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In the midst of the apple season, a good housewife often gets dizzy from the unimaginable number of blanks that can be made from apples. They are truly versatile fruits that make equally delicious compotes, juices, jams, marmalades, marmalades and even cheeses. And those who have ever tried to make wine out of apple juice will definitely repeat their experiments next season. After all, this wine has a completely incomparable taste, and its lightness is very deceptive, the effect of it can exceed all expectations.
Among the many recipes for making homemade wine from apple juice, here will be presented only those that use only natural ingredients, without the addition of alcoholic beverages with a high degree.
The process of making wine is not at all as complicated as it might seem from the outside. Although for those who are going to make homemade apple wine for the first time, it is necessary to pay attention to all the subtleties and features of the process and observe them strictly. How to make wine from apples so that everything works out the first time is described in detail in the next chapter.
Classic Apple Juice Wine Recipe
If you do everything right, then according to this recipe, you should get a delicious dark amber drink with a subtle smell of ripe apples and a natural strength of about 10-12 degrees.
Selection and preparation of fruits
As for the choice of variety, almost any variety of apples is suitable for making apple wine, both in terms of ripening time (summer or winter), color (red, yellow or green) and acid content. Perhaps the main condition for obtaining high-quality wine is that the apples are fully ripe and quite juicy. It is unlikely that tasty wine will turn out from “wooden” fruits, and if you use very acidic varieties (like Antonovka), then it is advisable to either mix them with sweeter apples, or add a little water (up to 100 ml per liter of finished juice).
If the apples themselves are juicy and not very acidic, then adding water is undesirable even in small quantities, not to mention diluting the juice two or three times.
It is advisable to store apples collected from a tree or from the ground before processing for no more than 3-5 days in a cool place. In no case should the fruits be washed, since special natural yeast microorganisms live on the surface of their peel, with the help of which fermentation will occur. If individual fruits are heavily soiled, it is allowed to wipe them with a clean, dry cloth.
Partially damaged apples can also be used for wine, it is only important to carefully remove all spoiled or rotten parts so that only fresh white pulp remains. In order to prevent even the slightest hint of bitterness from homemade wine, it is imperative to remove all seeds and internal partitions as well.
Juice from processed and cut into pieces of apples is best obtained using any type of juicer – in this case, the output will be pure juice containing a minimum amount of pulp, and this will greatly simplify the further process.
But if it was store-bought and pasteurized, then wine yeast may need to be added.
First steps in the process
At the first stage of making apple wine, the juice from apples must be defended for 2-3 days. To do this, it is placed in a large container with a wide neck, the hole must be tied up with gauze on top to protect the juice from insects getting inside. During this period, the juice, under the influence of spores of yeast microorganisms, will begin to decompose into two components: liquid apple juice and pulp (remains of pulp and peel). The pulp will begin to accumulate at the top of the juice. In order for the process to proceed correctly and intensively, in the first two days, you should remove the gauze several times a day and actively mix the contents of the container with a clean wooden stirrer or just with your hand.
On the third day, foam appears on the surface of the juice, hissing and some alcohol-vinegar aroma – all this is evidence of the beginning of the fermentation process. At this time, all the pulp, densely collected on the surface of the juice, must be carefully collected with a colander and removed.
After removing the pulp, it is necessary to add sugar to the apple juice and put the juice on full fermentation in a container with a tight-fitting lid.
Adding sugar when making wine at home is an important procedure that is usually carried out in several stages. After all, if the sugar content in wine exceeds 20%, then it will not ferment intensively enough or the process will stop altogether. Therefore, sugar is added in small portions.
Its amount depends on the type of wine you want to get.
- To obtain dry table apple wine, 200 grams of sugar per liter of juice is enough.
- For semi-sweet and dessert wines, it is necessary to add from 300 to 400 grams per liter of apple juice.
So, on average, after removing the pulp, about 100-150 grams of sugar per liter is added to apple juice. At this stage, granulated sugar is allowed to simply pour into the fermented juice and mix well.
In the future, you can add sugar every 5-6 days, using from 40 to 100 grams per liter. When sugar is added, the water seal is removed, a small amount of wort (fermented juice) is poured into a small container, the required amount of sugar dissolves in it, and the sugar mixture is again poured into the fermentation container.
After the procedure for adding sugar, the water seal is re-installed and fermentation continues.
fermentation stage
For proper fermentation, it is necessary to simultaneously remove the possibility of oxygen from entering the container with future wine from the air, and remove excess carbon dioxide, which is necessarily released during the fermentation process. For these purposes, a water seal is used. It is easy to make at home. A small hole is made in the lid of the fermentation tank so that the end of a small flexible tube enters it. The other end of this tube is lowered into a vessel with water.
For the same reason, fill your fermentation container no more than four-fifths of the way up with apple juice.
The simplest option for a water seal is an ordinary rubber glove with a small hole made in it and well fixed on the neck of the fermentation container.
The container itself with apple juice during fermentation should be in a room without light, at an optimum temperature of + 20 ° + 22 ° С. The fermentation stage usually lasts from 30 to 60 days. Its completion is evidenced by the appearance of sediment at the bottom of the tank and the long-term absence of carbon dioxide bubbles in a vessel with water.
The last stage is maturation
For the most impatient, the production of wine from apple juice has come to an end – you can already try it and treat your loved ones to it. But its taste is still far from perfect, and it can be improved only by long exposure.
The maturation of apple wine should take place in absolutely dry and sterile glass vessels that have airtight stoppers. It is advisable to pour wine into these vessels using the principle of communicating vessels, using a water seal tube, so as not to touch the sediment at the bottom as much as possible. After tasting the wine before pouring, you may want to add sugar to it. In this case, within 10-12 days, the wine must be put back on the water seal, if it suddenly decides to re-ferment. When ripe, it should be stored at a temperature of + 6 ° + 15 ° С. In the first months, it is desirable to free the wine from sediment every two weeks by pouring into clean, dry bottles. In the future, the precipitate falls less and less, and with its minimum precipitation, homemade apple wine is considered ready. This usually happens within 2-4 months. You can store ready-made apple wine for three years in hermetically sealed bottles.
Apple juice wine recipe with yeast
If you decide to use ready-made apple juice for making apple wine at home, then for best results it is recommended to add wine yeast during the manufacture. The simplest recipe for such homemade wine is presented below.
For 4 liters of apple juice, it is enough to prepare 2 teaspoons of dry wine yeast and about 400 – 800 grams of granulated sugar.
The easiest way is to take an ordinary five-liter plastic bottle for fermentation and, after carefully mixing all the ingredients in a separate container, pour the apple mixture into the bottle.
Then fix a balloon or a rubber glove on top of the bottle and put it in a dark, cool place for up to 50 days. The next day, the fermentation process should begin and a small hole should be made in the ball for the release of gases. When the fermentation process comes to an end – the ball is blown away – the wine is ready, you can drink it.
By the way, if you put apple juice in a warm place, then after three or four days you can taste apple cider – unripe apple wine with a small strength, up to 6-7 degrees.
Try different ways to make apple wine and enjoy a varied palette of flavors, because it requires almost nothing to make it, except apples and a little sugar. And you can get enough benefit and pleasure for yourself and your loved ones to last the whole harsh and long winter.
