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Fortified homemade apple wine can be a real highlight of every feast. It not only improves mood, but also has very real benefits for a person, having a beneficial effect on the nervous, gastrointestinal and endocrine systems. Wine made by one’s own hands is natural, which cannot be said about mass-produced alcoholic products. When preparing this drink, the winemaker himself can regulate the amount of sugar, sharpness of taste, create unique flavors and blends. There are a lot of recipes for making natural apple wine and sometimes it is not possible to choose the best one. That is why we decided to offer a selection of the most famous recipes that are most often used by experienced winemakers.
The best fortified wine recipes
Making homemade wine is a long and delicate process, but even a novice winemaker can handle it. To do this, you just need to stock up on patience and some knowledge. A good recipe for making homemade wine is the key to success.
Fortified wine according to classical technology
Apple wine is often made from fruit juice, which is easy to get at home. So, one recipe will require 10 kg of juicy and ripe apples. The variety in this case is not of fundamental importance. You can use sour, sweet or even “wild” apples. Fruit juice can be obtained using a juicer or an ordinary kitchen fine grater. In both cases, applesauce will need to be additionally squeezed through several layers of gauze. Fruit juice for making wine should be as light and clean as possible. As a result of pressing from the indicated number of apples, approximately 6 liters of juice will be obtained.
The resulting purified apple juice must be poured into a glass container (bottle or jar). Do not fill the entire volume, leaving a little space to the edge of the container. It will accumulate foam in the process of wine fermentation. Half of the total volume of sugar should be added to the juice: approximately 150-200 g for every 1 liter of juice. The exact amount of granulated sugar depends on the taste characteristics of the fruit and the preferences of the winemaker.
Juice with sugar should be left at room temperature in a dark place for 4-5 days. Cover the container with gauze or plug the neck of the bottle with a cotton ball. After a specified period of time, the wine begins to ferment actively: emit carbon dioxide, foam. At this time, it is necessary to close the container with wine with a rubber glove or a special lid with a water seal. You can buy it at the store or make your own. An example of the manufacture of such a device is shown in the video:
A week later, from the beginning of the preparation of wine, you need to add the second half of the sugar to its composition, mix the ingredients thoroughly and set for further fermentation. Active release of carbon dioxide will be observed for 2 weeks. In the future, the process will proceed slowly for another 1-1,5 months.
After about 2 months from the start of cooking, a sediment from the remaining particles of fruit pulp can be seen at the bottom of the container. By this time, the fermentation process will be stopped, the sugar will decompose into carbon dioxide, which will be released through the water seal, and alcohol, which will give the drink strength. The wine must be carefully poured into a new glass container, without raising the sediment. In a pure alcoholic drink, add 600 ml of high-quality vodka or alcohol in an amount of 300 ml. Hermetically sealed bottles should be stored in a cellar or basement, where it is cool and dark. After about 1,5 months of such storage, the wine will be completely ready, it will acquire its original taste and blend.
The taste of classic apple wine can be supplemented with light notes of fragrant cinnamon. To do this, in fruit juice at the initial stage of making wine, you need to add 1 tbsp. l. ground cinnamon. This ingredient will make the alcoholic drink more aromatic and tastier, and its color more noble.
Fortified wine with raisins
Experienced winemakers know that raisins are the same grapes that can give an original taste and color to an alcoholic drink. Making fortified wine from apples with raisins is quite simple. This will require the apples themselves in the amount of 10 kg and 100 g of raisins, preferably dark, which will have a good effect on the color of the finished product. The strength of the drink will give sugar in the amount of 2-2,2 kg and 200 ml of vodka. This composition will allow you to get wine with a strength of 12-14%. You can additionally increase the degree by adding more vodka or alcohol equivalent.
To prepare wine according to this recipe, you need not from juice, but from applesauce. So, in grated apples, you need to add sugar and raisins. Pour the mixture of products into a fermentation container, close the neck of the filled container with a rubber glove or a water seal.
After 3 weeks of active fermentation, squeeze the applesauce through a multi-layer gauze. If necessary, the juice purification process can be repeated many times. The pure product should be mixed with another glass of sugar and poured into clean bottles. The neck of the bottle must be tightly closed with a glove. The wine will ferment for another week.
Add vodka to the finished apple wine and, after thorough mixing, pour the alcoholic fortified drink into bottles for later storage. As a decoration, a few well-washed grapes or raisins can be added to each bottle of amber-colored apple wine. Such a drink can be stored in the cellar for several years.
Apple and mountain ash wine with berry sourdough
Often a recipe for homemade wine contains wine yeast or sourdough as one of the ingredients. Beginning winemakers are intimidated by this feature. But there is nothing difficult in preparing berry sourdough. To do this, you can use raspberries, strawberries or, for example, rose hips. The process of making apple-rowan wine also begins with the preparation of sourdough:
- 2 cups of unwashed berries put in a jar;
- add 2 tbsp. l. sugar and 500 ml of water;
- cover the neck of the container with multilayer gauze and leave for 3 days at room temperature;
- the mixture must be stirred daily;
- after 3-4 days from the start of preparation, the sourdough is a fermentation activator for homemade wine.
In addition to the starter for apple-rowan wine, you will need 10 kg apples and mountain ash directly. The amount of rowan should be 10% of the mass of apples, which means that for one recipe you need to take 1 kg of these berries. The amount of sugar for the indicated volume of ingredients is 2,5 kg. Water should be added to apple-rowan wine in the amount of 1,5 liters in order to obtain a more delicate taste and delicate aroma of alcohol. Fortress wine will receive at the expense of 1 liter of vodka.
The first step in the preparation of fortified wine is to obtain juice from apples and mountain ash. Mix the liquids together and add sugar and water to them. After mixing, add the sourdough prepared in advance to the mixture of ingredients. The resulting wort must be placed in a warm room for further fermentation. After 10-12 days, as a result of fermentation, an alcoholic drink with a strength of 9-10% will be obtained. By adding 1 liter of vodka to wine, it will be possible to increase the fortress to 16%. The fortified drink is aged for 5 days, after which it is filtered and bottled for storage. Drinking homemade alcohol prepared according to this recipe is recommended after 1-2 months.
Apple wine with sourdough can be prepared not only with mountain ash, but also, for example, with orange. The cooking technology is similar to the above method, only orange juice should be added instead of rowan juice. For 10 kg of apples, it is recommended to use 6 large citrus fruits.
The original way of fixing wines
Many winemakers know that you can increase the strength of wine by adding alcohol or vodka. But there is another very original way to increase the fortress. It is based on freezing: water freezes (crystallizes) even at zero temperature, but alcohol does not. You can use this trick in the following way:
- Pour the finished apple wine into plastic bottles and put them in the freezer or snow.
- After a while, ice crystals will be observed in the wine.
- The free liquid in the bottle is concentrated wine. It must be drained into a separate container.
- The freezing operation can be repeated several times. Each time the strength of the free liquid in the bottle will increase. As a result of such fastening, about 2 ml of a fortified alcoholic beverage will be obtained from 700 liters of light wine.
When freezing apple wine, in fact, 2 types of drink are obtained at once: fortified wine and light cider, with a strength of 1-2%. This cider can be obtained by thawing ice crystals. A light refreshing drink will have an apple flavor and will be able to quench your thirst on a hot summer day. An example of freezing can be seen in the video:
With the help of freezing, you can raise the strength of the wine up to 25%.
Fortified apple wine is a wonderful alcoholic drink that can replace all alcohol-containing products on the festive table. Wine prepared with love is always tasty and healthy. It is easy to drink and does not remind you of a headache the next day. Making wine from apples at home should be done slowly. Well-fermented must and long exposure of the finished product always make the wine only better.