Apple wine at home

Wine made from apples is not as popular as grape or berry wine, but the taste of this drink is universal and is enjoyed by almost everyone. The wine is not very strong (about 10%), transparent, with a beautiful amber hue and a pronounced smell of ripe fruits. There are many recipes for making this light wine: from fortified and table varieties, to liquor and cider, and there is also wine from apple jam and blends from apples of various varieties or with the addition of other fruits, berries and spices.

This article will be devoted to how to make wine from apples at home. Here you can still find a step-by-step recipe for making such a drink with a photo and get acquainted with the detailed technology for making apple wine at home.

What is the difference between making wine from apples and other types of winemaking

Making apple wine at home is not difficult at all, it is quite possible even for those who have never been involved in winemaking. The biggest difficulty in the whole process lies in the extraction of apple juice, because apples are very reluctant to give up their liquid.

It is more convenient and faster to use a juicer, and if there is no such device in the house, you will first have to process the apples into puree, and only then squeeze the juice out of it. You can grind apples with a grater or a meat grinder, and you will have to squeeze the puree through gauze (which is very long and laborious) or use a special press for this purpose.

On the peel of apples, as well as on other fruits and berries for wine, there are wine yeast. Therefore, before making homemade wine, apples are not washed, but only slightly cleaned of dust and earth (if the crop was harvested under a tree). You can gently peel the apples with a soft brush or wipe with a dry cloth. In order for apple wine to ferment well, you should not harvest immediately after rain – let it take 2-3 days.

Apples of absolutely any variety are suitable for making wine: dry wines are made from sour fruits, sweet apples are suitable for dessert drinks and liquor, tart winter varieties will give the drink a special piquancy and help to make an unusual bouquet.

Apple wine at home: technology

So, in order to make wine from apples at home according to the simplest recipe, you must follow the technology. Any deviation from the recipe can be very expensive: in the worst case, the whole wine will turn into an unpleasant-smelling vinegar. For the first experience, it is recommended to choose the simplest recipe for apple wine, which involves the use of only three components: ripe fruits, water and sugar.

When making any wine, the winemaker must remember how important sterility is in this matter. Therefore, all containers, spoons, spatulas and other equipment must be sterilized, and before that they are washed with baking soda.

In winemaking, you can not use metal utensils, it can only be plastic, glass or enameled containers. Optimally, choose large containers (10-20 liters), in the worst case, three-liter jars or plastic bottles from drinking water are suitable for wine.

Peeled apples are recommended to be cut into several parts (for convenience) and remove seeds from them, which will give the wine unnecessary bitterness.

How to make apple wine (with photos and explanations for each step)

The technological process of making wine from apples consists of the same steps as in the case of grapes or other fruits and berries:

1. Squeezing juice from apples. The methods of chopping apples have already been mentioned above. It is worth noting that the task of the winemaker at this stage is to get at least a semi-liquid puree, ideally, it should be pure apple juice.

   

2. Juice withdrawal. The resulting semi-liquid mass or juice must be put in a saucepan or enameled bucket, a plastic basin and covered with several layers of gauze. In this form, apples should be kept for 2-3 days at a temperature of about 22-25 degrees, in addition they need to be protected from sunlight. During this period, the puree should separate into two components: the pulp, consisting of the peel and large fractions of apples, will be on top, and pure apple juice will settle below. It is in the pulp that wine fungi are located, so the task of the winemaker is to mix the apple mass these days, lowering the pulp to the bottom. This should be done every 6-8 hours so that the wine does not turn sour. By the end of the third day, a dense layer of pulp should form on the surface of the wine, the wine itself will begin to ferment, emitting a hiss and a sour smell.

   

3. Adding sugar to wine. Initially, apples contain a certain amount of sugars, their percentage depends on the type of fruit and the time of harvest. Therefore, the winemaker must taste the must: if it is quite sweet, add quite a bit of sugar. Excess sugar in wine (more than 20%) will stop the fermentation process. It is best to add sugar to wine in parts, starting from the day when the pulp is separated and the wine is poured into the bottle for fermentation. 100-150 g of sugar for each liter is simply poured into the wort and stirred thoroughly. After 4-5 days, you can add a second, half as much, portion of sugar, after another week, pour the last part into the wine. They do it this way: pour an amount of wine into a clean container, which is half as much as the volume of sugar (for example, a glass of wine per 0,5 kg of sugar), add sugar and stir, then pour the syrup into a bottle of wine. It is necessary to control the level of sugar in wine from apples throughout the entire fermentation process.

   

4. Wort fermentation. In order for the wine to ferment well, in addition to yeast and a sufficient percentage of sugar, it needs complete tightness. During fermentation, carbon dioxide is actively released, it must be removed from the bottle in a timely manner, but oxygen from the air, on the contrary, should not get into the wine. A simple device – a water seal – perfectly copes with this task. This can be a special cap bought in a store, a medical glove with a hole, or a flexible tube, the edge of which is lowered into a container of water. The bottle is filled with wine no more than 75%, so that there is room for foam and gas, which are necessarily released during the fermentation of apples. Now the bottle needs to be placed in a warm and dark place, with a constant temperature of 20-27 degrees – fermentation will begin in a couple of hours. This process will last from 30 to 60 days, you can find out about the end of the fermentation of wine by a deflated glove or the absence of bubbles in the water seal.

   

5. The maturation of young wine. Fermented apple wine, in principle, is already drinkable, but it has a pungent smell and not a very pleasant taste. All this can be improved in the process of maturing homemade wine from apples. At this stage of preparation, the wine is drained from the sediment, using a plastic straw, into a new clean container. Now you need to try apple wine and, if necessary, sweeten or fix with vodka or alcohol. The bottle is filled to the top with wine and taken to a cellar or other cool place where it will mature for 3-6 months. Every 12-20 days you need to inspect the wine from apples, if a precipitate appears, the drink is poured into a new container. Drain apple wine from the sediment until it clears.

   

It remains to pour the finished wine from apples into bottles, and send it to storage in a cool and dark place. Bottles should be filled to the top to minimize the contact of wine with oxygen.

To make apple wine at home, according to this simple recipe, you need to take about 20 kg of ripe apples and 150 to 300 g of sugar for every liter of juice obtained.

How to make apple cider (with photo)

Cider is called sparkling, very light wine made from apples. The strength of such a drink is usually 5-7%, the taste of the wine is very pleasant, reminiscent of sweet soda.

You will need the following ingredients:

• 8 kg of apples;
• 12 L of water;
• 3200 d Sahara.

How to prepare wine:

1. Harvested apples must be cut into 4-6 parts (depending on the size of the fruit) and the core removed from them. To make the process go faster, you can use a special device – an apple cutter.
2. Sliced ​​apple slices are put in a bag made of dense natural fabric or simply wrapped in a piece of suitable material. This bundle is placed on the bottom of the pan or basin, a lid or a wooden disk is placed on top, the size of which should be less than the diameter of the container itself. This entire structure must be pressed with a load weighing about 10 kg.
3. From 6 liters of water and 1600 grams of sugar you need to boil the syrup. When the syrup has cooled to room temperature, they are poured over the apples laid under the press. The tissue of the pouch must be completely immersed in the liquid.
4. For five weeks, the container with apples must be kept in a dark and cool room (no more than 18-20 degrees). After this time, the liquid from the pan must be drained using a flexible tube (for example, from a medical dropper). Place the wine in a clean bottle, add syrup to it, boiled in the same proportions as the first time.

   

5. A pot with apple slices is kept in the same room for another five weeks. After this time, the second portion of wine is poured. This wine is mixed with the previous one and sent to the cellar for aging.
6. After six months, you need to drain the apple wine from the sediment and pour it into sterile bottles. The cider is stored in the cold for another month, after which it can be drunk.

How to make wine from jam at home (with photo)

Every housewife has a jar of old jam in the basement, which no one eats, since a new one has long been cooked. Such jam or jam can be an excellent basis for making homemade wine.

So, For delicious homemade wine you will need:

• liter jar of apple jam;
• litere of water;
• 100 g unwashed raisins;
• 10-100 g of sugar for every liter of must (sugar is only added if the jam is not sweet enough).

Making wine from jam is very simple:

1. Prepare a three-liter bottle by cleaning it with soda, and then washing it with boiled water. To consolidate the effect, you can sterilize the jar with steam or in another way.
2. Pour apple jam into a clean jar, pour water, put raisins, if necessary, add sugar. Mix all ingredients well.
3. Cover the bottle with gauze to protect against insects and put in a warm place (about 22-25 degrees). Here the apple jam should begin to ferment within the first 8-20 hours. And the bottle will stand warm for 5 days, during which the contents must be stirred every 8 hours.

   

4. On the sixth day, pulp is taken from the jar with a spoon (particles that have floated to the surface), and the juice is filtered through several layers of gauze. The filtered wine is poured into a clean bottle, filling it to 34 volumes. From above, the jar is closed with a glove or a special water seal.
5. Within 30-60 days, wine from apples will ferment. All this time it should be in a warm and dark place with a constant temperature. The end of fermentation is indicated by a deflated glove or the absence of air in the water seal. If by the fiftieth day the wine from apples is still fermenting, you need to drain it from the sediment so that bitterness does not appear.
6. When fermentation is completed, the wine from apples is poured into another vessel, trying not to touch the sediment. If needed, sugar and alcohol are added to make a fortified sweet wine.
7. They clean the wine in the cellar and monitor the sediment. When the sediment layer reaches several centimeters, the wine is poured. The procedure is repeated until the drink brightens and the precipitate stops falling out.

It remains to choose the right recipe for apple wine and make sure that home winemaking is a simple and very exciting process. The video will tell you in detail about all the stages of preparing this drink: