Wine is one of the most beloved alcoholic beverages among women. It is not as strong as cognac, rum or whiskey, does not intoxicate the mind and is easy to drink. A glass of good wine perfectly complements a delicious dinner and allows you to relax a bit after a busy day. Today, there is a huge selection of a wide variety of drinks on sale, but we cannot always be sure of their quality. That is why it will be useful to learn how to make wine from cherries yourself. In fact, this process is not so complicated, and everyone could feel like a winemaker, if there was a desire. Why from cherries, not grapes? The fact is that this berry grows in our country almost everywhere. Well, grapes are still a thermophilic plant and require more thorough care. In addition, cherry wine is less common in stores, and to taste it is not inferior to traditional grape wine.
Before making wine from cherries, you need to familiarize yourself with several of its features. So, for its preparation, one berry juice will not be enough. Still, cherries are less sweet than grapes, and therefore the finished product can turn out to be sour. Therefore, the recipe necessarily contains sugar, which increases not only sweetness, but also the strength of the drink. In addition, water is used to reduce acidity.
So, how to make cherry wine at home? The whole process should be divided into several stages:
- the wort is prepared;
- fermentation occurs upper and lower (stormy);
- quiet fermentation, removal of wine from the sediment;
- final ripening of the drink;
- bottling and storage.
So, the first stage. We take a large container (if there is a barrel, then excellent) and fill it with berries. Ponytails and bones (you can leave a few pieces to give astringency) should first be removed. Now begins a very fascinating process - crushing berries. You can do this with your hands or a pusher. After that add sugar and water. Mix. This mixture is called "must".
In accordance with the classical method of preparation, the same amount of water and 3 kilograms of sugar are taken on a bucket of cherries. If you want a light table wine, the recipe will be different: for the same number of berries, take 2 kilograms of sugar, 2 liters of water and a little (gram 3) citric acid.
Now the container with the future alcoholic drink needs to be covered and left in a dark place for fermentation for a month. Twice a day, you need to mix it so that instead of wine you do not get vinegar. However, more often it’s not worth opening too - excess air will get. A week after the start of fermentation, the pulp should be removed from the surface of the wine mass (so as not to deteriorate). The final stage will come in 30-45 days. The wine needs to be filtered and bottled.
And how to make wine made from cherry fortified? The algorithm is almost the same, but after pressing the wort, you need to add wine yeast to it and leave for 10 days. Then the precipitate is removed, sugar and alcohol are added, it is still aged 10 days. Next, the wine is filtered and bottled. In this case, the proportions are as follows (per 10 liter bucket of berries):
- sugar - 2 pounds;
- water - 2 liters;
- alcohol - half a liter;
- yeast - a teaspoon.
Now that you know how to make cherry wine yourself, there’s no need to buy a store product of dubious quality. A good reason to boast of their mastery of the winemaker and, of course, treat relatives and friends with real wine of their own preparation.