Cahors from chokeberry. Making wine from chokeberry

Is it possible that homemade wine is not only tasty, but also healthy, with unique healing properties? Yes, if you cook it from chokeberry, in other words, from chokeberry. This tart berry strengthens blood vessels, lowers cholesterol, normalizes blood pressure, improves immunity and removes radionuclides from the body. Therefore, by adopting a simple yeast-free chokeberry wine recipe at home, you will perfectly combine business with pleasure - prepare a heady rowan drink and at the same time a delicious medicine.

In our area, chokeberry is often found, so I have prepared wine more than once according to different recipes. Raw materials are quite affordable, and the technology of preparation is simple. Compotes and juice from chokeberry in our family are loved, but still they have a very specific taste. But wine, taken in small quantities, for the prevention of various diseases, went very well.

Especially helps to cleanse the blood vessels and reduce pressure daily intake of homemade blackberry wine, 1 tablespoon half an hour before meals (3-4 times a day). The main thing is not to get carried away and not drink more than 100 g per day. The process of cleansing the vessels will go very actively, and this can cause a headache, but we do not need such a reaction.

Enriching the wine with various additives, you improve its taste. I draw your attention to the fact that all the recipes below do not contain yeast in the ingredient list. They are partially replaced by raisins, which contain yeast organisms. Also, the skin of rowan fruits is covered with wild yeast, which also contributes to fermentation. Therefore, it is not recommended to wash the berry before preparing the drink.

When chokeberry is harvested for wine

We have a lot of fruit trees and berry bushes in our dacha, and chokeberry grows. But wild-growing mountain ash is quite suitable for making wine. Just keep in mind that wild berries can be very bitter. Although it ripens in August, it accumulates its beneficial properties only by September-October.

After the first frost, excess bitterness leaves the fruit, so this is the best time to pick berries. When the mountain ash ripens to the desired condition, dark red juice is easily released from it when pressed. Well, if the day turned out to be dry and sunny. Immediately after the rain, it is better not to stock up on mountain ash - natural yeast will be washed off the berries, and the wine may not work out.

It’s also not worth it to delay the collection too much - frozen berries will not ferment. Personally, I pick aronia in October, after the first frost. I carefully cut off the tassels with berries with garden shears, and then separate the mountain ash from the stalks.

Dishes for picking berries should be enameled or glass. You can take plastic, but if the material is of poor quality, then this will badly affect the taste of the drink. Do not take aluminum or copper utensils - they cause oxidation of the berries.

Then I sort out the fruits, remove the rotten, pecked by birds and unripe, greenish ones. After all, only the best berries are needed for wine, then it will be amazingly tasty.

And now that we have collected the chokeberry, let's take a closer look at how to make amazingly tasty and fragrant home-made wine.

Homemade chokeberry wine: a simple recipe

Consider the classic recipe without yeast. The drink is moderately sweet, with a delicate taste and aroma. Its fortress is small - 10-14 degrees.

Ingredients:

• 5 kg chokeberry berries
• 2 kg of granulated sugar (calculation: at least 1 glass of sugar per 1 kg of fruit)
• 50 g raisins (not washed)
• 1 liter of water (pure spring or boiled and cooled)

Cooking

1. We immediately put the collected and sorted ripe rowan berries into processing. Do not wash rowan! Weigh the berries to calculate the amount of sugar and raisins. Pour them into an enameled or glass dish, knead thoroughly with a wooden rolling pin or hands. Make sure that each fruit is mashed.
2. Now all this puree is poured into a large container with a volume of about 10 liters (or more). Pour half a liter of warm water (temperature not higher than 30 degrees Celsius). Pour 1 kg of sugar, mix gently with a wooden spatula. Add a handful of unwashed raisins. Let's mix everything again.
3. We cover the wort with gauze, put in a warm and dark place for seven days. Twice a day - in the morning and in the evening - stir the puree so that it does not become sour or moldy.
4. After a week, the juice will separate well from the pulp. First, carefully take out the pulp, squeeze it through gauze (you can pass it through a press). Do not throw away the leftover cake, you will still need it.
5. Now let's get to the juice. We mix the juice in a bowl with the squeezed from the pulp, then pass everything through the filter (sieve or clean gauze folded in several layers). Pour the juice into a fermentation container. A large bottle or jar will do. We put on top a water seal or a pharmacy glove with a pierced finger. We put in a dark place. Wine fermentation begins.
6. On the same day, pour the squeezed pulp with the remaining warm water (half a liter), add sugar (1 kilogram), mix everything well. Cover with gauze, leave in a warm place for a week too. We mix the contents every day.
7. After seven days, we filter the pulp through a sieve or cheesecloth, it is not necessary to squeeze it hard. Pour this liquid into the bottle, after removing the water seal (or glove) from it. Gently mix, slightly shaking the bottle, then put on the water seal again. Throw away the rest of the pulp.
8. Now you need to filter the wine every two days, pouring it into another clean dish through a thin rubber hose (you can take a tube from a dropper). We put on a glove or a water seal, leave to wander further. And we do this until the rapid fermentation process stops completely, and there is no sediment left in the wine. It will become a clear, rich ruby ​​color.
9. Now let's prepare clean bottles. Strain the wine through cheesecloth, bottle up to the very neck. Cork, put in a dark cool place for final ripening. This process usually takes 2 to 4 months.
10. Then, if desired, you can once again strain the wine, pour into clean bottles, close and send for storage. Fragrant and healthy drink is ready to drink! And you can store it for about 5 years at a temperature not higher than 18 degrees.

To clearly see how easy it is to make wine from chokeberry at home, this interesting video will help you.

Having mastered the wine recipe step by step, you can safely experiment by adding other ingredients. I want to tell you about my favorite recipes for blackberry wine with additives.

Homemade chokeberry wine with cherry leaves

In the autumn, when we collect the chokeberry, the cherry no longer pleases us with its berries, its period has passed. But we can give the rowan drink an exquisite flavor by adding cherry leaves.

Ingredients:

• 3 kg chokeberry berries
• 500 g sugar
• 0.5 l of clean water (boiled and cooled or spring)
• Large handful of cherry leaves
• Small handful of unwashed raisins

How to make aromatic wine

1. We sort out the berries of chokeberry collected on a clear sunny day, get rid of dry and rotten fruits. We clean from leaves and various debris. I do not wash the berries themselves.
2. The collected fresh cherry leaves, on the contrary, are washed well. Then spread on a towel and dry. The leaves should be green and elastic.
3. We put the berries in a clean glass or enameled container, knead well with our hands or a wooden mortar. Then pour sugar into it, add cherry leaves, a handful of unwashed raisins.
4. Add warm (but not hot) water. Too hot water kills natural yeasts that are found on the surface of raisins and rowans. Mix everything well, cover with a thin cloth or gauze. We put in a warm place for fermentation. Stir daily with a wooden spoon.
5. When the berries float to the surface, it's time to strain the drink. Carefully pour it through a sieve or folded gauze into a clean bottle or jar, install a water seal or glove. We put in a dark place for at least a month (or better - three).
6. When the glove falls off, again strain the wine through cheesecloth and pour into clean bottles. We close them tightly, put them in a cool dark place for 6 months. And then you can already serve it on the table.

Based on this recipe, you can make fortified wine. It is enough to add half a liter of good vodka to the resulting amount of drink.

Wine from chokeberry and apples

I love the taste and delicate aroma of autumn apples. And if you add them to the chokeberry when making homemade wine, you get a great drink with a pleasant fruity flavor and divine aroma.

Ingredients:

• 3 kg chokeberry berries
• 1.5 kg of granulated sugar
• 2 kg apples (Antonovka is best)
• 1.8-2 liters of pure water

Cooking

1. We collect ripe apples, select beautiful fruits, without rot. If there are small wormholes, cut them out. Cut each apple in half, remove the core with seeds. Then we cut the fruit into small slices.
2. We sort out the chokeberry, remove the leaves, motes, rotten berries. The remaining fruits are kneaded with a wooden mortar, mixed with half a kilogram of granulated sugar. Then pour in the chopped apples. We add water.
3. Mix everything thoroughly, cover the container with gauze or a clean cloth, you can even tie it up a little. The top third of the container must remain free. We clean in a dark place for fermentation. Stir gently every day.
4. After 7 days, add another 500 g of granulated sugar, stir. Cover again with gauze, let the must ferment further. We still stir it daily.
5. After another week, add 500 g of sugar again. We leave to wander further for a couple of weeks. Don't forget to stir at least every two days.
6. In the sixth week, we no longer interfere with the wine, let it stand quietly for about a month. When the pulp floats and sediment falls to the bottom, pour the wine through a thin hose into clean bottles. You can immediately serve on the table, or you can still stand for about a month. The taste is incomparable!
7. These recipes are good for everyone, the wine is excellent. But, to be honest, sometimes you don’t feel like messing around, waiting for a long time. Or you need to prepare a quick wine for some important event. Then the following recipe helps out well.

A simple recipe for quick wine with vodka

Ingredients:

• 1 kg chokeberry
• 1 liter of clean water
• 0.5 liters of good vodka
• 100 g granulated sugar
• 2 dried cloves
• pinch of cinnamon (about 1 g)
• A pinch of citric acid (1 g)

Cooking

1. We collect the berries, as usual, we sort it out and this time we already wash it well. We fall asleep in a large saucepan, press well, add sugar, mix. Fill with clean water (2 cups). We put on fire. Cook over low heat, stirring, 30 minutes. Then turn off the fire, let the broth cool and brew - about 12 hours.
2. Then we filter through a sieve, squeeze the cake. Pour the pomace with the remaining 2 cups of water, add citric acid and spices. Cook again on low heat for half an hour. We wait until it cools down and squeeze.
3. We mix the decoction of the cake with the juice of the first extraction, then filter through cheesecloth. Add vodka, stir and bottle. Unusually delicious fortified drink is ready! It is not a shame to submit it to the festive table.

Now you know how easy it is to make chokeberry wine at home - yeast-free recipes that result in a healthy drink. Of course, if you follow the measure in use. In fact, this wine is still with yeast, but with natural yeast, we do not add them on purpose. Everything is natural and delicious. Bon appetit and good health!

Rowan chokeberry is a nondescript berry at first glance, which is not held in high esteem by most housewives.

Probably, they simply do not know that extraordinary homemade wine can be made from it.

Unlike many other alcoholic drinks, this one lowers blood pressure and is generally very beneficial.

Chokeberry wine at home - general principles of preparation

Beginning winemakers need to remember that when making wine from chokeberry at home, the berries are never washed. Even if they are dusty and dirty. In the process of fermentation, all foreign substances will turn into tartar, which is then easily removed.

Aronia berries contain little sugar, so dry wine is not very tasty, tart and sour. It is better to bypass such recipes and make a drink with the addition of granulated sugar.

Classic home technology:

1. Preparation of the wort (squeezing berries, adding sugar, water and other ingredients according to the recipe).

2. Stage of active fermentation. Usually lasts about 2 weeks. A glove is put on the bottle, the lid or neck is wrapped with gauze.

3. Stage of slow fermentation. A water seal is required.

4. Removal from the sediment. It is better to do it with a tube. It is not recommended to shake the drink or try to pour it by tilting the container.

5. Stage of maturation. Turns young wine into a full-fledged drink.

6. Storage and exposure. At this stage, the taste and aroma are revealed.

Home-made wine from chokeberry turns out to be quite thick, rich. Therefore, many winemakers prefer to reuse the strained pulp. To do this, water, sugar are added to it, they are allowed to ferment. Then both drinks are mixed. With this approach, more useful substances from berries pass into wine, the drink is lighter and more pleasant.

In winemaking, metal utensils cannot be used. Ideally, the drink is prepared in wooden barrels, but not everyone has such a luxury. Therefore, at home, glass bottles are usually used. You will also need a water seal, which can be purchased at the store or made independently.

Recipe 1: Chokeberry wine at home

According to this recipe, you can easily make dessert wine from chokeberry at home. The technology uses repeated fermentation of the pulp with sugar and water, which makes it possible to obtain a light, not sugary drink.

Ingredients

Rowan 3.5 kg;

700 ml of water;

Sugar 2.5 cups.

Cooking

1. We sort out the rowan berries, put them in a large cup or pan. Grind and add 1.5 cups of sugar, mix several times.

2. Put the mass in a jar, cover with a lid and put it away for fermentation. On average, it will last a week. Periodically, the mass must be stirred.

3. After a week, strain the juice through a colander. No need to do this through cheesecloth, small particles should remain in the wine for further fermentation. Pour into a jar, put on a water seal.

4. Pour a glass of sugar into the pulp, add 0.5 liters of water, mix and let it ferment for 5-6 days.

5. We filter the wine from the pulp, mix it with the first juice and put everything under a common water seal. We remove for further fermentation, every 2-3 days you need to remove the foam.

6. When the fermentation is over, you need to drain the drink from the sediment and you can taste it. The drink is still young, for maturation you need to hold it in the cellar.

Recipe 2: Simple chokeberry wine at home

A light and cost-effective homemade chokeberry wine that yields well due to the addition of extra liquid. It is better to use well water or spring water, but if this is not possible, then boiled and settled.

Ingredients

5-6 kg of mountain ash;

Sugar 3 kg;

80 gr. raisins;

Water 5 liters.

Cooking

1. Carefully crush the mountain ash, grind it with sugar, raisins and water. We mix everything well and put it away for fermentation. Stir every other day.

2. When the active game of wine is over, you need to strain the drink through a colander. Squeeze out the pulp and discard.

3. Drain the liquid into a bottle, put it under a water seal for about 40-60 days. As soon as the fermentation process is over, remove the sediment, bottle the drink and put it away for 3 months in a cool room.

Recipe 3: Homemade chokeberry wine with grapes

A feature of this home-made chokeberry wine with grapes is a classic aroma. The recipe will help out if there are different berries, but you don’t want to make a drink separately. And it’s also good because you don’t need to worry about weak fermentation, it will definitely be good with grapes.

Required Ingredients

Grapes 5 kg;

5 kg of chokeberry;

1.8 kg of sugar;

Water 5 l.

Cooking

1. We separate the grapes from the branches, along the way we sort out the spoiled, rotten and unripe ones. We also sort out the chokeberry.

2. We knead all the berries with our hands, pour out the sugar, pour out the water, put it away for fermentation.

3. When the future wine stops playing, we filter and remove for 1.5 months for further fermentation.

4. Filter, bottle and let the wine mature for 2-3 months.

Recipe 4: Cherry wine from chokeberry at home

Chokeberry pleases with a harvest in autumn, usually in September, and cherry is a summer berry. So how can you make a drink? In fact, such wine from chokeberry is prepared at home by adding cherry leaves. We can say that this is a snag, but it does not interfere with getting an unusually fragrant, bright drink.

Required Ingredients

3 kg of chokeberry;

A handful of cherry leaves;

Water 0.5 l;

A handful of raisins;

500 gr. Sahara.

Cooking

1. Cherry leaves are thoroughly washed and dried.

2. Knead the berries well, add sugar, raisins, purified water, cherry leaves. We remove for fermentation.

3. We filter, put the shutter and keep the drink for another month. We check. If he is still sharp and has not outplayed, then we keep on.

4. We decanted from the sediment and put it away for storage. This recipe is good for fastening. You can add ordinary vodka, 0.5 liters is enough for this amount.

Recipe 5: Homemade chokeberry wine with apples

For some, the homemade version of this apple wine with chokeberry may seem too dreary due to the repeated addition of sugar, but the end result is worth it. A sweet, full-bodied drink with a summery fruity aroma that will delight you on winter evenings.

Required products

3 kg of chokeberry;

Sugar 1.5 kg;

Apples 2 kg;

Water 1.8 l.

Cooking method

1. Cut the apples into small pieces, removing the seeds and core along the way. It is better to use ripe fruits, but without dark spots. We immediately cut out the wormholes, otherwise the final product will have an unpleasant aftertaste.

2. We sort out the chokeberry, knead it with 0.5 kg of sugar and send it to the apples. Add water, mix everything, tie the neck of the jar with a cloth or gauze. We clean for a week, every day the mass needs to be mixed.

3. After a week, add 500 gr. sugar, mix. In the third week, pour another 500 grams of sugar. Do not forget to stir daily or at least once every 2 days for another 2 weeks.

4. Let the wine ferment well for about a month. We do not touch the drink anymore, there is no need to stir. Then we filter, pour into a convenient container and put away for storage.

Recipe 6: Homemade Aronia Wine with Orange Flavor

Wine from chokeberry at home with orange flavor is made in several ways. For example, by adding juice or zest. The second option is much nicer and more fragrant. Therefore, we stock up on fragrant citrus peels and proceed to the preparation of the drink.

Required Ingredients

4 kg of chokeberry;

2.5 cups of sugar;

Oranges 3 pcs.;

1500 ml of water.

Cooking

1. We sort out the chokeberry, knead it, add 2 cups of sugar, water. We remove for 10 days.

2. We take oranges, wash them thoroughly with laundry soap, dry them. Remove the zest and chop. You can simply do this with a grater, processing the fruit from all sides.

3. We filter our drink, squeeze the pulp. Add the crushed zest, the remaining sugar to the juice and let the future wine ferment for another week.

4. We filter again, put the shutter and keep the drink under it until the reaction stops completely, on average about a month.

5. We drain from the sediment and you can try young wine. To fully develop the taste, you need to send it to ripen in a dark and cool place.

Recipe 7: Strong chokeberry wine at home

For fortified wine from chokeberry at home, you need vodka. Similarly, alcohol can be used if it is possible to purchase it. Such drinks differ not only in degrees, but also in taste. Therefore, it is very important not to overdo it and not turn the wine into a strong tincture. It should not exceed 20 degrees, ideally 12-15 is enough.

Many mistakenly assume that you can add alcohol-containing drinks to finished wine and get a fortified analogue. In fact, the taste of such a product will be fusel. Alcohol or vodka should be added only to young wine after removal from the sediment, and then the tastes should “make friends” within 3-5 months.

Required Ingredients

5 liters of young wine;

1.2 liters of alcohol, it is better to use cognac.

Cooking method

1. Pour alcohol into the filtered young wine. It is important that it is completely fermented. Otherwise, the alcohol will destroy the bacteria, the unfinished process will stop and the good taste of the drink will not be achieved.

2. Mix thoroughly, send the drink for 10-15 days to the basement for clarification.

3. Filter again through 4 layers of gauze, bottle and store. The container must be kept in a horizontal position and periodically turned over to the other side so that the cork does not dry out.

Recipe 8: Chokeberry Wine at Home with Syrup

The technology of chokeberry wine according to this recipe differs from the classic version. Usually rowan berries do not give juice well, especially if they are not very ripe. Heating the product will solve this problem.

Required Ingredients

2.7 kg of mountain ash;

1.4 kg of granulated sugar;

Water 3 liters;

Raisins 150 gr.

Cooking method

1. Cooking syrup. To do this, dissolve all the sugar in a liter of water. We put on the stove, boil for a minute. We leave to cool.

2. Add the remaining 2 liters of water to the berries, bring to a boil, boil for a minute and cool to a warm state.

3. Mix the syrup with boiled berries. Add raisins and remove to ferment for 7-10 days. Periodically, you need to stir the berries with a wooden stick so that they do not become moldy.

Aronia wine at home - tricks and tips

Winemaking loves hands, especially men's. Therefore, do not use a blender or meat grinder to crush berries. The quality and original taste of the drink will suffer from this. It is advisable to do everything with your hands or a wooden pusher.

Chokeberry juice does not wash off clothes very well. Therefore, you need to engage in winemaking in an apron.

Unripe berries make the taste even more tart, poorly secrete juice, and slow down fermentation. It is better not to use them and immediately throw them away.

If the wine does not play well, then you can add a little raisins to it. You can also add a couple of handfuls of fresh raspberries if you have autumn berries. The taste will not change from this, but the process will go more actively.

At any stage of fermentation, mold can form on the surface, so the future drink needs to be stirred occasionally.

When choosing a recipe for making homemade wine, you do not need to hope that you will get a drink with the same degree as the author. The fortress is influenced by many factors: the maturity of the berries, the temperature in the room, the sweetness of sugar, the quality of the pulp extraction.

I found a very detailed description of making wine from chokeberry. Somehow I tried this with relatives, but I didn’t get the recipe. because they make wines from everything and by eye. And the drink was really great.

How many of us, dear friends, have paid attention to such a nondescript and seemingly useless berry as chokeberry, the ripening season of which begins in September? Frankly, I, too, was once indifferent to it, since "black-fruited" jams or jams never interested me. But one day in the country, looking at a bunch of these berries and remembering the amazing property of chokeberry to lower blood pressure, I thought.

Winemaking, due to the fact that my childhood was spent in regions rich not only in wine, but in table (which is also not bad) grape varieties, was familiar to me from now to now. Try to make wine from chokeberry on the principle of grape? Why not? And a few years ago I made wine from aronia, which in itself is very interesting in taste and especially attractive for some reason to women. Since then, every year I make several liters of chokeberry wine, as well as from blackcurrant. I advise you to do the same when the next harvest ripens.

First 7-12 days

There is a desire? Then, during the ripening season of chokeberry, we bring home ten to twelve kilograms of berries.

Washing them, as is sometimes advised, is not only useless, but also harmful. In addition, if someone is not aware of the wine processes, all the "dirt" in any case subsequently precipitates and will be removed in the process of several filtrations.

NB! Let's remember: washing the berries is almost guaranteed to result in the fact that yeast bacteria, the main "actors" in the preparation of wine, will be washed off their surface. For the same reason that these bacteria are usually killed at low temperatures, frozen (and subsequently thawed) berries are not suitable for winemaking.

We start by choosing a suitable container in which berries with juice will ferment at the first stage. This container must be made of either food-grade stainless steel, or with an enameled and undamaged coating, or glass.

NB! Plastic, especially aluminum or copper utensils, are categorically not suitable for winemaking.

Dishes made of wood will not be touched. This is a special story that needs to be painted separately and we don’t need it.

So, having picked up the dishes, conscientiously, kneading each berry, we will crush our "prey". I prefer to do it by hand, but it is absolutely not forbidden to crush the berry with the help of kitchen appliances, like an electric meat grinder or a processor.

We crush the berries carefully in the sense that we do not splash juice all over the apartment. If the juice is removed from the skin and solid objects without problems, then clothes, for example, can be irreparably damaged.

After crushing the berries, add sugar to them - at the rate of about half a glass per kilogram. These proportions can be reduced or increased, depending on what kind of wine we want to get. Absolutely dry wine, without sugar, from chokeberry turns out to be unimportant - sour and tart, since there is not enough sugar in the fruits themselves. In addition, the fermentation process without the presence of a "sweet death" is very slow. From a large amount of sugar, sweet wine is obtained - also an amateur. The proportions I propose are focused on dessert wine, - in my opinion and taste, what you need.

NB! In any case, it is better not to joke with the proportions of sugar. Yeast bacteria will still not be able to process its excess into alcohol, and sugar will precipitate, despite the fact that the excess “sweetness” of wine cannot be corrected by anything. The wine is sweetened, if necessary, using a special procedure at the final stage of preparation, which I will discuss below.

Thoroughly mix the poured sugar, not disdaining to run your hand deeper into the juice. Future wine loves the touch of human, and especially male palms.

This completes the first stage. It remains to close the dishes with a lid, put in a relatively warm place (but not higher than 25 degrees) and let the mixture ferment for about a week, not forgetting to stir the juice and pulp from time to time so that, God forbid, mold does not appear.

NB! Mold can irreparably spoil the taste of future wine.

Second 7-12 days

After a week (sometimes more, which you should not be afraid of), the berries will float up and swell, and if you immerse your hand in the pulp, a foam characteristic of fermented juice will appear.

Well, now you need to work a little with both hands, choosing the pulp from the juice and squeezing it out as much as you can. I do not advise you to use juicers and other devices, except for the press, which you do not have. The juicer will be clogged after the second handful, and the juice yield will be negligible.

We put the squeezed pulp in a separate bowl, since the pulp will still be useful to us. Filter the juice through a regular colander. A trifle that has slipped through the holes will only stimulate the process of further maturation of the wine and, in the end, will be removed from there anyway.

Pour the strained juice into a suitable glass dish. As soon as we took 10-12 kg of berries as a starting point, two five-liter jars will be enough for us.

Now is the time to do the squeezed pulp. Here, my friends, there are two options. You can simply throw it away, left without unenriched wine and chemise with water paired with the original squeezed juice. Or - reuse the pulp. The fact is that wine from pure chokeberry juice turns out to be extremely thick, firstly. Secondly, it, at least, lacks a number of useful and tasty things from berries. That is why the remaining pulp should be allowed to ferment one more time, but with the addition of sugar and water, so that later, by adding a “second” portion of juice to the original one, our wine will be more airy and more saturated with chokeberry “ingredients”.

NB! Water in the preparation of fruit and berry wines, in addition to the above, has another important role - only with its help you can adjust the acidity of the future drink - so that it does not reduce the cheekbones from an excess of sour. Nothing else regulates this parameter of fruit and berry wine.

So, for the resulting amount of pulp, add about a glass of sugar and pour in a little more than a liter of water (based on the initial 10-12 kilograms of berries). The quality of water must be approached selectively: tap water is not suitable for these purposes. It is better to use proven bottled water or water from a well. And, of course, cold.

The resulting mass is thoroughly mixed, pressed so that the moisture rises above the pulp, close the lid and remove again for at least a week for subsequent fermentation.

Now we need to "equip" the fermented juice obtained after the first extraction of the pulp - for further fermentation, since it is undesirable to leave it in an open jar, in direct contact with atmospheric air.

Of course, at first, while active fermentation is going on, you can get by with temporary devices, such as a rubber glove in which holes are pricked with a needle, but later one way or another, such “devices” will have to be abandoned in favor of a water seal, because so far there is nothing better and more effective for home winemaking is not invented.

The simplest water seal can be done, for example, like this. In the center of the lid, which can then tightly close the jar of fermented juice, a hole is drilled (or punched) equal in diameter to the cross section of the outlet tube (hose).

The tube itself should then be pulled through the hole in the lid and something suitable to heat the tip of the tube, thus increasing its diameter so that it fits snugly in the hole.

That, in fact, is all. The lid - on the jar, the other end of the tube - in any suitable vessel with water. Thus, the contact of the future wine with the atmosphere will be minimal, the road is open to excess gas pressure, and there is no risk that the wine will "suffocate" from the same gases, which often happens when using a "hello to Gorbachev" - a rubber glove.

We put the jar with the future wine closed with a water seal in a dark cool (but not lower than 18 degrees) place for further full fermentation of the juice.

In the meantime, all subsequent days we carefully monitor the state of the pulp, which we mixed with water, by no means preventing the appearance of mold on the surface! In other words, we follow the pulp not as passive observers, but by stirring it daily and drowning the floating berries.

After a week or two of fermentation, without squeezing the pulp too much, let it free itself from a new portion of juice.

Pour the juice through a colander or strainer in several steps into an empty bowl, as before, not really caring that a large fraction of the pulp will slip through the mesh (this will not hurt the future wine).

Now we take out the jar where the first portion of juice played (and continues to play) with us, release the jar from the water seal and use a suitable spoon or strainer to remove the foam that has risen from the surface of the wine.

The second portion of the juice that we squeezed out of the pulp, of course, is mixed with the first portion of the juice, poured into jars, corked with a water seal and put in a dark, but not the coolest place to continue the process.

Third 7-12 days

At first (within a month), once a week, it will be necessary to remove the foam and film from the surface and filter the wine so that the sediment decreases every time after filtration. At first, this can be done by simply pouring wine into another vessel, without shaking the wine itself and trying not to drain the sediment after the wine. But after two weeks, you will have to resort to finer filtration, for which you will need a small and thin hose, with which, without lowering it to the bottom, you will simply need to drain the wine from container to container.

NB! At the same time, it is very useful (for the wine itself) that the jet of the poured drink be thin and, as they say, "long". In this way, the wine is ventilated, which corrects its qualities for the better and helps to avoid possible diseases or deterioration of the wine. This procedure does not have to be carried out with every filtration, but it is very desirable to resort to it at least once a month.

Another extremely desirable procedure is the periodic (at least once every two weeks after a month of vigorous fermentation) stimulation of the further growth of alcoholic yeast with nitrogen-containing "bait". To do this, winemaking usually uses an aqueous solution of ammonium chloride (sold in pharmacies as "ammonia") - literally a drop per liter of wine, followed by mixing the wine itself. This procedure enhances the vital activity of the bacteria we need, thereby preventing the fermentation from fading and, as a result, affecting the alcohol strength required for wine.

After the first month of wine fermentation, its periodic filtration can be increased by "every two weeks", each time removing and removing the sediment.

NB! Let's remember that the sediment at this stage of fermentation is not so harmless "dirt" as it might seem. Basically, it is a graveyard of bacteria that have done their job and died, and can seriously affect the taste of future wine.

With a decrease in sediment (that is, after one and a half to two months from the moment when we started making chokeberry wine), the wine itself will become transparent. Provided that all procedures were performed correctly. That is, the wine fermented under a water seal, it was filtered, ventilated and fed with wine bacteria in a timely manner, and, importantly, “wine hygiene” was observed - reusable dishes and inventory were thoroughly washed with baking soda and dried, and all necessary manipulations were carried out clean.

Transparency or, more correctly, clarification of wine is a sign that it is approaching the stage, albeit a young, but ready drink. At this stage, you can safely conduct its first tasting in order to understand how correctly the wine was formed, whether it is necessary to make any adjustments, while the fermentation process is still going on, albeit inconspicuously, and so on.

NB! The taste of the right young wine is usually more sour than sweet, although sweet notes should be felt in it. If sugar prevails in the taste, this deficiency should be corrected by airing the wine several times as described above. If the taste of the wine does not improve, therefore, you need to reassure yourself that nothing terrible has happened - just its final strength will be slightly lower than it could be, and the fermentation process has actually ended.

Sweetening the wine (after about 2 months after the start of its preparation)

After the wine has completely fermented - that is, it becomes transparent to the light, and at the same time only a slight coating will form on the bottom of the dish, you can start sweetening it, focusing on your own perception of sweetness. In order to sweeten a sour-tasting young wine to the "condition" of dessert, a tablespoon of sugar per liter of drink is usually enough. The proportion of sugar can be reduced or increased - respectively, the drink will turn out to be more or less sweet.

Sugar should never be mixed into wine in the manner of sweetening tea or coffee. This is done differently. A measured portion of sugar is placed either in a cotton bag or on a cotton cloth.

A bag of sugar (or a cloth collected in a bag) should be tied at the neck with a suitable twine and lowered into a container with wine so that the bag is completely immersed in the wine, while remaining as close as possible to the surface of the wine itself. The twine will need to be fixed and a container of wine under a water seal until the sugar is completely dissolved. It usually takes about a week, after which it remains to make sure that the sugar has dissolved and remove the makeshift bag from the wine.

A young drink can either be bottled or left in the same container where the sugar was dissolved, covering the wine with a suitable lid (or cork) so as not to close it tightly. Usually only newly born drinks are prone to post-fermentation with a barely noticeable release of carbon dioxide. Tightly closed, but not fermented, wine can sometimes not only squeeze out the lid, but also smash the bottle to shreds. In a word, at first you need to be careful and cautious, and start tightly corking containers with wine only when you are convinced that it has completely fermented. Well, tasting, of course. Even in such an unripe form, chokeberry wine is a wonderful thing! And the yield from 10-12 kilograms of chokeberry is not bad - 6-7 liters of the drink.

Chokeberry is a berry that many people consider useless for preparations, except to add it to compote for color and apple jam for piquancy.

However, homemade wine from chokeberry or chokeberry, as this berry is called in another way, is very tasty if it is prepared correctly.

We will tell you how to make chokeberry wine at home recipe without yeast.

You will need 10-12 kg of berries for 6-7 liters of the finished drink. And the first question that arises if you decide to put the wine: is it necessary to wash the chokeberry berries?

Washing will wash away the very important yeast bacteria that are involved in the fermentation process. And if there is any dust on the berries, then it will fall into the sediment and be filtered out.

By the way, frozen berries are also not suitable for making home-made wine, because these bacteria die at low temperatures.

As a container, it is best to choose a large glass bottle, in extreme cases, a container made of food grade stainless steel or enameled without a single chip.

Recipe for making homemade black ashberry wine

1. Mash each berry. It can be done in a modern way - in a meat grinder. But the best wine from chokeberry is, of course, obtained by contact with your hands. Do this in old, “working” clothes, the juice gets very dirty.

2. Add sugar at the rate of 0.5 cups per 1 kg of berry mass to get a delicious dessert wine. There is little sugar in black rowan, and dry wine without it will turn out to be very sour. If you add more, it will turn out very sweet.

3. Mix well so that all the sugar is dissolved.

4. Cover the dish and put in a warm place, but not higher than 25 degrees, let the mixture ferment for about a week or more. At this time, you need to mix the juice and pulp, otherwise mold may appear, and your blackberry wine at home will be spoiled.

5. Through this all the time, the berries will float up and swell, and if you dip your hand inside, foam will appear. This means that the juice has fermented. Squeeze the pulp from the juice with your hands. If there is a press, you can use it, but not a juicer, the pulp will clog it.

6. Set aside the pulp, and filter the juice through a colander. Small particles will be filtered out later.

Wine made from pure chokeberry juice turns out to be very thick and does not get the aroma and benefits from the berries, and will also be very sour. The remaining pulp must be allowed to ferment again, adding sugar and water, in order to then add this mixture to the juice.

7. Add a glass of sugar and 1.2 liters of cold bottled water to it. Mix thoroughly, press down so that the pulp settles down, cover with a lid and leave for about a week to ferment. You need to mix it well every day so that it does not get moldy.

8. Pour the strained juice into a suitable glassware. For the indicated amount, 2 five-liter cans are enough.

All utensils that wine gets into should be washed clean with soda and dried well.

8. For home winemaking, you need a device such as a water seal, which removes gases from a container of wine through the water. It is better to buy ready-made, or you can do it yourself:

• in the center of the lid from the jar where you poured the juice, punch or drill a hole equal to the diameter of the outlet tube (hose)
• insert the tube and gently heat it at the point of contact with the lid, for example, on a candle, so that the diameter increases and it sits tightly in the lid for minimal contact of the wine with the outside air
• lower the other end of the tube into a jar of water

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9. Put the jar closed with a water seal in a dark, cool place (but with a temperature not lower than 18 degrees) so that the juice begins to ferment.

10. After a week, squeeze the pulp, but not much. Strain the secondary juice through a sieve several times.

11. From a can of pure first juice, remove the foam from the surface.

12. Mix both juices, pour into jars, close with water seals. Clean in a dark place with a temperature of 22-25 degrees.

13. Once a week for a month, remove the foam and film from the surface and filter the wine to reduce sediment. This is done by pouring the wine into another vessel, each time more difficult, then you can use the drain hose. In the second month, you can filter the wine once every two weeks.

The jet of the poured drink should be thin and long in order to "ventilate" the wine, improving its quality and preventing spoilage. Be aware that sediment is dead bacteria that can affect the taste of wine.

14. At least once every two weeks after a month of fermentation, it is recommended to feed them with ammonia to stimulate the growth of alcoholic yeast. It only takes a drop per liter of wine. This is necessary to enhance the vital activity of bacteria in order to increase the alcohol strength of the wine.

15. After 1.5-2 months, the wine becomes transparent, if, of course, you correctly understood how to make wine from black mountain ash. You can already try it and adjust the taste, the fermentation process is still going on. It is sour, not sweet, but the sweetness in it should be felt. If it is too sweet, then try to “ventilate” it several times, pouring it in a thin stream. If none of this came out, then the strength of the wine will be less than necessary, and the fermentation process is over.

Approximately 2 months after the start of making home-made wine from chokeberry, it will become transparent when viewed against the light, and only a slight coating will remain on the bottom of the dishes. This means that you can sweeten it.

16. In order to bring a sour-tasting young wine to dessert, you need to take about a tablespoon per liter of drink. Sugar is placed in a cotton bag on a string and, like a tea bag, is immersed in wine to such a depth that the sugar is just covered with it.

17. Fix the thread in this position on the bank and put a water seal until the sugar dissolves, for about a week.

Pour young homemade chokeberry wine into clean bottles and do not close tightly, because it can still ferment and explode the bottle. When you are completely sure that carbon dioxide is no longer emitted, you can cork with stoppers.

Now you know how to make wine on black rowan correctly. Be sure to try this recipe.

Chokeberry (chokeberry) is rich in many useful substances - these are vitamins C, P, B1, B2, E, K, B6, beta-carotene, macro- and microelements (iron, copper, boron, manganese, molybdenum, fluorine), sugars ( glucose, sucrose, fructose), as well as tannins and pectin.

Chokeberry has many medicinal properties, it lowers the level of cholesterol in the blood, normalizes blood pressure, treats hypertension, helps strengthen the walls of blood vessels, improves their elasticity and firmness.