I decided to make wine without using a bunch of grapes: I bought 20 kg of apples for 1400 rubles – what happened at the end

I do not like dry wine, and indeed wine in the classical sense of the word. Grapes are considered the basis of most alcoholic beverages, but, as for me, this is nothing more than a stereotype. I decided to try to make wine without using a bunch of grapes.

In fact, wine can be made from any fruit or berry, as long as they secrete enough juice and contain at least a little sugar.

I decided to use ordinary apples for this, since it does not entail high costs, and the recipe is simple to disgrace.

The story of my reader Igor Grigorievich P.

Stage I – picking apples and squeezing juice

I think that you need to immediately decide on the type of wine, understand what exactly you want to get as an output. If this is a dry wine with a strict apple flavor, then it should not be sweet varieties of apples, for example, Simirenko.

If, like me, you love dessert wines, then you should give preference to sweet varieties of apples. I used Champion apples for this.

I am not a gardener and I don’t have my own plot, so I had to go to the nearest supermarket and buy 20 kg of “champions” for 70 rubles. Total – 1400 rubles.

According to my calculations, I should get more than 10 liters of wine at the output, so the costs are adequate. I also immediately bought 5 kg of sugar, which I will use as a sweetener.

At home, having passed apples through a juicer, I received 20 liters of juice from 14 kg. All that is required at this stage is to pour the juice into a saucepan and tighten with cheesecloth to protect it from insects.

Important! Never wash apples! On the peel there is yeast of natural origin!

Stage II – pulp and fermentation

After three days, foam and a kind of floating sediment began to form on the surface of our juice. These are the remains of the peel, pulp and directly the main source of yeast is the pulp.

I thoroughly stirred the contents of the pan during these three days, then simply removed all the foam with a slotted spoon.

At the same stage, I added about 1,5 kg of sugar to the juice, mixed everything thoroughly and left it for another two days. The main thing is not to overdo it with sugar, so as not to stop the fermentation process. If you want to get dry wine, then at this stage you do not need to add sugar.

After five days have elapsed since the start of juice production, it is necessary to remove the pulp again, and pour all the resulting liquid (this is already more wort than juice) into a bottle for fermentation.

For this, I use an ordinary canister, in which I have brew for moonshine. I put a water seal on the top.

Stage III – direct fermentation

At this stage, the most important thing is not to allow the product to come into contact with air, otherwise we risk getting apple cider vinegar. In my case, everything is solved simply – a classic water seal for moonshine mash, but many contrive and make various home-made designs.

I recommend buying a shutter, it costs about 200-300 rubles, but you are guaranteed to stop worrying about air getting into the wine.

Then we continue to add sugar, the main thing is to do it not at once, but two or three times, and quickly, avoiding prolonged contact with air. I entered in the following way:

• +1500 grams of sugar on the 3rd day after pouring into the waste container;
• +1000 g on day 7;
• +500 g on day 12;

As you can see, I added less and less sugar. Yeast weakens, and it will be difficult for them to process a sharply large amount of sugar. After 21 days of fermentation, I filter the resulting wine through gauze, and put it in the cellar to “grow up”.

Result

Of course, you can taste the wine immediately, but I let it stand for about a month, then it reveals its taste and aroma to the maximum. As a result, I get a wine with a strength of 16⁰, sweetish, but not cloying, even despite the amount of sugar used.

In the future, I want to try to make wines from everything I find in the store: oranges, kiwis, pears, strawberries, cherries, mangoes, etc. The goal is the same – healthy curiosity.

And from what ingredients did you prepare the most “strange” and unusual wine in your life?