Homemade blackcurrant wine: step by step recipes

Blackcurrant is one of the most unpretentious shrubs in the garden, bearing fruit in abundance from year to year. Jams, jams, jellies, compotes, marshmallows, marshmallows, sweet sauces, fillings for all kinds of pastries – this is not the most complete list of what is traditionally obtained from its delicious and fragrant fruits. Having prepared blackcurrant wine at home, a connoisseur of this berry is also unlikely to be disappointed: the result will be an expressive, sweet, spicy and slightly tart drink, each note of which reminds of summer. There are a large number of recipes in which the degree of complexity and composition of the initial components vary, various special techniques are used. The main thing is to strictly adhere to the technology of preparation, terms and rules for storing homemade blackcurrant wine, and also do not forget about the sense of proportion when drinking this wonderful drink.

The benefits and harms of blackcurrant wine

Like any natural wine made at home, blackcurrant drink has a number of advantages over the one you can buy in the store:

• all components are selected to the taste of the one who cooks;
• composition is known;
• no flavors, preservatives, chemical impurities;
• strength and sweetness can be adjusted.

As for the beneficial qualities that home-made wine from this berry has, the following has been scientifically proven:

• since blackcurrant is a “storehouse” of vitamins and useful microelements, many of them are also present in the composition of the drink;
• the property of this wine is known to strengthen the walls of vessels, making them more durable and elastic;
• it is advised to use it for medicinal purposes with beriberi, anemia, anemia;
• home-made blackcurrant wine strengthens the immune system, increases the human body’s resistance to infectious diseases;
• it is recommended for the prevention of heart disease.

Possible harm to the human body from home-made blackcurrant wine:

• drinking in excessive quantities can lead to alcohol poisoning;
• like any product made from fruits or berries, this wine can cause allergies;
• it is very high in calories;
• if during the production of wine at home sulfur was added to the must (sulfation was carried out), it can provoke an attack of the disease in an asthmatic;
• if the rules of preparation or improper storage are not followed, the composition of the drink can be “enriched” with toxic substances.

It should also be remembered that children, pregnant and lactating mothers, as well as people suffering from chronic diseases of the digestive organs and liver, this drink is contraindicated.

How to make homemade blackcurrant wine

There are a huge number of recipes for making blackcurrant wine at home. However, whichever of them is taken as a basis, there are several general rules that must be followed in order for the drink to turn out tasty and of high quality:

1. For making wine at home, you can take blackcurrants of any variety. However, the most delicious drink is obtained from the sweet types of this berry (Leah fertile, Centaur, Belarusian sweet, Loshitskaya, etc.).
2. Pathogenic microorganisms must not be allowed to enter the wine material. All utensils and utensils used in the winemaking process should be scalded with boiling water and wiped dry.
3. Since blackcurrants themselves are not sweet and juicy enough, sugar and water will be additionally needed to make wine from them at home.
4. When preparing the berries, it is necessary to carefully sort out, rejecting spoiled and underripe ones, throwing away leaves and twigs. Washing blackcurrant in this case is not recommended – its skin contains a large amount of natural yeast, which will contribute to the fermentation of juice and pulp.

Step by step blackcurrant wine recipes

Recipes for making blackcurrant wine at home differ in complexity, time, technological steps, proportions of the main components and the presence of additional components. The most interesting of them should be considered in all details.

A simple recipe for homemade blackcurrant wine

This recipe for homemade currant wine is the easiest. It does not require rich practice or knowledge of special techniques. Even a beginner can easily handle it.

Ingredients:

Preparation:

1. Prepare the berries as described above. Do not rinse. Pour into a wide container (basin, large saucepan) and crush thoroughly, you can use a blender or pusher.
2. Heat the water a little and dissolve the sugar in it. Let cool.
3. Pour the resulting syrup into a container with currant pulp. About 1/3 of the container should remain free.
4. Tie the top of the pan tightly with gauze. Send the fermentation container to a dark place for a period of 2 to 10 days. A couple of times a day you need to stir the wort with a clean wooden spatula.
5. After that, you need to drain the fermented juice into a container with a narrow neck (bottle). Carefully squeeze out the liquid from the cake and add it there. The container should be filled no more than 4/5 of the volume.
6. Install a water seal on the top of the bottle and leave the wort to ferment in a dark place at a temperature of 16-25 ° C for 2-3 weeks. Every 5-7 days the wine should be tasted and, if the taste seems sour, add sugar (50-100 g per 1 liter). To do this, pour a little juice into a clean container, stir the sugar in it until dissolved and return the liquid back to the bottle.
7. After the color of the wine becomes lighter, an opaque sediment forms at the bottom, air bubbles stop coming out of the water seal, and active fermentation stops. Now the drink must be carefully, using a flexible tube, poured into clean bottles, again closing their necks with water seals, and sent to a cool dark room (cellar).
8. Wine should be aged for 2-4 months. Once every 3-4 weeks, it is recommended to drain it from the sediment, then the drink will be transparent, of a pleasant purple-red color. At the very end, you need to pour homemade blackcurrant wine into the bottles intended for it, filling them up to the neck. Cork them with corks and keep in a cool place until serving.

An easy-to-prepare recipe for blackcurrant wine is also presented in the video:

Homemade blackcurrant wine without yeast

If you are going to make homemade blackcurrant wine, you can safely do without yeast to speed up the fermentation of the drink. If desired, you can add a little raisins. The main point – currant berries should be left unwashed, then the “wild” yeast, contained in abundance on their skin, can cause natural fermentation.

Ingredients:

Preparation:

1. Pass the berries in the basin to the state of gruel. Add 1/3 of all required water.

   

2. Pour half the sugar and raisins. Stir, cover with gauze and send to a dark place for a week. The wort should be stirred daily.
3. On the eighth day, squeeze the pulp and set aside in a separate container. Pour in the rest of the sugar, pour in a little water (to cover the pomace) and again set aside for 1 week, proceeding as in paragraph 2.
4. Strain the fermented juice through a sieve or colander, place in a jar with a water seal and also set aside for a week.
5. At the end of this period, the contents of the can of juice will separate into 3 parts. At the top there will be foam and small berry seeds. They should be carefully removed with a clean spoon, squeezed well and discarded.
6. Again, squeeze the liquid from the pulp container, strain and mix in a large jar with the juice that was obtained from the first batch.
7. Leave the container with wine under a water seal for 10-15 days.
8. After that, once again remove the foam and seeds, strain the liquid with a thin tube and again put it under a water seal for half a month. Once a week, the wine should be filtered from the sediment, pouring through a tube into a clean container.
9. Pour home-made currant wine into bottles and send to a cool place.

Homemade wine from blackcurrant jam

If it so happened that the jam prepared in season was not eaten during the winter, you can make wonderful wine from a stagnant jar of blackcurrant. It will retain all the notes of taste characteristic of a drink made from fresh berries, but it will turn out to be stronger.

Ingredients:

Preparation:

1. Mix jam, half the norm of sugar and warm boiled water in a wide saucepan.
2. Set aside to ferment in a warm place. After the pulp rises to the surface, the mash can be considered ready.
3. Strain the liquid and pour into a sterilized glass jar. Add the rest of the sugar. Close the neck with a water seal so that the fermentation products come out. Put in a warm place for about 3 months.
4. After that, remove the wine from the sediment with a flexible tube.
5. Pour into clean prepared bottles. Seal well and place in the refrigerator for 1 night.

Frozen blackcurrant wine

Berries for making wine at home do not have to be freshly picked. You can use blackcurrant stored in the freezer. It completely retains its aroma and taste, which means that the drink from it will turn out no worse than from those berries that have just been removed from the bush.

Preparation:

1. Pour raisins with boiling water for 10-15 minutes, rinse in clean water and let dry, scattering on paper towels.
2. Pour frozen berries into a container and let thaw a little.
3. Grind currants with a blender (you can pass through a meat grinder).
4. Place a container with gruel from berries (preferably an enamel pan) on low heat and heat the contents to about 40 ° C.
5. Pour the warm puree into a clean glass jar. Add sugar, raisins and room temperature water.

   

6. Place the jar in a dark room where the temperature is maintained from 18 to 25 ° C. Insist for 3-5 days.
7. Carefully collect the pulp and foam that has floated to the surface. Strain them through cheesecloth. The rest of the liquid is also cleaned by passing through a gauze filter.
8. The resulting young wine is poured into a bottle with a water seal and placed in a dark room. Leave for 2-3 weeks to ferment.
9. After this process has stopped, drain the wine from the sediment using a flexible tube and filter.
10. Pour the drink into glass bottles, close them with nylon caps and place in a cellar or refrigerator for 2-3 days to ripen.

Fortified blackcurrant wine

You can make currant wine fortified at home if you add alcohol to it at the necessary stage. Such a drink is stored better than ordinary homemade wine, but it turns out to be tougher in taste.

Ingredients:

Preparation:

1. Prepare berries. Mash into puree. Put them in a glass bottle, pouring sugar in layers.
2. Put a water seal on top of the container. Keep at a temperature of 18-22 ° C in a dark place, periodically stirring the wort.

   

3. After 1,5 months, you can take a sample. If the taste of the must is sour, and the color has become lighter, you can filter the wine by straining it through cotton wool or gauze folded in several layers.
4. Then pour alcohol into the blackcurrant wine.
5. If there is not enough sugar, you can add it at this stage.
6. Pour the finished product into bottles, cork them with corks. In order for the taste of the wine to be revealed in the best possible way, it is advisable to keep it for a month before taking a sample.

Quick homemade currant wine

If the idea suddenly arises to make blackcurrant wine at home, which does not need to be aged for months, such a recipe exists. And by a significant date or holiday coming in a month, a bottle of a pleasant fragrant drink can already be served at the table.

Ingredients:

Preparation:

1. Sort out currants. Can also be washed.
2. Pour the berries into the basin and add 2/3 of the sugar to them. To fill with water.
3. Puree the mass (with a blender or hand pusher).
4. Tie the top of the pelvis with gauze and leave for 7 days. Stir once a day.
5. On days 4 and 7, add 100 g of sugar to the wort.
6. At the end of the stage, pour the fermented juice into a large bottle with a narrow neck. Close it with a water seal.
7. After 3 days, add another 100 g of sugar, after dissolving it in a small amount of must.
8. After 2-3 weeks, blackcurrant wine created at home will be ready. It should be bottled.

Dessert wine from blackcurrant at home

To make dessert homemade blackcurrant wine, you will need a sourdough that you can prepare yourself in advance.

10 days before you start making wine, you need to pick ripe, clean strawberries, raspberries, strawberries or grapes in the garden. They should not be washed. Two glasses of berries are placed in a glass bottle, crushed in mashed potatoes, 0,5 tbsp. sugar and 1 tbsp. water. Then the container is shaken, corked and placed in a dark, warm place for fermentation (it will begin in 3-4 days). At the end of the process, all the liquid should be filtered through gauze – the sourdough for homemade wine is ready. You can store it for no more than 10 days.

Having received the starter, you can start making dessert wine at home.

Ingredients:

Preparation:

1. Crush the berries. Add 1 tbsp. sugar and 1 liter of water and set aside for 3 days to form more juice.
2. Squeeze out the liquid (you can use a press). You should get about 4-5 liters of juice. Drain it into a large container with a narrow neck, close it with a water seal and leave to ferment in a warm, dark place.
3. The pulp remaining after squeezing the juice, pour 2,5 liters of water and leave for 2 days. Then separate the liquid again. Add it to the bottle with the juice of the first extraction. In addition, add 1 kg of sugar.
4. Add another 0,5 kg of sugar after 4 days.
5. Repeat step 4.
6. After the completion of quiet fermentation (after 1,5-2 months), add all the remaining sugar to the bottle.
7. After waiting another month, bottle the wine.

The strength of the resulting drink will be about 14-15 degrees.

Homemade blackcurrant and apple wine

By itself, currant wine, prepared at home, can turn out to be quite tart in taste. However, blackcurrant can be successfully combined with other fruits and fruits, in particular, with apples. Then this berry will become the basis for an excellent dessert drink.

Ingredients:

Preparation:

1. Currant prepare, crush. Place in a wide glass container, cover with sugar, leave for a couple of days in a warm place to get juice.
2. When the currant is infused, squeeze the juice from fresh apples and pour into a container for berry puree. Close the top with gauze and hold for 4-5 days.
3. Then squeeze out the liquid (using a press), measure its volume, add the required amount of alcohol and sugar. Pour into a bottle, close with a water seal and leave for 7-9 days – until the contents become clear.
4. Drain the young wine from the sediment. Fill them with prepared bottles, close tightly and send for storage. In order for the taste and aroma of the wine to be better revealed, keep them for 6-7 months.

Currant wine with grapes

A bouquet of wine made at home from blackcurrants and grapes turns out to be very tasty and rich. The brushes of the latter must be ripe, such berries contain the maximum amount of sugar. For a combination in wine with currants, it is advisable to choose red grapes.

Ingredients:

Preparation:

1. Pass the washed and prepared currants through a juicer.
2. Squeeze the juice from the grapes into a separate bowl. Warm it up slightly (up to 30 ° C) and dissolve sugar in it.
3. Add currant juice. Pour the mixture into a bottle and ferment for 9-10 days.
4. Next, strain the young wine through a cotton filter.
5. Pour into dry clean bottles. Cork them with corks soaked in wine.

Recipe for homemade blackcurrant wine in a pressure cooker

In order to make wine from blackcurrant berries at home, you can use a pressure cooker. Thanks to this unit, the drink will be prepared much faster, but its taste will change somewhat due to the heat treatment of the components and will resemble port wine. The presence of bananas in the composition will add originality to the wine.

Ingredients:

Preparation:

1. Peel bananas, cut into thick rings. Rinse currants, sort out.
2. Place fruits and berries in a pressure cooker. Throw in raisins. Pour 3 liters of boiling water, close the bowl and put on fire.
3. Bring the pressure to 1,03 bar and hold for 3 minutes. Allow to cool under the lid, waiting for the pressure to drop to natural.
4. Pour 1/2 sugar into a wide bowl. Pour the contents of the pressure cooker. Top up with cold water up to 10 liters.
5. In the mixture, which has cooled to room temperature, add tannin. After half a day, add the enzyme, after the same amount of time – 1/2 of the yeast. Cover the container with gauze and put in a warm place.
6. Wait 3 days, stirring the mass twice a day. Then strain it, add the remaining yeast and sugar, and pour into a container for quiet fermentation under a water seal.
7. Once a month, you should remove the drink from the sediment. After complete clarification, bottle the product, cork and store. Tasting wine prepared at home, preferably after six months.

Terms and conditions of storage

It is necessary to store home-made blackcurrant wine in sterile bottles, hermetically sealed with corks, in a dark, cool place (cellar, cellar). It is desirable that the containers with the drink be placed horizontally.

Since homemade wine is usually free of preservatives, its shelf life is usually 1-1,5 years. In some versions of the recipes, the finished product can be stored for 2-2,5 years. In any case, homemade wine should not be stored for more than 5 years.

Conclusion

You can make blackcurrant wine at home using one of the many recipes suitable for experienced and novice winemakers. You should properly prepare the berries and, if necessary, additional ingredients, as well as carefully study and reproduce all the stages of the selected technology. As a rule, water and sugar are required to be added to blackcurrant juice, in some cases wine yeast and raisins are used. Since this product is natural and does not contain preservatives, its shelf life is not very long – from 1 to 2,5 years. Proper storage conditions will help preserve the pleasant taste and aroma of homemade currant wine throughout this time.