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Novice winemakers may be interested in the question, why fortify homemade wine? The fact is that often the concentration of alcohol in a homemade drink is too low. Because of this, wine can lose its taste, color and aroma over time. The fastening allows you to achieve the desired concentration of alcohols. Thanks to this, fermentation stops, or rather, the fermentation process ends. This article will discuss in detail how this procedure is carried out and what you need to use for this.
How to make fortified wine at home
Fortified wine is a drink whose strength is enhanced by a stronger alcoholic beverage (alcohol or vodka). Typically, the strength of such a wine ranges from 15 to 22 degrees. This result cannot be achieved by fermentation alone. When the alcohol level in the drink rises to 13%, the wine automatically stops fermenting. Therefore, it is customary to add alcohol or purified vodka to fortified wines. Moreover, this can be done at completely different stages. You can add alcohol to berry juice, already fermenting or young wine at the final stage of preparation.
There are different ways to fix wine. They are all different and also have some peculiarities. The fermenting wort is not squeezed out during the fortification process. The fruits are simply kneaded, sugar syrup is added to the berry mixture and the bottle of wine is left in a warm room for further fermentation. This process can last from 3 to 5 days. During this time, the amount of sugar in the drink should drop to 7-9%. At this stage, the wort must be squeezed out, and alcohol with a strength of 90% must be added to the resulting juice. In this form, the drink should be infused for 7 days. Further, the wine is drained, clarified, if necessary, and bottled. It is advisable to leave the resulting young wine to mature for a couple of years. The result is a wonderful drink with a complex pleasant taste and aroma.
The main thing in this process is to correctly calculate the amount of alcohol. Accurate calculations can be difficult. It is generally accepted that to raise the strength by 1%, alcohol should be added in the amount of 1% of the volume of the wine. Accordingly, you will need 2 times more vodka, that is, 2%. For example, to increase the strength of 10 liters of wine by 5%, you should add 500 ml of alcohol or 1 liter of vodka to it.
How to fix wine with sugar
Before fixing homemade wine, you need to understand some criteria. Each drink has a different sugar and alcohol content. Dessert wines have a strength of 15 to 20%, and the amount of sugar is approximately 1.2%. Liqueur wine is stronger, from 16 to 40%, sugar - 1.5%. Table rosé wine contains no more than 11% alcohol and 1 to 1.5% sugar.
You should also know the proportions when adding sugar. If you add 20 grams of granulated sugar to a liter of wort, then the fortress will rise by 1%. But do not overdo it, as too much sugar can, on the contrary, inhibit the fermentation of the drink.
Sugar is added to dry and dessert wines in different ways:
- To fix dry wines, sugar should be diluted in water and poured into the drink in one go.
- Sugar for dessert wines is dissolved in the drink itself. A small amount of granulated sugar and wine are mixed and introduced in several passes on days 1,4,7 and 10.
Fortified wine at home recipe with alcohol
Let's take a look at how to mount cherry homemade wine... For this we need the following ingredients:
- ripe cherry;
- special yeast starter culture (300 ml of starter culture per liter of juice);
- 96% alcohol (per liter of wine from 300 to 350 ml).
For cooking, take sweet cherries. You need to get the bones out of it and squeeze the juice. After that, the resulting juice is poured into a bottle and a small amount of water, granulated sugar and prepared sourdough are added there. Further, the bottle should be placed in a warm place for 5 or 6 days. After that, the juice is carefully drained from the sediment and poured into a washed bottle. Now it is necessary to pour alcohol into the container and insist the drink in this form for about six months.
Fortified wine made from grapes and herbs
The favorite drink of many winemakers is vermouth. This wine is prepared from grapes at home. Fortified drinks with the addition of bitter herbs are commonly called vermouth. They are often used as a coffee or tea additive. Also, many alcoholic cocktails are prepared on the basis of vermouth. Many people like to use such drinks as an aperitif, that is, to improve appetite before meals.
You can take absolutely any wine as a basis in the preparation of vermouth. For example, you can make a drink from one grape juice, or you can make a more complex vermouth from different berries. For this, rowan and cranberry are perfect, which, in combination, give a very beautiful rich color.
Let's take a look at one of the classic cooking options for vermouth. As the main ingredients, we need:
- 100 ml of alcohol or 250 ml of vodka;
- four grams of medicinal yarrow;
- three grams of wormwood;
- three grams of mint;
- cinnamon stick (three grams);
- two grams of boxes of cardamom;
- one gram of saffron;
- two grams of nutmeg.
Let's look at how to make fortified homemade grape wine and herbal tinctures:
- All prepared herbs are placed in a separate glass container and poured with alcohol or vodka. Shake the tincture every 24 hours.
- If you do not like wormwood, then you can replace it with tarragon. The amount of both the first and second ingredient remains unchanged. But you should still taste the tincture. The fact is that wormwood can have varying degrees of bitterness. It all depends on the growing conditions and the specific variety. The tincture should not be too bitter.
- When adding a tincture to grape wine, the proportions must be taken into account. For a liter of drink, take no more than 50 ml of alcohol tincture or 120 ml of vodka tincture. You should also add granulated sugar to the vermouth. For a given amount of wine, 100 grams of sugar is enough. In this matter, it is better to be guided by your own taste. Next, the vermouth is thoroughly mixed.
- It's time to pour vermouth into clean glass bottles. Do not fill the container to the brim, leave half the neck empty. It will take time for the tincture to fully release its taste and aroma. After 20-30 days, the vermouth will be completely ready for use. You can store vermouth for a long time, it will not deteriorate.
Conclusion
This article has shown how to determine the strength of homemade wine depending on the ingredients. We also learned how to increase alcoholism with vodka and alcohol. Fortifying wine is a great way to extend the shelf life of a beverage and to strengthen your homemade wine.This method is suitable for a wide variety of wines. The main thing is to correctly calculate the required amount of alcohol.
