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, alcoholic bacteria necessary for fermentation also live in clusters, which process non-alcoholic juice into a hop-drink. Unfortunately, cherries cannot boast of such an ideal ratio of sweetness and acidity, and quite different, vinegar bacteria often live in it. But if you know the secrets, you can cook a good cherry wine at home. After all, it's all about the climate. If grapes in our country ripen only in the far south, then cherries are present in every garden.
The first - and indispensable - prerequisite for the transformation of juice into a drink of the gods is the creation of conditions in which alcohol bacteria will develop and vinegar will die. To do this, we need to take the cherry not overripe. After all, vinegar fungus has already appeared and is rapidly developing in it. You need to take a good one that is not ashamed and serve it. Berries are best used classic, black and with sourness, because in desserts fermentation will not develop at all - the cherry wine will come out weak, not finished, suffocated and without aroma.
The action algorithm is as follows. My cherries, remove the stalks, from the fourth part of the berries we take out the seeds, chop them and return them to the total mass, which we mercilessly crush. In professional winemaking, juice (wort) is separated from squeezes (pulp) already at this stage. But we are not in the 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 (per 10 kg of berries, 2 liters of water and 2 kilograms of sugar). The must must be sweet, even cloying.
Alcohol bacteria need very little air, while acetic bacteria need to constantly “breathe”. Therefore, winemakers go to a lot of tricks: they clog the barrel and bury it half in the sand, use a water lock - a special curved tube into which a little water is poured. This water barrier prevents the penetration of oxygen and allows free release of carbon dioxide released during the period of rapid fermentation. Such special devices negate the enthusiasm of those who want to make cherry wine at home. But there are rubber gloves on sale — we will use them.
After pouring the syrup, immediately seal the container by pulling such a mitten on the neck of the can. We place the dishes in a dark room with an even temperature balance of + 20-25 C. After a couple of days, the mass will begin to “play”: the foam cap will rise above the liquid, and the glove will be filled with gas. At this stage, when the cherry wine wanders violently at home, you should open the jar 2-3 times a day and mix the wort to lower 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 silent 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 wort. Carefully pick it up with a slotted spoon. Again, forget about wine for a week. During this time, the remains of the pulp fall to the bottom, gas becomes clearly less. Somewhere on day 18-20 we proceed to overfill (removal from the sediment). We put clean dishes below containers with a must. Using a flexible hose, pour liquid from one container to another so as not to disturb the sediment on the bottom and walls. We fill the dishes as densely as possible so that there is no room for air, and cork the lid. Now, cherry wine at home should ripen for 10-12 days in a cool and dark place (up to + 15 C). After that, it is poured a second time - already in glass bottles.