How to make cherry wine at home

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

The very word "wine" indicates that this drink is made from grapes. It is in the berries of the vine that the ideal proportion of sugar and acid is contained. By the way, the alcohol bacteria necessary for fermentation also live in the clusters, which process non-alcoholic juice into an intoxicating drink. Unfortunately, cherries cannot boast such an ideal ratio of sweetness and acidity, and quite different, acetic bacteria often live in it. But if you know the secrets, you can make good cherry wine at home. After all, it's all about the climate. If grapes in our country ripen only in the extreme south, then cherries are present in every garden.

The first - and indispensable - prerequisite for the transformation of juice into the drink of the gods is the creation of conditions in which alcohol bacteria will develop and vinegar bacteria will die. To do this, we need to take not overripe cherries. After all, vinegar fungus has already appeared and is rapidly developing in it. You need to take a good one, which is not ashamed to serve on the table. Berries are better to use classic, black and sour, because in dessertfermentation will not develop at all - cherry wine will come out weak, underplayed, suffocated and without aroma.

The algorithm of actions is the following. My cherries, remove the stalks, take out the seeds from the fourth part of the berries, grind them and return them to the total mass, which we mercilessly crush. In professional winemaking, the juice (must) is separated from the pomace (pulp) already at this stage. But we're not in a factory. Since we make cherry wine at home, we will leave this process for later. And now the resulting slurry is placed in a container with a wide neck, filling it halfway. Separately, we prepare sugar syrup (based on 10 kg of berries, 2 liters of water and 2 kilos of sugar). The wort should be sweet, even cloying.

Alcohol bacteria need very little air, while acetic bacteria need to "breathe" constantly. Therefore, winemakers go to a lot of tricks: they cork the barrel and bury it halfway in the sand, use a water lock - a special curved tube into which some water is poured. This water barrier prevents the penetration of oxygen and allows the free release of carbon dioxide released during the period of rapid fermentation. Such special devices nullify the enthusiasm of those who want to make cherry wine at home. But there are rubber gloves on the market - we will use them.

After pouring the syrup, immediately seal the container by pulling such a glove over the neck of the jar. We place the dishes in a dark room with an eventemperature balance + 20-25 C. After a couple of days, the mass will begin to “play”: a foam cap will rise above the liquid, and the glove will be filled with gas. At this stage, when cherry wine is fermenting rapidly at home, you should open a jar 2-3 times a day and stir the must to let the pulp down. So you need to wait a week.

After that, we leave the wine alone for another 6-7 days. The liquid should enter the stage of quiet fermentation. The foam will subside, and a thick layer of pulp will appear on the surface. This is a sign that it is time to separate the pulp from the must. Carefully pick it up with a slotted spoon. Again for a week we forget about wine. During this time, the remains of the pulp fall to the bottom, the gas becomes clearly less. Somewhere on the 18-20th day, we proceed to the transfusion (removal from the sediment). We put clean dishes below the container with the wort. Using a flexible hose, pour the liquid from one container to another so as not to disturb the sediment on the bottom and walls. We fill the dishes as tightly as possible so that there is no room for air, and cork with a lid. Now cherry wine at home should ferment for 10-12 days in a cool and dark place (up to + 15 C). After that, it is poured a second time - already into glass bottles.