparing the must. Wort is juice mixed with water added in such an amount that the acidity of the juice does not exceed 0.8%. At higher acidity, yeast activity decreases and the taste of the wine deteriorates.

Natural juices do not contain much sugar, which makes the formation of alcohol difficult. Therefore, you need to add sugar to the juice to bring its content to 150-250 g per 1 liter of wort, or in an amount that will correspond to the strength of the wine you want to get in the end.

Sugar is added to juice both in dry form and in the form of sugar syrup. Honey will add greater taste and aroma to wine if you add it instead of sugar.

Excess sugar reduces yeast activity and, accordingly, the fermentation process.

To get good, tasty and high-quality wine, you need to use special wine yeast. If it is not possible to obtain “noble” yeast, you can use ordinary bread yeast, as well as “wild” yeast, which fruits and berries themselves are rich in.

How to make wine at home: fermentation

One of the most important steps in the process of making wine at home is fermentation. Fermentation is best done in closed bottles, as this prevents the formation of vinegar.

Do not forget that during fermentation the wort increases in volume, so the containers should not be filled to the top.

The container in which the wine ferments must be closed with a special water seal or, as it is also called, a fermentation stopper.

The water seal consists of a lid or tight plug and a tube inserted into it. Another tube in the form of a hose is put on the tube, the end of which is lowered into a glass or bottle of boiled water. This seal provides a tight seal and protects the wort from the penetration of air and harmful microbes.

During the fermentation process, you need to carefully monitor the tightness of the water seal. If air gets into a bottle of wine, it will cause acetic fermentation, which will end up souring your product. The mood will be hopelessly spoiled, the product will end up in the trash, and you will be left with a feeling of annoyance in your soul that you did not follow all the rules of technology, and regret for wasting your time. In home winemaking, there is a simple but reliable way to achieve absolute tightness: you just need to lubricate the joint with alabaster.

Not all home winemakers have a water seal on their farm, but their wine is no worse in quality or taste. They cover the neck of the bottle with a cotton-gauze swab or simply tie it with gauze or linen cloth folded in 4-5 layers.

To make the fermentation process more active, you need to keep the container with wine in a darkened room or simply wrap the bottle in a dark, light-proof cloth.

In addition to light, the temperature of the room in which the container with wine is located plays an important role. The optimal temperature for fermenting wort is 22-25 ° C, but during fermentation it can increase.

After the temperature reaches 30° C, the alcohol begins to evaporate, which will negatively affect the taste of the wine - it will become bitter.

Therefore, you need to periodically measure the temperature of the room in which the container with wine is located, and if it increases, take emergency measures - either move the container to a cooler room, or wrap the bottles with a cloth soaked in cold water.

At the stage of active fermentation, you need to shake the wort from time to time and open the water seal for a few seconds so that the oxygen necessary to ensure the active functioning of the yeast enters the container.

After 8-10 days, vigorous fermentation will decrease and enter a slow fermentation phase, which will last 6-10 weeks, and in some cases a longer period.

An extremely important point in home winemaking is to correctly determine the end of the fermentation process. There are several signs indicating that the process is complete:

gas bubbles stop appearing in the water seal glass;
the wine becomes noticeably lighter, and a fairly thick layer of sediment accumulates at the bottom of the container;
The wine liquid acquires a pronounced sour taste with a slight bitterness.

To prevent fermented wine from acquiring an unpleasant taste, it must be quickly and carefully removed from the sediment.

The easiest way to do this is with a hose (siphon) - simply drain the wine, making sure that no sediment impurities get into the container. If sediment does get in, you will have to let the liquid settle and drain it again. And this is extra time and nerves. Therefore, it is better to be as careful as possible and do it the first time, constantly making sure that the end of the hose is 3 cm above the sediment layer.

Thrifty winemakers, at the end of this process, allow the sediment to settle again, after which they drain the clear liquid and add it to a common container.

Then the drained wine liquid is left in a cool, dark room for another 5-7 days, after which the draining procedure is repeated without sediment.

High-quality wine material should be transparent, practically without sugar. You can make dry or fortified wine from it.

Dry wine must be kept for at least 2 months in a cool place and, as sediment appears, carefully pour it into another container.

According to the technology for making homemade dessert wines, you need to add sugar to the wine material and carefully filter it.

The finished wine is bottled and carefully sealed.

A high-quality wine should be crystal clear: if it contains even a slight cloudiness, it is already considered a low-grade product.

Additional processing when making wine at home

Wine made from berries such as cherries, raspberries, currants, rowan, as a rule, turns out transparent and does not require additional processing.
Wine made from plums, apples and gooseberries most often need additional clarification.

What is additional processing? This includes treatment with heat, cold, clarification and filtration through special filters or filter paper. If necessary, the wine can be tinted, which is also considered additional processing.

Heat treatment- This is heating wine in water. To do this, the bottles are placed in a container with cold water and heated in a water bath to 50 ° C, after which they are removed from the heat and left in the water until completely cooled. The procedure is repeated several times until complete lightening. Then the wine is allowed to settle for a week, removed from the sediment and tightly sealed.

Cold treatment- this is cooling the wine to a temperature of 2-5 ° C. With this technology, the wine quickly clarifies, but it must be filtered immediately and very quickly, since an increase in temperature will again lead to the formation of a cloudy sediment.

Some winemakers clarify wine with milk, which is poured into a container (at the rate of 10 ml of milk per 1 liter of wine), stirred and allowed to stand for 3-5 days at room temperature. Then, as in the previous methods, the wine is removed from the sediment and filtered through thick cloth or filter paper.

After the clarification process, the wine does not always have a pleasant color. But this problem can be solved very simply.

Natural coloring ingredients will help give the drink a beautiful color.

To give the main wine a red color, mix it with a small amount of dark red wine made from blueberries, cherries or black currants.

The addition of black elderberry wine gives the main wine a very beautiful rich hue, but you need to pour it in carefully as it can change the taste of the drink.

To color wine, natural or sweetened blueberry juice is often used, mixed with alcohol to a strength of about 15%.

To color white wines, burnt or caramelized sugar is used - a thick brown mass with a bitter aftertaste and a good coloring effect. Depending on the amount of caramel, you can give the wine shades from golden yellow to dark brown.

Technology for making caramel for homemade wine

According to the technology for preparing homemade wine, to obtain caramel, you need to pour sugar into a small frying pan or saucepan and heat it until completely dissolved, stirring constantly with a spoon. Do not add water under any circumstances! The sugar will gradually darken and begin to boil.

Constantly stir the caramel mass with a spoon to avoid burning and sticking of the caramel to the walls of the dish. Caramel is considered ready when a drop immersed in cold water turns into a solid glassy mass.

As soon as you see that the caramel is ready, stop heating, then cool the mass a little and carefully, stirring it constantly, pour in a little water. From 100 g of sugar after adding water you should get 150 g of finished caramel.

Wine production and storage at home

The best containers for storing wine are standard wine bottles, pre-washed with baking soda and thoroughly rinsed with clean water. After this, the bottles and their corks should be boiled, and then cooled and dried.

Wine should be poured into bottles almost up to the neck, leaving a distance of 1.5 cm between the surface of the wine and the cork. Filled bottles are immediately sealed with corks, the top of which is cut off and filled with paraffin or wax.

Some home winemakers who prepare large quantities of wine pour them into ordinary glass jars for preservation and seal them with sterilized lids.

For better preservation, bottled wine can be pasteurized by heating in a water bath. Wine pasteurized in this way can be stored at a temperature of 10-12 ° C for quite a long time.

Wine bottles are traditionally stored in a horizontal position so that the cork on the inside is constantly wetted by the drink. But in a vertical position, the corks are prone to drying out, which means losing their tightness, which, in turn, will lead to the evaporation of alcohol and a noticeable deterioration in the quality of the wine.

Having received the initial information, you are convinced that the process of making homemade wine is quite simple, you just need to carefully follow a few important winemaking rules:

1. To comply with the technology for making homemade wine, use fruits and berries only of good quality, without signs of spoilage or damage.

2. Carefully ensure that air and light do not get into fruit juices and wines (oxygen will cause loss of aroma, and sunlight will change the color of the drink for the worse).

3. To process fruits and prepare juices, do not use metal utensils, especially those containing zinc.

4. Strictly monitor the cleanliness of all instruments, write down the date of preparation of the wort, the amount and type of juice, the amount of added water and sugar. In a word, keep wine records in a special notebook.

If you comply with all the basic requirements for making wine at home, you will expect a fantastic result in the form of an aromatic, velvety drink with a unique taste that will become your pride.

Even if you mix blue varieties, this will not reduce the taste of the wine, and in some cases it will add it. The most common grape drinks are prepared from the following: “Friendship”, “Crystal”, “Stepnyak”, “Platovsky”, “Festivalny”, “Saperavi”, “Rosinka”. All of the above contain a large amount of sugar in their berries, which makes the drink especially tasty.

Did you know?In 2000, at a wine auction, a 6-liter solar drink was sold for half a million dollars. It was a wine from the 1992 harvest, and it was purchased by American top manager Chase Bailey.

The most common “wine” varieties are: “Pinot Blanc” or “Pinot Noir”, “Aligote”, “Sauvignon”, “Merlot”, “Cabernet”.

Drinks made from fruits have a special taste. They are famous for their rich consistency and unique taste. But delicious wine can be made even from the most common wild blue.

Preparing the grapes

The raw materials for preparing the solar drink should be collect in September, and in the southern regions - in October. Harvesting is best done in clear and sunny weather; it is advisable that there are no cold and rainy days 2-3 days before harvesting the berries. After picking, you need to sort it out: discard all unripe, dry and green berries, remove excess leaves.

After picking the berries, they need to be placed in the sun for several hours. This will give the grapes a brighter aroma. It is not without reason that winemakers say that wine is a living product that senses any manipulation over it. But the collected bunches should not be stored for more than two days.

The resulting pulp and juice should be covered with a cloth and placed in a dark, warm place for 3-4 days. After some time, the pulp will float to the surface, making the juice easier to separate. And don’t forget to stir the container with the mixture at least twice a day, otherwise the juice may turn sour.

Getting Pure Juice

Did you know?The Palatinate Museum houses the world's oldest bottle of wine. It dates back to 325 AD.

Wine maturation

After all the above processes, the wine can be left to mature. Sunny drinks from white varieties should be aged for one and a half months, and from red varieties - two. Aging any of the wines for more than a year no need, this will not make any sense (such actions will not affect the organoleptic properties of the drink).

The young drink is best poured into glass containers that are not very large. You need to fill it with wine to the very brim so that there is no room for air in the container. It is best to seal containers with balsa wood plugs. The solar drink should be stored in a cool, dark place at a temperature of 5-20ºC.

Cleaning wine from impurities

You can clarify wine at home various methods. We will tell you in more detail about the main methods of purifying a solar drink:

Cleaning with gelatin. To clarify wine using this method, you need to take 10-15 g of gelatin per 100 liters of drink. Gelatin must be soaked in cool water for 24 hours, changing it three times during this time. Gelatin should be diluted in warm water and the resulting mixture should be added to the container with the drink. After 2-3 weeks, all excess substances will “stick” to the gelatin and precipitate. You just need to collect it, and the wine will become much lighter.
Heat treatment. All glass bottles of wine should be placed in an iron bowl or pan, filled with water to the very top of the bottles and placed on the fire to heat. In this case, the bottles must be tightly sealed so that the alcohol from the solar drink does not evaporate. Heat the water in the container to 50-60°. Repeat the procedure 2-3 times. After a few days, the wine will have sediment. It can be removed using the method we described above.
Activated carbon. Lightening using this method is used in extreme cases. For example, when wine has an unpleasant odor. You need to use not pharmaceutical charcoal, but . It is ground to a powder and added to the drink at the rate of 4-5 g of coal per 10 liters of liquid. For 3-4 days, the drink should be shaken regularly, and on the fifth day it should be cleaned with a special filter (for example, filter paper).
Cold to clarify the sun drink. The wine can be kept for some time in a cold place at temperatures of -5 ºС. Under such conditions, natural yeast and wort particles precipitate. Next, the wine is quickly filtered and returned to a warm place.
Lightening with milk. This method is universal and often used. For 1 liter of drink you need to add a teaspoon of low-fat. Leave the wine at a temperature of 18-22ºС. After 3-4 days the drink will become much lighter.

There are many more ways to clean wine from must and natural particles. But we described the most popular methods among the people above. By the way, many winemakers consider the method of heat treatment of the drink to be the most effective method.

Spilling and storage

Bottles for long-term storage of wine must be thoroughly washed and disinfected before bottling. You need to pour the drink almost up to the cork (you can leave 1-2 cm of free space). The corks must be new and clean, otherwise the drink may acquire an unpleasant odor and taste. If you are not going to store the drink for a long time, then you can seal it with regular beer caps.

Important!If you are going to store wine for a long time, then you can bury it in the ground. At the same time, sprinkle the hole with straw and sprinkle the bottles on top with sand.

The bottles need to be sealed with a special cork, so the container with the drink will be more airtight. Before corking, the corks must be steamed in hot water. After swelling, the corks can be driven into bottles using vitriol. Next, you should thoroughly wipe the neck of the bottle and fill it with sealing wax. This way the drink will retain its aroma and strength.
In order to know the bottling date and type of wine, it is advisable to stick labels on each bottle. Containers with solar drink should be stored horizontally. This way the drink will wash the corks, they will always be in a swollen state.

If you store bottles in a vertical position, the corks may dry out and the containers will lose their previous tightness. Wines should be stored at temperatures of 5-8ºС. Fortified wines are stored at a temperature of 8-10ºС. But if light sunny drinks are stored at such temperatures, they can ferment, so such varieties are stored at temperatures of 4-6ºС.

Was this article helpful?

Thank you for your opinion!

Write in the comments what questions you have not received an answer to, we will definitely respond!