Homemade cherry wine for beginners in winemaking according to the “Soviet recipe”

I am not quite a novice in winemaking, I had a single, but positive experience of making cherry wine last year.

Then I barely beat off two boxes of berries from my mother-in-law with a seaming key and for the first time ventured to make homemade wine on my own. I’ll be sure to share the recipe below.

The new summer again pleased with the harvest, and the whole family, no longer asking my opinion, began to count how many liters of wine we would get. So, I definitely liked it, I thought, but it was not so easy to repeat the success.

This story was sent to me by my reader Evgeny P.

How I Became a Family Winemaker

I got the impression that fate itself led me to this case. A year ago, friends came to visit with homemade wine, my wife and I really liked it.

Then the thought came to me – why am I worse? There is a garden with grapes and cherries, there is also a cellar, as they say – the matter remains small.

A few weeks later, I discovered a 20-liter glass bottle in my father’s shed, and this discovery became the impetus for action. Before the ripening of the grapes, it was necessary to wait another month, but the cherry was already ripe. What difference does it make what the drink is made of, I decided, inspired by enthusiasm.

Wine was made intuitively and according to the prompts of his father. Later I learned that this technology is called “Soviet”. I was confident in the result – and indeed the drink turned out great, then I did not know what problems I would face this year, but more on that later.

Homemade cherry wine for beginners in winemaking according to the “Soviet recipe”

This easy instruction is suitable for beginners, because it does not require special financial costs and efforts.

To make wine last year, I needed:

• glass bottle for 20 l;
• water;
• sugar – about 3 kg;
• cherries – about 10 kg (you do not need to wash the berries, only heavily polluted ones, because the necessary bacteria are washed off with water and the juice ferments poorly).

The cooking process

First of all, he removed the bones, and this is the most dreary work. I filled the bottle halfway with berries (it took about 10 kg), poured all the sugar and filled it with water to the ¾ level.

To avoid contact with air, I installed a water seal. For a small container, a glove with a finger pierced by a needle is also suitable.

After three or four weeks, the juice stopped “playing” and foaming – which means it’s time to filter. Carefully, so as not to raise the sediment and cake from the bottom, I poured the juice with a silicone tube, squeezed the rest out with gauze.

We enjoy the result

He bottled the young wine and took it to the cellar, where he was never destined to lie and brew for a long time. The drink was drunk like compote, but a slight intoxication was felt quickly enough.

Indicators of a cheap wine maker for 80 rubles. were at 10 degrees. The result was liked by “tasters” of all ages – friends and parents.

The first problems in winemaking

This year, the family council allocated six boxes of cherries for wine. Inspired by the success of last year, I borrowed a second bottle from friends, and my mother-in-law gave me (for a good cause) a stainless steel container of 20 liters. Once upon a time, during the crisis of the 90s, mash was prepared in it.

The first problem became obvious immediately – these are the bones. It’s one thing in a few evenings, after work, to process two boxes, as in the past season, and another as many as six.

Fearing that the berry will start to deteriorate, the wife found a recipe for cherry wine with pits. This is where the problems started.

Wine stopped playing, who is to blame and what to do

I return to real time and regret that this time I did not make wine according to the old scheme. I’m sure it would work great with bones too. The most important thing is to pierce the berry so that it gives juice, but my wife and I decided to “reinvent the wheel”, which we now regret.

According to the new recipe, I poured water and sugar on the cake from berries and seeds, the proportions are almost the same as in the tested instructions (above), at that time this gave confidence in the final success.

However, the difference in the recipes was that before draining the mixture into a bottle with a water seal, it had to stand under gauze in an ordinary container for four days (I used a plastic basin).

Then the juice is filtered and transferred to a container with a quarter of the used cake and placed under a water seal. This is where something went wrong.

Juice played only in one container (a metal flask from my mother), the other two “slept” in a sound sleep. I removed the water seal from them, added some sugar and put gloves on the bottles.

Either they turned out to be of poor quality, or at night the mixture fermented well from sugar – in the morning the gloves turned out to be torn. I again put the water seal, but the wine, as luck would have it, gradually stopped playing.

Life hack in case of failure

Falling into despair, I poured some successfully “playing” wine into two problematic containers. With this I replaced wine yeast, although they are quite affordable – from 70 to 250 rubles. for a pack. The fermentation process slowly but steadily went.

I’m afraid to jinx it! Fingers crossed, I hope for a positive result in the end, it’s a pity to spoil so much product.

Has anyone encountered such a problem? I can’t understand what went wrong, did I make a mistake somewhere, or is it in the new recipe for homemade wine?