Contents
Homemade vinegar from wine is no worse than store-bought, and in some cases even better than cheap varieties, since it is prepared only from natural ingredients. We will look at the classic method that has been used in wine producing countries (France, Italy, Spain) for hundreds of years.
Theory
The technology for preparing white and red wine vinegar is identical: first, young wine must be made from grapes (you can use ready-made wine) so that the sugar in the juice is converted into alcohol by the yeast. Then let the wine sour properly when exposed to air. After the bacteria Acetobacteraceae turn alcohol into acid, filter the finished vinegar and pour into storage.
Ingredients:
- grapes – 5 kg;
- sugar – 100 grams per liter of juice;
- water – 20-60 ml (for sour berries only).
Attention! Do not add ordinary pressed or dry baker’s yeast to the wort, otherwise you will get ordinary table vinegar instead of wine vinegar. For fermentation, use only wild (on the surface of berries), wine yeast (sold in special stores) or sourdough from raisins (berries).
In the case of making vinegar from finished wine (preferably dry, regardless of the aging time), immediately proceed to the 11th stage.
wine vinegar recipe
1. Sort the harvested grapes, removing spoiled, rotten and moldy fruits. Place suitable berries in an enameled bucket or plastic bowl. Do not wash, so that wild yeast remains on the skin, due to which the wort will ferment.
2. Gently crush the grapes with your hands or a wooden rolling pin, being careful not to crush the seeds. Tie the neck of the container with gauze or cloth to protect against flies.
3. Перенести емкость в темное место с температурой 18-27°C. Оставить на 3-4 дня, раз в 12 часов перемешивать чистой рукой или деревянной палочкой, чтобы сусло не скисло. Через 8-20 часов начнется брожение: появится пена, шипение и легкий кислый запах, это значит, что всё идет нормально.
4. Filter the juice through several layers of gauze, squeeze the pulp well (no longer needed). Taste the juice.
Juice from grapes grown in the northern latitudes may be too sour (stinging the tongue and reducing the cheekbones). In this case, to reduce the acidity, you need to add 20-60 ml of water per liter of juice, otherwise fermentation will be weak. If the acidity is normal, water is not needed, it reduces the quality of the future vinegar.
5. Add the first portion of sugar – 40 grams per liter of juice (according to the situation: pure or diluted). Mix.
6. Pour the wort into a fermentation tank, fill up to a maximum of 70% of the volume to leave room for the next portions of sugar, foam and carbon dioxide.
7. Install a water seal on the neck or a medical glove with a hole in the finger (pierce with a needle).
8. Перенести емкость с суслом в темное, теплое (16-28°C) место и оставить до конца брожения.
9. Через 5 дней с момента установки гидрозатвора внести следующую порцию сахара – 30 грамм на литр сока. Для этого снять водяной затвор, слить через трубочку 1 мл бродящего сусла на каждый грамм сахара. Например, если всего нужно добавить 300 грамм, значит, требуется слить 300 мл. Развести сахар в слитом соке, полученный сироп вылить обратно в бродильную емкость и закрыть гидрозатвором.
After another 5 days, repeat the procedure according to the described technology, adding the last portion of sugar – 30 grams per liter.
10. Depending on the temperature and yeast activity, after 25-60 days from the start of preparation, the airlock will stop emitting gas (the glove will deflate), the wort will brighten, and a layer of sediment will appear at the bottom. This means that the fermentation is over.
It’s time to drain the young wine through a straw into another container, trying not to touch the sediment at the bottom. The larger the diameter of the neck, the faster the souring occurs.
11. Bandage the container with wine with gauze and leave it in a dark place with a temperature of 18-23 ° C for 30-50 days to turn sour. Do not close, there must be constant air access!
After some time, a film of Mycoderma aceti bacteria may appear on the surface, this is normal.
12. Домашний винный уксус будет готов, когда пропадает резкий запах скисания и появляется характерный вкус.
13. Filter the finished vinegar through several layers of gauze, then bottle it. Close hermetically. When stored away from direct sunlight, the shelf life is up to 3 years.
