Hibiscus wine is remembered for its rich red color and slightly tart taste with mild sourness. Few people can immediately determine what the drink is made of.
Hibiscus tea should have a pleasant aroma without notes of mustiness and mold. In order not to infect the wine with pathogenic microorganisms, it is possible to work with the must only with clean hands. It is advisable to sterilize all used tools and containers with boiling water, then wipe dry with a clean, dry cloth.
Hibiscus wine recipe
Ingredients:
- hyacinth tea – 50 g;
- water – 3 l;
- sugar – 700 g;
- wine yeast or sourdough – for 4 liters of must.
Attention! For fermentation, it is wine yeast that is required, which can only be replaced with home-made raisin sourdough (or from other berries). If you take ordinary dry or pressed baker’s yeast, then instead of wine you get mash with characteristic alcohol tones.
Technology of preparation
1. If there is no wine yeast, then 3-4 days before working with the must, prepare a starter from raisins or other berries.
2. Pour 2 liters of water into the pan, add 350 g of sugar, mix, boil, boil over low heat for 2-3 minutes, removing foam, then remove from heat.
3. Add hibiscus tea, mix, cover and leave to infuse for 3 hours.
4. Strain the wort through 2 layers of gauze, squeeze the tea dry (no longer needed).
5. Add wine yeast or sourdough to the liquid part, add 1 liter of unboiled water (at the initial stage, yeast needs oxygen and trace elements for reproduction, which are not found in boiled water). Mix.
Attention! The temperature of the wort must not exceed 30 °C before adding yeast or starter, otherwise the yeast will die.
6. Pour the future karkade wine into a fermentation vessel, filling a maximum of 75% of the volume so that there is room for the next portions of sugar, carbon dioxide and foam. Install a water seal of any design (you can use a medical glove with a hole in one of the fingers).
7. Move the container to a dark place (or cover with a thick cloth) with a stable temperature of 18-25 °C. After 6-20 hours, signs of fermentation should appear: hissing, foam and gas release from the water seal (the glove inflates).
8. After 4 days, add the next portion of sugar to the wort – 200 g. To do this, pour 150 ml of fermenting liquid into a separate container, add sugar and mix. Pour the resulting syrup back into the wort and close the container with a water seal.
9. After another 6 days, repeat the procedure, adding the remaining sugar – 150 g, according to the technology described in the previous step.
Fermentation of homemade wine from hibiscus lasts 40-55 days, after which the must noticeably brightens, a layer of loose sediment appears at the bottom, and gas stops escaping from the water seal (the glove deflates).
10. Drain the fermented young wine into another container, without touching the sediment at the bottom. Taste the drink, sweeten with sugar to taste if desired. You can also fix with alcohol or vodka in an amount of 2-15% of the volume. Fortified is better stored, but tougher in taste.
11. Pour the drink into holding containers, being careful to fill up to the neck to minimize contact with oxygen.
12. Close hermetically, transfer to a refrigerator or cellar for storage at a temperature of +2-16 °C. Leave for at least 3-4 months (preferably 6-8).
If sugar was added after fermentation, then the first 7-10 days of aging the wine is best left under a water seal in case of repeated fermentation.
13. When a sediment appears with a layer of 1-2 cm, filter the wine by pouring it into another container through a straw so as not to touch the sediment.
14. The drink is considered ready when the sediment no longer appears. It usually takes a couple of months. After that, the wine can be poured into bottles and tightly closed.
If stored in a refrigerator or cellar, the shelf life of homemade hibiscus wine is up to 3 years. Fortress – 10-13% vol.