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Summer has come and many people need redcurrant wine recipes at home. From this sour berry, you can make amazingly tasty and aromatic drinks, including alcoholic ones. Homemade redcurrant wine will delight not only with a refined taste range, but will also guard your health, of course, if you take it in therapeutic doses.
The benefits and harms of homemade redcurrant wine
The drink obtained as a result of fermentation of berry juices is called homemade wine. Made from red currant, it contains not only alcohol, sugar, but also many useful substances:
- organic acids, sugars;
- minerals (iron, potassium, selenium);
- vitamins (E, A, C);
- B-carotene;
- succinic, malic acid;
- pectin, nitrogen compounds.
Moderate consumption of the drink improves health and increases resistance to certain diseases. Redcurrant juice, from which wine is made, has a number of medicinal properties that do not disappear as a result of its fermentation and turning into wine. Here are just a few of them:
- restorative;
- antipyretic;
- anti-inflammatory;
- hematopoietic;
- stimulating appetite;
- laxative;
- diuretic;
- diaphoretic;
- choleretic.
Despite the usefulness of redcurrant wine, it also has enough contraindications. It is contraindicated in ulcerative lesions of the gastrointestinal tract, gastritis, hepatitis and some other diseases associated with reduced blood clotting.
How to make redcurrant wine
To properly prepare redcurrant wine, you need to know some of the nuances and features of the technological process used to make homemade alcohol. It is best to use glass bottles, cylinders, oak barrels, enamel pots, buckets. To separate the juice from the pulp, you can use various methods:
- with the help of a press;
- use a juicer;
- through a sieve (colander) by hand.
The pulp obtained after the first pressing is not thrown away. It can be reused. Pour warm water (1:5), leave for several hours, squeeze and filter. The taste of wine depends on the ratio of acid and sugar in the fruit. Since red currants are very acidic, sugar is often used in wine making. The juice is diluted with water to reduce the concentration of acids in the drink. Sugar is also added at the same time.
It should be remembered that:
- the sugar content in the wort is considered optimal – 25%;
- excess sweetness interferes with the fermentation process;
- 1 kg of granulated sugar dissolved in a drink gives an additional 0,6 l;
- 20 g of sugar per 1 liter of wort increases the strength by 1 degree.
After sugar syrup is added to the wort, it is placed in a glass container or barrel. The volume should be filled half or three quarters, no more. Otherwise, the pulp with strong fermentation can break out. Then you need to add the sourdough (wine yeast):
- table wine – 20 g/1 liter of wort;
- dessert – 30 g / l.
You can make your own wine yeast from raisins or grapes. To do this, place 0,2 kg of ripe grapes (raisins), 60 g of sugar in a bottle, add water (boiled) by ¾ of the volume. Ferment 3-4 days.
Sourdough can also be prepared from raspberries, strawberries. Mash two glasses of berries, add 100 g of sugar, a cup of water and shake well. It will also be ready in 3-4 days. Bread, brewer’s yeast should not be used. They significantly spoil the taste of the drink, and when the fortress reaches 13%, they begin to die.
For the fermentation process to proceed, the containers with the wort are placed in a dark place where the temperature is not higher than +18 – 20 degrees. Labels must be glued to all bottles indicating the date, a list of operations performed. To isolate the wort from the air, a water seal is installed on the neck of the container. It is a tube that is connected at one end to the cork of the bottle, and at the other end is immersed in a jar of water.
There is an easier way to isolate the wort from contact with oxygen. This is a plastic bag or a rubber glove put on the neck of the bottle. To activate the fermentation process, you need to periodically shake the container with the wort so that the bacteria that have settled to the bottom are included in the work. The end of the fermentation process can be recognized by the transparency of the wine, the sediment at the bottom of the bottle, and the lack of sweetness.
Redcurrant wine recipes at home
Wine made from fresh berries, without artificial colors and flavors, is much more pleasant and healthier to drink than industrial alcoholic beverages. It is necessary to master the technology in all its subtleties, then making wine at home will not be difficult.
A simple homemade redcurrant recipe (with yeast)
Sort the berries, wash and dry. In any available way, squeeze the juice from the red currant. If you don’t have time to bother with preparing wild yeast, you can use store-bought ones.
Ingredients:
- juice (red currant) – 1 l;
- sugar – 1 kg;
- water – 2 l;
- wine yeast.
Mix juice with sugar syrup, yeast and leave for a day. Then close the liquid container with a glove and shake occasionally. Simple redcurrant wine will ferment better at +25 degrees. As soon as the process has stopped, remove it from the sediment (with the help of a tube, pour it into another bottle) and ferment at a temperature of +10 – 15 with a water seal.
Fortified redcurrant wine
Mash washed and dried berries. Add sweet syrup to the resulting gruel. To prepare it for 1 liter of pulp, you need:
- sugar – 120 g;
- water – 300 ml.
The result is a sweet must. Add wine yeast (3%) to it, leave in a warm room for several days (2-3). Every day, stir the fermented wort several times with a wooden stick. Then separate the liquid from the pulp, add alcohol. For one liter – 300 ml of alcohol (70-80%). Place in a closed pan for 1-1,5 weeks.
During infusion, the wine should be clarified. To do this, add 1 tbsp. to 1 liter of drink. l. milk. When the clarification process is over, the wine is poured into another bowl, leaving sediment at the bottom. Then distributed into bottles.
Homemade redcurrant wine without yeast
There are many recipes for homemade redcurrant wine.
There are a number of mandatory conditions that must be observed when picking berries. Firstly, the fruits must be ripe, and secondly, there should be no rain for some time, at least 2-3 days. That is, you can not pick the berry immediately after the rainfall. Rains wash off the bacteria that are needed to make wine and ferment it from the surface of the berries.
Then, in any way, squeeze the juice from the currant. This can be done with a press or by hand. Place the berries in a colander and put on a glove on your hand. Wash each berry well so that it gives up its juice. Turn the berries into gruel, which will then infuse and give wine. It will be must. Add more water and place in a large container. Currants do not need to be sorted and cleaned from twigs. Under no circumstances should you wash it.
Ingredients:
- red currant – 10 l (bucket);
- water – 5 l.
The following is a step-by-step recipe for redcurrant wine. Mix the resulting slurry with a wooden spatula. On the second day, all the cake from the berries floats up. You need to insist the must for 5 days, stirring the berry mass several times a day. The fermentation process starts – those bacteria that were on the surface of the berries begin to work.
The next step is to squeeze out the pulp with gauze, discard. Pour the remaining liquid into a large bottle using a funnel. Close the container with a water seal. There is a fermentation process and the gas released goes through the tube into the water. So the wine should stand for 21 days.
Another recipe involves the use of sugar. Wash the berries, sort out twigs and impurities. Next, grind with a wooden pestle in a deep bowl to a mushy state.
Ingredients:
- red currant (juice) – 1 l;
- granulated sugar – 1 kg;
- water – 2 l.
Squeeze out the juice carefully. Pour it into a bottle. Pour sugar into it, pour in water, stir well with a wooden spoon. Leave to ferment for a maximum of a month or 3 weeks. Then strain through a filter or a thick cloth, pack in containers and close tightly.
You can make real homemade champagne from red currants. Fill the bottle halfway (maximum 2/3 parts) with berries. Top up with water and put in a cold place. Shake the contents of the bottle thoroughly several times a day.
Ingredients:
- rum – 50 g;
- champagne – 100 g;
- sugar – 200 g;
- raisins – 3 pcs.
After 1-1,5 weeks, filter the water infused with berries. Divide it among champagne bottles. In addition, add the indicated amount of ingredients to each individual bottle. Clog tightly and even preferably tar. Bury in the sand, preferably in a cellar or in another dark place. A month later, you can hold a tasting. If the wine has not “played”, hold for another 1-2 weeks.
To prepare another wine, you need 6 kg of currants. First you need to squeeze the juice from the berries. Next, you will need the following ingredients:
- sugar – 125 g / 1 liter of juice;
- cognac – 100 g / 1,2 l of juice.
Dry the washed berries, mash with a wooden pusher. Put them in a cold place, wait for the fermentation process. When it is over, strain the berry mass through a sieve, trying to avoid contact with it with your hands. The resulting juice to defend, drain into a bottle (keg), add sugar, cognac. Soak in the cellar for up to 2 months, then bottle. And another 3-4 months to withstand until fully prepared.
Redcurrant, rowan and grape wine
From grapes, on the surface of which there is the most wild yeast, it is best to prepare a sourdough for wine fermentation. It is important not to wash them so as not to lose such a useful feature. First, crush the berries with a wooden crush, then transfer to a jar and add boiled water, granulated sugar. Mix well and leave to ferment, which will last 3-4 days. Then strain and store in the refrigerator for a maximum of 1,5 weeks. In the wort put only warm.
Ingredients:
- grapes – 0,6 kg;
- sugar – 0,25 kg;
- water – 0,1 l.
Next, from the berry assortment (currant, mountain ash) get juice. Dilute it with water in a ratio of 1:1. For example, for 5 liters of juice – the same amount of water. The result is 10 liters of wort. Add starter – 30 g / 1 liter of must. So, for 10 liters you need 300 g. Add sugar in stages:
- 1st day – 420 g/10 l of wort;
- 5th day – the same;
- The 10th day is the same.
Put a rubber glove on the neck of the jar (bottle) and observe it. After a few days, it will swell, which means that the fermentation process has begun. Then pierce a hole with a needle – this will allow the accumulated gases to go out. At the same time, oxygen from the environment will not be able to penetrate into the jar.
After the end of fermentation (the glove will fall off), use a tube to pour the purified wine into another container, without affecting the sediment. If the drink is still not clean enough, filter it through a cloth, special paper. Pour into bottles and keep in the refrigerator. You can use it after 2 months.
Redcurrant wine with raspberry sourdough
After grapes, raspberry is the leader in terms of the amount of wine yeast contained on the surface of the fruit. Therefore, sourdough for making homemade wines is often prepared on its basis. You will need:
- raspberries – 1 tbsp.;
- water ½ st.;
- sugar – ½ tbsp.
Pour the berries with sweet syrup, leave to ferment in a very warm place for three days. They cannot be washed. Next, you need to take the following ingredients:
- currant (red) – 3 kg;
- mountain ash (chokeberry) – 3 kg;
- sugar – 2,5 kg;
- water – 5 l.
Pour the grated berries with warm syrup, put in a warm room. Put on a medical glove on top. Do not forget to shake so that mold does not form on the surface.
Then strain through a plastic sieve with several layers of gauze, separating the pulp. Now leave the wort for fermentation by closing the neck with a water seal. It will roam for about 1,5 months.
Terms and conditions of storage
The bottle of wine should be placed in such a way that the cork is immersed in its contents. So it will not dry out and will not allow air to penetrate inside. A minimum volume of voids should remain inside the bottle, so the possibility of oxidation is significantly reduced. It is better to store wine in a cellar, where the temperature is relatively stable, around +8 degrees. The room itself must be dry and clean.
Conclusion
Recipes for redcurrant wine at home are very different. You need to choose those proportions and cooking methods that are most suitable for all family members to taste.