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I live in the Luhansk region. Probably not the best place for vineyards, however, as far as I know, even in more northern regions, people manage to grow good grapes. For example, in Belarus.
Somehow my wife and I thought about why not make our own homemade wine, especially since we had grapes. Both I and she love to buy a bottle of wine and drink it at dinner.
But why spend extra money if everything for wine is at hand, it remains only to take it and cook it. What we decided last year.
A story from a reader from Lugansk. Dmitry Olegovich has been reading the blog for more than a year, but for the first time he shared his experience in winemaking.
Why I decided to make alcohol myself
In my garden plot grows the simplest, blue small grapes. This is not a variety that requires close attention. It grows on my own. The only thing I do is prune it a little in the fall.
We have always made juice from these grapes, which, by the way, turns out to be very sweet and tasty. But at some point I thought, why not try to make homemade wine out of it.
It’s just that before that, I always thought it was a very complicated process. But in fact, looking ahead, I can say that everything is completely solvable. I love wine when it has sweetness in it. Not Cahors, of course, but semi-sweet. This is what I tried to do.
Attention! The sweetness will depend on the sugar you add.
Moreover, this process does not require any special skills and devices. And yes, it’s not that expensive. But the end result is a massive savings. One has only to compare the cost of 1 liter of wine in the store, and how much the same liter will cost you when making homemade wine.
What ingredients are required
The list is quite simple. First of all, it is the grape itself. By the way, if you live in an apartment and do not have a summer cottage, you can simply buy grapes. We also need sugar, a fairly large amount. I buy some more alcohol to sanitize the wine containers.
The required utensils can also be conditionally attributed to the ingredients. The utensils must be either enameled or stainless steel. I used different.
And plastic cups with buckets, and pans, and an aluminum tank. Otherwise, the grape juice may oxidize, and this should not be allowed.
Aluminum tank in which the wine does not oxidize
You will also need some related items for more convenience. For example, ordinary medical rubber gloves so that hands do not stain.
You can also add paper or some kind of rags to put on the floor, since during the process it is difficult to be completely neat and not splash anywhere.
The cooking process
First of all, you need to collect grapes. It is very important not to wash the grapes. Surely you noticed a small layer of plaque on the berries, similar to dust. So, these are natural yeasts that should never be washed off.
If it rained, then the grape harvest should begin at least 3 days later, unless, of course, they were sunny. After that, it must be suppressed. I did this with my hands so as not to crush the bones, as they will give bitterness to the wort.
I take a saucepan, put a few bunches of grapes in it, press it with my hands and pour the resulting contents into a tank.
Small plaque (yeast) on grape berries
Important! If you make wine from blue grapes, then it is not necessary to separate the berries from the stem. Nothing terrible will happen if even one leaf or twig gets into it. The main thing is to get rid of rotten or green berries.
Crushing grapes by hand
It is necessary to fill the container (in my case, the tank and not only) by 70-80 percent. This is due to the fact that during fermentation the pulp will rise.
It is also desirable to take a container whose neck is not wide, such as a cup. After filling the container to the desired level, simply cover it with gauze. Follow closely what is going on.
First of all, a hat should appear, in other words, the pulp. If this happened the next day, then keep the wort for another 3-4 days from that moment. If on the second day, then 4-5 days from the moment of raising. It is also worth knowing that all this content should not be cold or warm.
The required temperature is approximately + 18-23 degrees. During these days, at least once a day, you need to mix everything and drown the raised hat in the juice. Under it, a hiss should be heard and foam should be visible. These are signs of good fermentation.
Raised hat (pulp)
After the specified time, it’s time to bottle the juice. I took a sieve, cheesecloth and a cup. He took a little pulp, put it in cheesecloth and squeezed juice out of it. Then he poured all the juice through cheesecloth and a sieve to clear it of all excess.
You can do multiple runs. Then the resulting juice was poured into jars. I also added water at a ratio of 1 part water to 2 parts juice. This slightly reduced the acidity.
I also filled the jars by 70 percent. At this point, you need to add sugar. I will do this at least 3 times. Immediately I added 100 grams per 1 liter. Everything, I closed it with a water seal and left it for 1 week.
Then he added more sugar, already 50 grams per 1 liter. A week later, I added sugar for the last time. 25 grams per 1 liter was enough for me, but you can adjust the amount to your taste. After that, you need to wait for the active and quiet fermentation to pass.
That is, to completely stop it. Only after that the wine can be taken to the cold (in the cellar).
What result did I get
The result is just great. Forgot to mention one more thing. Standing in the cellar, wine can give out tartar. Thus, it is clarified and deprived of excess acid.
Dark crystals appear on the walls or bottom of the vessel. Naturally, the container must be cleaned of this. This, by the way, is a good sign, since all this garbage could remain in your kidneys.
Cream of tartar
Speaking about the resulting wine, I guessed everything. The sweetness was in moderation, it was about 11 degrees, neither more nor less, the taste and aroma are simply incredible. Now my wife and I can not get enough of the result.
We only regret that we didn’t do it sooner. I have heard that if the taste is not to your liking, there is nothing wrong with sweetening it a little more. True, after this you need to wait a few more days to make sure that fermentation has not started again.
In general, try to cook in the same way as I did. I am sure that you will get good wine, which you can drink yourself and treat your friends.
It will be interesting to hear your opinion on this matter, maybe some tips to bring the preparation of wine to perfection. I will be glad to everyone.