For making homemade wine, not only grapes are suitable. It can be made from berries and fruits such as plums, raspberries, currants, apricots, strawberries and gooseberries. Also suitable for this are apples, pears, blackberries, blueberries, pomegranates and figs. Both varietal and blend wines are prepared from them. Also excellent is homemade cherry wine. This dark red drink, sometimes having a purple hue, is in no way inferior to grape wine.
Indeed, cherry juice itself is very thick. It contains a lot of acid (up to 2.2%) and not a lot of sugar (about 12.8%). Also in this juice there are tannins (0.1%), which give it a tart taste. There are many varieties of cherries , and all of them are to varying degrees suitable for making wines. But dark colored varieties are best suited for this. These are such as Lyubskaya, Vladimirskaya, Shubinskaya, Shpanka, Novodvorskaya and others. Homemade cherry wine of these varieties is thick, aromatic and fairly persistent. And sweeter pink varieties are more used to blend dark cherry juice.
In winemaking, light table wines are made from these fruits. Good strong wines also come out of them . And from such a variety as Vladimirskaya, excellent liquor wine comes out. And in general, cherry juice easily and quickly ferments, while lightening by itself. And this is its main advantage.
But in order to fully use all the advantages of these fruits, you need to know a few basic rules:
1) Cherries for processing need to be collected completely ripe, but did not have time to re-mature, and even more so rot. And after they were picked from the tree, these fruits remain suitable for processing for no more than three days.
2) Bones from cherries must be removed before you start chopping them. If this is not done, then homemade cherry wine will have a bitter almond flavor.
3) Squeeze cherries must first be filled with water and let them brew for one day. This will greatly facilitate the process of squeezing the juice from them and help to extract more valuable substances that are contained in these fruits.
Well, also, before you start squeezing the juice, you need to wash the fruits, remove rotted berries and stalks.
And the technology of making wine at home allows you to get a 14-15 degree drink. And to get this result, the acidity of cherry juice must be lowered by diluting it with water. It is also necessary to increase its sugar content, since sugar in cherries is not enough. But if you put too much sugar, it will slow down the fermentation process and this will reduce the strength of the finished drink. Therefore, the following proportions of ingredients are optimal: cherry juice - 1 liter, water - 0.5 liter and sugar - 350 grams. This mixture is called sweet must. And sugar for this wort can be used by anyone other than refined sugar. This sugar contains ultramarine, which delays the fermentation process.
After the wort is ready, you can already proceed to the next stage - fermentation. And in the question - how to make homemade wine from cherries, this process should be given maximum attention. For the wort to roam well, a pure culture of wine yeast is required. It can be purchased at wineries. And if this is difficult, then the process of fermentation can be achieved using wild yeast. Few of them are on the surface of the fruits themselves. You can also throw a handful of unwashed raisins in the wort, which also contains wild yeast. Also for these purposes, in extreme cases, bread yeast is suitable. You can’t just use brewer's yeast. They do not withstand the increase in alcohol concentration. And as a result of this, the fermentation process can end ahead of time and the wort will become acidic or lose acidity.
After the wort is cooked, a glass bottle is taken in which the entire fermentation process will take place. The volume of this cylinder should beat 1/3 more than the volume of the wort. Wort is poured into this container, and it is closed with a special lid, in which there is an opening for air to escape. This balloon should be placed in a place that is protected from direct sunlight. And 2-3 days after the shutter is installed, active fermentation of the wort will begin. This process will last about 20 days. Then homemade cherry wine should still stand for about two weeks. During this time, it will brighten - solid particles and yeast will precipitate. And all the sugar during fermentation will turn into alcohol. And if you properly maintain the proportions of the wort, you get a fairly strong homemade wine, the quality of which you will be completely confident.