Watermelon wine at home: a simple recipe

Watermelon is an amazing berry of huge size. Its healing properties have been known since ancient times. From it, culinary specialists prepare various delicacies: watermelon honey (nardek), delicious jams, pickles. But few people know that good intoxicating drinks are obtained from this berry.

Вино из арбуза в домашних условиях не всем нравится. Но любители арбузного напитка предпочитают его даже изысканным виноградным винам. Вначале приготовления вино бывает розовым, но в процессе настаивания становится оранжевым или даже рыжевато-коричневатым.

Little secrets of winemaking

As we have already noted, watermelon wine is not prepared very often. But it is worth preparing it for testing, suddenly you will also become a lover of such a drink. The main thing is to choose the right recipe and spend a little time.

Кроме того, нужно знать некоторые секреты приготовления арбузного вина, тем более что технология отработана веками.

Об этом сейчас и поговорим:

1. First, you need to choose the right berry. Most often, sweet varieties are taken for wine, for example, Astrakhan. Preference should be given to smooth berries, without signs of rot and damage. Watermelons for a drink are selected ripe, juicy, with bright pulp and black seeds. These fruits contain the most dry matter. You can also determine the technical ripeness of a watermelon by external signs: yellow barrels and a dry tail.

   

   In fruits, water is 94%, but sugar is only 8%. That is why watermelon wine, as well as intoxicated melon drink, are watery. Therefore, before making wine, experienced winemakers evaporate the juice.

2. Во-вторых, заранее готовят тару и инструменты: их тщательно стерилизуют и вытирают насухо. Опытные виноделы перед работой протирают ножи и руки водкой или спиртом, поскольку микробы оказывают губительное действие на готовый продукт.
3. Thirdly, when peeling watermelons, you need to remove light and unsweetened parts and seeds. Otherwise, the watermelon drink will turn out bitter. Such wine can be considered spoiled.
4. В-четвертых, выбрав мякоть из арбуза, нужно быстро отжать сок, чтобы она не заветрелась.
5. Fifthly, when filling the fermentation tanks, they are not poured to the top, but only by 75%, so that there is room for the fermentation of the pulp and carbon dioxide.
6. Sixthly, many of our readers are interested in whether to use sugar to make wine from watermelons at home or start a drink without it. We answer that this ingredient is required. We should not rely on the fact that when eating watermelon we feel sweetness. In winemaking, natural sugar in the berry is not enough. Each recipe indicates the required amount of granulated sugar. As a rule, winemakers add from 0,4 to 0,5 kg of sugar for every liter of nardec (watermelon juice).
7. Seventh, raisins or fresh grapes are added to watermelon wine at home. It is essential for successful fermentation. It is forbidden to wash these ingredients before putting them into the must, because the surface contains special bacteria, which winemakers call wild yeast. You will need 100 or 150 grams of this yeast supplement. In the event that fermentation is poor, add a little lemon juice.
8. Eighth, fortified watermelon wine is most often made at home by adding vodka or another intoxicating drink to it. But not everyone will like the taste and aroma of such wine. Therefore, experienced winemakers prefer to use tartaric or tannic acid to obtain fortified wine from watermelons.

Recipes for homemade watermelon wine

As a rule, the preparation of homemade wine from watermelons is done at the height of the harvest. It should be noted that it is in such fruits that the least harmful substances are present. Watermelons bought in the store in winter are not suitable for winemaking.

We bring to your attention different options for making wine from watermelons at home. If you follow our advice, watch the suggested video, then everything will work out fine for you.

Easy recipe step by step

To make homemade watermelon wine according to a simple recipe, you will need the following components:

• ripe watermelons with sugar pulp – 10 kg;
• granulated sugar – 4 kg 500 grams;
• raisins – 200 grams.

Technology features

And now we will tell you how to prepare watermelon wine at home step by step:

1. Сначала арбуз хорошенько промываем, вытираем насухо. Разрезаем на части и выбираем красную сахаристую мякоть.

   

   Grind it with a blender until a homogeneous mass is obtained. The resulting juice must be measured, since sugar will be added for every liter.

   

2. Then we fall asleep unwashed raisins containing wild yeast and lemon juice on the surface.
3. We tie gauze folded in several rows on top of the fermentation tank so that insects do not get into the future wine from watermelons. We put the container in heat for fermentation for two days. Direct sunlight should not fall on the pan. The pulp will rise, it needs to be “drowned” at least twice a day.
4. When the mass begins to bubble, add 150 grams of granulated sugar for every liter of watermelon juice. Mix the resulting mass until the sugar is completely dissolved and pour into bottles. From above, we install a water seal or pull on a medical glove, having previously pierced one of the fingers with a needle.

   

5. Дня через три дня убираем мезгу, переливаем жидкость в новую бутыль. Часть вина отливаем в небольшую емкость, растворяем сахар (150 г) и вливаем сироп в общую массу. Ставим под гидрозатвор или натягиваем на горлышко перчатку. А потом еще через четыре снова добавим остатки сахара все также на литр воды. Бутыль наливаем на 75-80%, чтобы оставалось место для брожения.
6. As a rule, the future wine will ferment for about a month. We determine the end of fermentation by the deflated glove. If a water seal was installed, then gas bubbles will no longer be released in it. A sediment from the yeast will appear at the bottom of the bottle, and the wine itself will become light.
7. Now the drink must be drained from the sediment. This is best done with a straw so as not to disturb the sediment, followed by filtration. A young wine is a must. If it seems to you that there is not enough sweetness in it, add granulated sugar again, close it tightly and leave it for 2 or 2,5 months to ripen. The place where we put the bottle should be dark, and the temperature should be from 5 to 10 degrees Celsius.
8. The wine will have to be removed several times from the sediment and filtered. The finished watermelon drink should not have any suspension at the bottom of the bottle.
9. Wine from watermelon is stored at home for no more than 12 months. Although experienced winemakers advise using it ten months in advance.

Student-style watermelon wine

Fortified wine can be obtained using the simplest recipe. For this we need:

• ripe fruit – 1 piece.
• vodka or other strong alcoholic drink – 400 ml;
• knitting needle and a large syringe.

How to act

The drink obtained according to this simple recipe resembles fortified wine in taste. And now about the rules of manufacture:

1. We wash the watermelon so that no dirt remains on the surface, wipe it dry.
2. With a thin knitting needle we pierce the fruit in the area of ​​uXNUMXbuXNUMXbthe tail and use a large syringe to pump in an alcoholic drink. After introducing the first portion, set the watermelon aside so that the air comes out. So we act until we download all the alcohol.

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   Vodka or another drink must be pumped exactly into the center of the watermelon, where the voids are located.

3. The hole from the needle needs to be covered. You can use plasticine or wax for these purposes.
4. Хранится наша бродильная «камера» в прохладном месте примерно сутки. За это время арбуз размягчится.
5. We make an incision in it and decant the resulting liquid into a convenient container, then filter it. Everything, watermelon wine is ready.

If you do not like strongly fortified wines, then you can use not vodka or alcohol, but a martini, a cognac drink, to make watermelon wine at home. Even champagne is poured into a watermelon!

For testing, you can prepare watermelon wine of various strengths. And then decide what drink you will make next time.

A bit of history

Watermelon wine in watermelon is also called student wine. Young people, in order to get into the hostel, bought a watermelon and pumped a liter of vodka into it. The watchmen for a long time did not guess how alcoholic drinks get to the students, because they did not carry vodka or wine past them. Most likely, it was the students who became the “authors” of the simplest recipe for watermelon wine at home.

How to make delicious watermelon liqueur, winemaker’s tips:

To summarize

You will not find watermelon wine in stores, because it is not produced on an industrial scale. This is purely homemade. Using any recipe, you can independently prepare several bottles of dessert wine of various strengths.

Единственный недостаток напитка – великолепием вкуса оно не отличается. Но несмотря на это, любителей хмельного напитка из арбузов не так уж мало. Попробуйте приготовить, возможно, вы пополните их ряды.