Cranberry wine at home – 4 best recipes

In general, there is such an idiomatic expression – spreading cranberries. It means, in a nutshell, false stereotypes and ridiculous inventions that usually arise among foreigners in relation to Russians (vodka, bear, balalaika). So, in English there is no separate word for viburnum – instead, the trivial name “branching cranberry” (English highbush cranberry) is used. Paradoxically, cranberry wine recipes can indeed be applied to viburnum, but the object of study in this material, of course, will be exclusively cranberries and wine, which we will prepare from this berry at home.

The common cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos) and the common cranberry (Vibúrnum ópulus) are different plants, but in the English-speaking diaspora, due to the confusion described above, they are both considered cranberries. Game, of course, but because of the similar parameters of the berries, such identification takes place. More importantly, our Western colleagues, especially the Americans, tried making wines from both “real” and “false” cranberries, after which they agreed that both drinks deserve all praise and do not need separate cooking technologies. .

Therefore, the recipes described below are applicable, excuse me, for both cranberries. It is also worth noting that many experienced winemakers, as often happens, consider cranberries the best non-grape raw material for making fermented drinks, so it’s worth a try at least once (however, no matter what raw material you take into your hands, someone will definitely call it “the best after grapes”, as with rose hips, for example).

Of course, cranberries cannot be called an ideal berry for winemaking. It contains a lot of acid (up to 3,25%) and little sugar (3,6% on average). The wort has to be corrected. And if there are no problems with sugar, then with acidity everything is much more complicated – excessive dilution of the juice with water significantly reduces the extraction, due to which the wine can turn out to be empty, watery. It is very important to achieve a balance (this is easiest to do if you add something else to the wort, for example, apples or currants).

Yeast also has a hard time. Immediately discard the idea of ​​​​making cranberry wine on savages – to get strong and tasty wine, you need a decent percentage of alcohol in it, and wild yeast in such an environment will not ferment much. For this kind of raw material, it is recommended to use red wine yeast with high alcohol tolerance (at least 12-13%) and giving a complex organoleptic. Red Star Montrachet and Lalvin RC212 showed themselves well in this case. Please note that both strains necessarily require top dressing, otherwise an excessive amount of sulfur compounds is formed in the drink. In general, you will have to look into the wine shop.

Homemade cranberry wine

The proportions given are for approximately 4 liters of wine. If you decide to make a large batch, all ingredients are scaled proportionally, but note that 1 packet of the yeast indicated in the recipe is enough to make approximately 22 liters of wine. To extract juice in this and further recipes, we will use the fermentation method, but you can also try the Cahors technology described in the article with recipes for chokeberry wines or directly in the article about Cahors.

How to cook:

1. Rinse the cranberries, roughly crush them and place them in the primary fermenter (it is possible and desirable to place the berries in a nylon bag, which will greatly simplify filtration in the future). Frozen berries must first be thawed and drained. Add all other ingredients except yeast. Mix well until the sugar is completely dissolved, cover the fermenter with a thick cloth and wait 24 hours.
2. From the yeast according to the instructions, prepare the starter culture: pour the required amount of yeast into 120 ml of warm water, mix well, breaking up possible lumps, cover with gauze and leave for 15 minutes in a warm place. When the mixture begins to foam and increase in volume, add 120 ml of the previously prepared wort to it. Wait another 15 minutes and pour the starter into the fermenter.
3. The primary fermenter must be covered with gauze and left at a temperature of 22-24^оC. Every day, in the morning and in the evening, the wort must be actively stirred for 5 minutes. As soon as the wine stops fermenting rapidly, which usually happens 5-6 days after the start, it must be filtered, the berries squeezed and poured into a clean fermenter under a water seal.
4. Secondary fermentation is best done at a lower temperature, 15-18^оC. After about a month, the wine must be drained from the sediment, poured into a clean fermenter and the water seal installed again. This procedure should be repeated 2-3 times with an interval of 35-45 days until the wine is completely clarified and stabilized. If the wine doesn’t clear itself, try fining it using the recommendations in the article on clarification of house wines.
5. After the wine is completely clarified, it can be bottled. Make sure the bottles are sterile. Before bottling, the wine can be sweetened to taste, but after adding sugar, it is advisable to keep it under a water seal in a cool place for a couple of weeks to make sure that fermentation is complete. After bottling, cranberry wine must be aged for at least another 12 months. Your patience will be rewarded!

Dried cranberry wine

Wine is also made from dried berries. When buying cranberries, be sure to find out if the berry has been processed in any way. If only sulfur, which is typical for most commercially produced dried fruits, then such a berry can be used to make wine (therefore, additional sulfur is not needed to sterilize the must and the Campden tablet can be removed from the list of ingredients immediately). Another thing is if cranberries have been treated with sorbic acid (food additive E-200) – such a berry is not suitable for winemaking at all. For large volumes, recalculate the amount of ingredients proportionally, considering that 1 standard bag of wine yeast indicated in the recipe is enough to make about 24 liters of wine.

How to make:

Finely chop cranberries or pass through a meat grinder, and then place in a fermenter. Add 500 ml warm water and crushed Campden tablet. Wait 12 hours. Add pectin enzyme and wait another 12 hours. Mix water (in such an amount that the final volume of the wort with a given amount of ingredients is 3,7-4 liters) and sugar, heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Cool the syrup to room temperature and add to the cranberries in the fermenter. Add all other ingredients, including the yeast starter prepared in advance according to the instructions on the package. Cover the fermenter with gauze and leave in a warm place. Twice a day, the wort must be stirred for 7 days. After rapid fermentation is completed, drain the wine from the sediment and install a water seal. Then cook according to the instructions from the first recipe. Bottle aging for 6 months will be more than enough for this type of wine.

Cranberry wine with blackcurrant

Excellent berry combination. Whether the wine will turn out better than pure blackcurrant is hard to say, but it will definitely find its connoisseurs. You can try to make wine from frozen berries, after defrosting them and letting them drain. Recalculate the proportions of ingredients according to your volumes, etc. etc.

How to cook:

Prepare an invert syrup from sugar, as described in this article (one option: mix 900 g of sugar with 450 ml of water and 4 tsp of lemon juice, and then simmer under the lid for 30 minutes without letting it boil). Boil water. While the water boils, chop the cranberries and currants (chop the cranberries with a knife, crush the currants with your hands), place in the fermenter and pour boiling water (it is advisable to place the berries in a nylon bag, which is then hung in the fermenter; boiling water, respectively, must be poured directly onto the bag with berries). Immediately add invert syrup, tannin, pectin enzyme and yeast nutrition. Wait 12 hours. Add yeast starter prepared in advance according to the instructions on the package. Next, the fermenter needs to be covered with gauze, sent to a warm place for rapid fermentation for 7 days, and then cooked according to the instructions from the first recipe. After bottling the wine, let it rest for at least 6 months.

Cranberry and apple wine

Like cider and apple wine, it is better to use sour apples for cranberry-apple wine (Jonathan, Winesup, Granny Smith, Braeburn, Gravenstein, McIntosh and other sour varieties). It is also possible to use a mixture of different apples, as for cider, but it is advisable to avoid sweet, friable varieties such as Delicious, Gala, Fuji, etc. The ascorbic acid in the recipe is needed to prevent the apple juice from oxidizing, which will preserve the beautiful color of the wine.

How to make:

Use only ripe fruits and berries. Rinse the apples and cranberries, cut the apples in half and remove the core, chop everything (grate the apples or pass through a meat grinder along with the cranberries). Immediately add ascorbic acid, mix the puree and send it to the fermenter (again, it is better to use a nylon bag). Add the rest of the ingredients, except for the yeast, mix well until the sugar is completely dissolved. Cover the fermenter with gauze or a clean cloth and leave it alone for 18-24 hours at room temperature. Add yeast prepared according to package instructions. Then cook according to the instructions from the first recipe. During the 2nd and 4th skim, add 1 crushed Campden tablet (optional) and ¼ tsp. ascorbic acid. Sweeten to taste and wait 3 weeks before bottling. Exposure for six months or more is mandatory.