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Home winemaking has always been considered some kind of special art, the sacraments of which can only be initiated into the elite or especially passionate lovers of alcoholic beverages. Meanwhile, from the many fruits and berries that grow in abundance in every garden plot, you can always make delicious homemade wine on your own. And it will in no way be inferior in taste to many store-bought drinks, and in terms of usefulness it will surpass them many times over.
Cherries can be found almost everywhere, and in harvest years, many housewives are puzzled over how best to process an unprecedented amount of berries. But making wine from cherries at home is much easier than even from traditional grapes.
It is on cherries that experts recommend practicing for those who for the first time begin to master the exciting process of winemaking. It produces a thick dark red drink with a wonderful aroma and a wonderful rich taste. In addition, homemade cherry wine ferments and clarifies quite easily.
Simple classic recipe
Those who start making homemade wine for the first time need to know some secrets and nuances that will allow them to understand the process of making wine and get a tasty, aromatic and healthy drink.
Features of making homemade wine
Of course, to make real homemade wine, you need to be patient, because it is infused from several months to a year or more. Experienced winemakers know that the longer the wine is aged, the stronger the aroma and taste of the berries from which it is harvested are revealed.
Moreover, yeast additives are rarely used in real homemade wine, so the benefits of this drink cannot be overestimated. How can the fermentation process take place if only berries, water and sugar are used? The fact is that on the surface of freshly picked berries, the so-called natural wild yeasts are always present in abundance, which allow fermentation to occur naturally.
It is also best not to pick cherries for winemaking after heavy rains.
But the dust on the cherries should not confuse you. After all, the wine is perfectly self-clarified in the manufacturing process.
Almost any kind of cherry is suitable for homemade wine, although the most beautiful wine will be made from dark cherries. The berry must be fully ripe – from overripe cherries, the wine will not turn out so fragrant and tasty. And using unripe cherries, you run the risk of getting too sour drink.
The process of making cherry wine has another peculiarity. The berries are relatively low in sugar and high in acid, so to get a real wine bouquet, some water is always added to the berries and the sugar content is increased. In addition, the addition of water is necessary to soften the cherries, because due to their relative density, it is quite difficult to squeeze the must from the berry pulp alone.
However, there are recipes for dry natural cherry wine at home, but the requirements for the quality of berries in this case should be the highest.
Wine made from pitted cherries is slightly tart, with a slight aftertaste of bitter almonds. If you do not like this taste in wines, then the seeds can be removed before using the cherries in wine.
The main stages of manufacture
Below is a fairly simple recipe for making cherry wine at home, although for beginners, some points may seem complicated.
So, you need to prepare:
- 5-6 liters of pitted cherries;
- 10 liters of purified water;
- 3-4 kg of granulated sugar.
First of all, sort through the cherries, removing twigs, leaves, as well as any damaged and softened berries.
For fermentation, you can use any glassware, food-grade plastic or enameled. Definitely need a lid. Transfer the sorted cherries to a container of a suitable size with a wide enough mouth so that a hand can easily pass there, for example, a bucket. Then gently mash the berries with your hands so as not to damage the seeds, otherwise bitterness may be present in the wine.
Now the berry mass can be poured with warm water, add the amount of sugar required by the recipe and mix well with a clean wooden stick. Then cover with a lid and put in a dark place with a temperature of about + 20 ° + 22 ° C.
Rapid fermentation begins the very next day, and from that moment it is necessary to open a container with cherries several times a day and mix the foam cap formed on the surface with the rest of the mass. These actions must be done within 4-5 days. Then, for the same period, we leave the fermented liquid alone until the foam on the surface ceases to form.
This recipe does not use a water seal, we will talk about this a little lower, so in the next step, carefully, without stirring, collect all the cherries in a colander in the upper part of the liquid and remove them by squeezing them lightly with your hands.
When you open the lid for 5-7 days, you will see a small amount of foam on the surface, and all the pulp should sink to the bottom as a sediment. At this stage, it is necessary to drain the wine from the sediment. For this procedure, prepare another clean container and a long transparent hose. Having placed the container with the wort higher, place one end of the hose inside, without bringing it to the bottom with sediment, and from the other end, using the method of communicating vessels, suck in air until wine flows out of it. After that, the end of the hose is immediately placed in a clean vessel.
Drain, thus pour out all the wine liquid, the remaining thick. And close the drained wine again with a lid and transfer it to a dark and cool room with a temperature of about + 10 ° + 12 ° С.
After 10-12 days, the wine must again be drained from the sediment, but already filtering through a sieve or gauze into glass bottles. Close the bottles with loose caps, as the fermentation process may continue. While it is still going on, that is, foam with sediment appears, every 10-12 days it is necessary to pour the wine through a sieve into a clean dish.
After the fermentation process stops, when the bubbles stop forming, the bottles can be sealed with airtight lids and stored in a cellar or refrigerator.
Recipe using a water seal
Traditionally, a water seal is used to make homemade wine. What is it, what is it for, and how to make it yourself? It is known that in the process of fermentation a large amount of carbon dioxide and alcohol is released. And when oxygen enters, the activity of microorganisms is activated, which convert wine alcohol into acetic acid. But if the fermentation tank is tightly closed, thus protecting it from oxygen ingress, then due to the large amount of carbon dioxide released, the pressure inside the tank can increase so much that the tank walls cannot withstand it.
Therefore, a water seal is often used – which is a kind of valve that allows carbon dioxide to be removed, but at the same time prevents oxygen from entering the fermentation tank.
In the recipe described above, a water seal was dispensed with, since during the period of increased fermentation, a layer of carbon dioxide forms between the wort and the lid, which plays the role of a plug that prevents oxygen from penetrating inside.
In its most traditional form, it is enough to use a lid with a hole in it for a small transparent tube, which is fixed tightly so that its end does not touch the wort. The other end is lowered from the outside into a glass of water. When carbon dioxide escapes, many bubbles appear in the water. But the cessation of fermentation can be accurately determined by the calmness of the surface of the water in the glass.
Another common way is to use an ordinary surgical glove, which is put on a container with wort and do not forget to additionally fix it with adhesive tape or an elastic band. A hole is pierced in one of the fingers for the release of gases. With the beginning of the fermentation process, the glove inflates strongly, and at the end of the process it deflates. This serves as a signal that the wine can be drained into separate containers.
In general, all actions when using a water seal or a glove are exactly the same as in the recipe described above. But when the first 5 days of rapid fermentation expire, the cherry must is filtered, the pulp is squeezed out, and at this moment a water seal is installed. The only difference, perhaps, is that when using a water seal, the sugar is not added all at once, but is broken into portions. At the first moment, add about 1/3 of the total amount prescribed by the recipe. At the time of squeezing the cherry pulp, another 1/3 of sugar is added. The remaining sugar is added after another 5 days and all this time the wort should ferment at a temperature of about +20°C.
In the future, the wine is left to ferment with a water seal for about 1-2 more months. With the accumulation of a large layer of sediment, the cherry wine is filtered and poured into clean dishes, as in the previous recipe.
Dry homemade cherry wine
One of the most delicious and easy to prepare is the recipe for homemade cherry wine, even without adding water.
For its manufacture, a bucket of fresh cherries with pits (10 liters) and 4 kg of granulated sugar are used.
Cherry berries are sprinkled with sugar, placed in a specially prepared container and placed in a sunny place for fermentation for a month and a half. It is advisable to cover the neck with gauze with an elastic band from insects.
After this period, the liquid is filtered into another container through gauze, and the cherries are ground on a sieve and the berry pulp is also added to the must. The must is aged in the sun for another 4-5 days and again filtered through gauze.
Visually, the whole process of making cherry at home with a water seal is shown in the video:
The resulting cherry drink is already aged in the usual place at a temperature of about 20 ° C for another two weeks until the end of fermentation. From this moment on, dry wine can already be put on the table.
Wine from frozen berries
With a large harvest of cherries, it has become fashionable to freeze berries for the winter. Indeed, after defrosting, cherries are quite suitable for compote, jam, and even for making wine. After all, wine made from frozen cherries at home is practically no different from wine made from fresh cherries.
Well, for fans of everything natural, a recipe is offered according to which dried raisins are used as yeast at home.
What do you need:
- Frozen cherries – 5 kg;
- Purified water – 3 l;
- Sugar – 1,5 kg;
- Raisins – 100 grams.
To begin with, cherries must be allowed to completely thaw at room temperature. Then transfer them to an enameled or plastic container, knead well, add water, sugar and raisins. Mix everything thoroughly, cover with a lid and place in a warm place for 8-10 days. During the rapid fermentation that will take place all this time, mix the contents of the container every day. Then strain the wine into a clean container and put a water seal for quiet fermentation.
After about 1,5 months, strain the wine again, bottle it and place it in a dark, cool room for maturation.
As you can see, there is nothing complicated in the process of making wine from cherries. Perhaps the most important thing is the patience that will be needed to wait for the result – tasty and healthy homemade wine, which is not a shame to treat guests during any celebration.
