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Summer has come and many people need red currant wine recipes at home. This sour berry can be used to make surprisingly tasty and aromatic drinks, including alcoholic ones. Homemade red currant wine will delight you not only with a sophisticated gamut, but will also guard your health, of course, if you take it in medicinal doses.
The benefits and harms of homemade red currant wine
The drink obtained from the fermentation of berry juices is called house wine. Made from red currants, it contains not only alcohol, sugar, but also many useful substances:
- organic acids, sugars;
- minerals (iron, potassium, selenium);
- vitamins (E, A, C);
- B-carotene;
- succinic, malic acid;
- pectin, nitrogenous compounds.
Moderate consumption of the drink promotes health and increases resistance to certain diseases. Red currant juice, from which wine is prepared, has a number of medicinal properties that do not disappear as a result of its fermentation and transformation into wine. Here are just a few of them:
- fortifying;
- antipyretic;
- anti-inflammatory;
- hematopoietic;
- stimulating appetite;
- laxative;
- diuretic;
- diaphoretic;
- choleretic.
Despite all the usefulness of red currant wine, it also has enough contraindications. It is contraindicated in ulcerative lesions of the gastrointestinal tract, gastritis, hepatitis and some other diseases associated with reduced blood clotting.
How to make red currant wine
To properly prepare red currant wine, you need to know some of the nuances and features of the technological process used to make homemade alcohol. It is best to use glass bottles, cylinders, oak barrels, enamel pots, buckets. Various methods can be used to separate the juice from the pulp:
- using the press;
- use a juicer;
- through a sieve (colander) by hand.
The pulp obtained after the first spin is not thrown away. It can be reused. Pour warm water (1: 5), leave for several hours, squeeze and filter. The taste of wine depends on the ratio of acid and sugar in the fruit. Since red currants are a very sour berry, sugar is often used in wine making. The juice is diluted with water to reduce the concentration of acids in the drink. Sugar is also added at the same time.
It should be remembered that:
- the optimum is the sugar content in the wort - 25%;
- excess sweetness interferes with the fermentation process;
- 1 kg of granulated sugar, dissolved in the drink, gives an additional 0.6 liters;
- 20 g of sugar per 1 liter of wort increases the strength by 1 degree.
After the sugar syrup is added to the wort, it is placed in a glass container or barrel. The volume should be filled in half or three quarters, no more. Otherwise, the pulp during strong fermentation may break out. Then you need to add the leaven (wine yeast):
- table wine - 20 g / 1 l of wort;
- dessert - 30 g / l.
Wine yeast can be made from raisins or grapes yourself. To do this, put 0.2 kg of ripe grapes (raisins), 60 g of sugar in a bottle, add water (boiled) by ¾ volume.Ferment 3-4 days.
Sourdough can also be prepared from raspberries, strawberries. Mash two glasses of berries, add 100 g of sugar, a cup of water and shake well. It will also be ready in 3-4 days. Bread, brewer's yeast should not be used. They significantly spoil the taste of the drink, and when the strength reaches 13%, they begin to die.
For the fermentation process to proceed, containers with wort are placed in a dark place where the temperature is kept no higher than +18 - 20 degrees. On all bottles you need to stick labels with the date, a list of the operations performed. To isolate the wort from air, a water seal is installed on the neck of the container. It is a tube that is connected to the bottle stopper at one end, and immersed in a jar of water at the other.
There is an easier way to isolate the wort from contact with oxygen. This is a plastic bag or rubber glove worn over the neck of the bottle. To activate the fermentation process, you need to periodically shake the container with the wort so that the bacteria settled on the bottom are included in the work. The end of the fermentation process can be recognized by the transparency of the wine, the sediment at the bottom of the bottle, and the lack of sweetness.
Homemade red currant wine recipes
Wine made from fresh berries, without artificial colors and flavors, is much more pleasant and healthier to drink than industrially produced alcoholic beverages. It is necessary to master the technology in all its subtleties, then making wine at home will not be difficult.
A simple recipe for red currant at home (with yeast)
Sort the berries, wash and dry. Squeeze out the juice from the red currant using any available method. If you don't have time to mess around with making wild yeast, you can use the store.
Ingredients:
- juice (red currant) - 1 liter;
- sugar - 1 kg;
- water - 2 l;
- wine yeast.
Mix the juice with sugar syrup, yeast and leave for a day. Then close the bottle with liquid with a glove and shake it periodically. Simple red currant wine will ferment better at +25 degrees. As soon as the process has stopped, remove it from the sediment (pour it into another bottle using a tube) and ferment it at a temperature of +10 - 15 with a water seal.
Fortified red currant wine
Mash washed and dried berries. Add sweet syrup to the resulting gruel. To prepare it for 1 liter of pulp you need:
- sugar - 120 g;
- water - 300 ml.
The result is a sweet wort. Add wine yeast (3%) to it, leave in a warm room for several days (2-3). Stir the fermented wort several times every day with a wooden stick. Then separate the liquid from the pulp, add alcohol. One liter - 300 ml of alcohol (70-80%). Place in a covered saucepan for 1-1.5 weeks.
During infusion, the wine should be clarified. To do this, add 1 tbsp for 1 liter of drink. l. milk. When the clarification process is over, the wine is poured into another bowl, leaving a sediment at the bottom. Then dispense into bottles.
Homemade red currant wine without yeast
There are many recipes for homemade red currant wine.
There are a number of prerequisites that must be met when picking berries. Firstly, the fruits should be ripe, and secondly, there should be no rain for some time, at least 2-3 days. That is, you cannot pick the berry immediately after the precipitation falls. The rains wash away the bacteria that are needed to make wine and ferment it from the surface of the berries.
Then squeeze out the juice from the currant in any way. This can be done with a press or manually. Place the berries in a colander and put a glove on your hand. Rinse each berry well so that it releases its juice. Turn the berries into gruel, which will then infuse and give wine. This is a must.Add more water and place in a large container. Currants do not need to be sorted and peeled from twigs. In no case should you wash it.
Ingredients:
- red currant - 10 l (bucket);
- water - 5 l.
The following is a step-by-step recipe for red currant wine. Mix the resulting gruel with a wooden spatula. On the second day, all the cake from the berries floats up. You need to insist the wort for 5 days, stirring the berry mass several times a day. The fermentation process starts - those bacteria that were on the surface of the berries begin to work.
The next step is to squeeze the pulp with gauze, discard. Pour the remaining liquid into a large bottle using a funnel. Close the container with a water seal. The fermentation process is in progress and the released gas goes through the tube into the water. So the wine has to stand for 21 days.
Another recipe uses sugar. Wash the berries, sort out the branches and impurities. Then grind with a wooden pestle in a deep bowl until mushy.
Ingredients:
- red currant (juice) - 1 l;
- granulated sugar - 1 kg;
- water - 2 l.
Squeeze the juice thoroughly. Pour it into a bottle. Pour sugar there, add water, stir well with a wooden spoon. Leave to ferment for a maximum of a month or 3 weeks. Then strain through a filter or thick cloth, pack into containers and close tightly.
Real homemade champagne can be made from red currants. Fill the bottle halfway (maximum 2/3 parts) with berries. Top up with water and put in a cold place. Shake the contents of the bottle thoroughly several times a day.
Ingredients:
- rum - 50 g;
- champagne - 100 g;
- sugar - 200 g;
- raisins - 3 pcs.
After 1-1.5 weeks, filter the water infused with berries. Distribute it among the champagne bottles. In addition, add the specified amount of ingredients to each individual bottle. Cork tightly and it is even desirable to grind. Bury in the sand, preferably in a cellar or some other dark place. After a month, you can have a tasting. If the wine has not started playing, hold it for another 1-2 weeks.
To prepare another wine, you will need 6 kg of currants. First you need to squeeze the juice from the berries. Next, you need the following ingredients:
- sugar - 125 g / 1 liter of juice;
- cognac - 100 g / 1.2 l of juice.
Dry the washed berries, mash with a wooden crush. Put them in a cold place, wait for the fermentation process. When it is over, strain the berry mass through a sieve, trying to avoid contact with your hands with it. Defend the resulting juice, pour into a bottle (keg), add sugar, cognac. Keep in the cellar for up to 2 months, then bottle. And keep it for another 3-4 months until fully cooked.
Red currant, rowan and grape wine
From grape berries, on the surface of which there is the most wild yeast, it is best to prepare a sourdough for wine fermentation. It is important not to wash them, so as not to lose such a useful feature. First, crush the berries with a wooden crush, then transfer to a jar and add boiled water, granulated sugar. Stir well and leave to ferment, which will last 3-4 days. Then strain and refrigerate for a maximum of 1.5 weeks. Put in the wort only warm.
Ingredients:
- grapes - 0.6 kg;
- sugar - 0.25 kg;
- water - 0.1 l.
Next, get juice from the berry platter (currants, mountain ash). Dilute it with water in a 1: 1 ratio. For example, for 5 liters of juice - the same amount of water. The result is 10 liters of wort. Add sourdough - 30 g / 1 l of wort. This means that for 10 liters you need 300 g. Sugar is added in stages:
- 1st day - 420 g / 10 l of wort;
- 5th day - the same;
- 10th day - the same.
Put a rubber glove on the neck of the can (bottle) and observe it. After a few days, it will swell, which means that the fermentation process has begun. Then pierce a hole with a needle - this will allow the accumulated gases to go out. At the same time, oxygen from the environment will not be able to penetrate into the can.
After the end of fermentation (the glove wilts), use a tube to pour the clarified wine into another container, without affecting the sediment. If the drink is still not clean enough, filter it through a cloth, special paper. Bottle and refrigerate. You can use it after 2 months.
Red currant wine with raspberry sourdough
After grapes in terms of the amount of wine yeast contained on the surface of the fruit, raspberries are in the lead. Therefore, the starter culture for making home wines is often prepared on its basis. You will need:
- raspberries - 1 tbsp.;
- water ½ tbsp.;
- sugar - ½ tbsp.
Pour the berries with sweet syrup, leave to ferment in a very warm place for three days. You cannot wash them. Next, you need to take the following ingredients:
- currants (red) - 3 kg;
- mountain ash (black chokeberry) - 3 kg;
- sugar - 2.5 kg;
- water - 5 l.
Pour grated berries with warm syrup, put in a warm room. Wear a medical glove on top. Remember to shake to prevent mold from forming on the surface.
Then strain through a plastic sieve with several layers of gauze cloth, separating the pulp. Now leave the wort to ferment by closing the neck with a water seal. It will wander for about 1.5 months.
Terms and conditions of storage
The wine bottle should lie so that the cork is immersed in its contents. So it will not dry out and will not allow air to penetrate inside. A minimum volume of voids should remain inside the bottle, thus significantly reducing the possibility of oxidation. It is better to store wine in a cellar, where the temperature is relatively stable, around +8 degrees. The room itself must be dry and clean.
Conclusion
Homemade red currant wine recipes are very different. You need to choose those proportions and cooking methods that are most suitable for all family members to taste.
