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Watermelon is an amazing huge berry. Its healing properties have been known for a long time. Culinary experts prepare various delights from it: watermelon honey (nardek), delicious jams, pickles. But few people know that good intoxicating drinks are obtained from this berry.
Not everyone likes watermelon wine at home. But lovers of the watermelon drink prefer it even to exquisite grape wines. At the beginning of preparation, the wine is pink, but in the process of infusion it becomes orange or even reddish-brownish.
Little secrets of winemaking
As we have already noted, watermelon wine is not prepared very often. But it should be prepared for testing, suddenly you too will become a lover of such a drink. The main thing is to choose the right recipe and spend a little time.
In addition, you need to know some secrets of making watermelon wine, especially since the technology has been worked out for centuries.
Let's talk about this now:
- First, you need to pick the right berry. Most often, sweet varieties are taken for wine, for example, Astrakhan. Preference should be given to even berries, without signs of rot and damage. Watermelons for the drink are selected ripe, juicy, with bright pulp and black bones. These fruits contain the most dry matter. You can also determine the technical ripeness of a watermelon by its external features: yellow barrels and a dry tail.
In fruits, water is 94%, but sugar is only 8%. That is why watermelon wine, as well as a hoppy drink made from melons, are watery. Therefore, before preparing wine, experienced winemakers evaporate the juice. - Secondly, containers and tools are prepared in advance: they are thoroughly sterilized and wiped dry. Experienced winemakers wipe knives and hands with vodka or alcohol before work, since microbes have a destructive effect on the finished product.
- Thirdly, when cleaning watermelons, you need to remove light and unsweetened parts and seeds. Otherwise, the watermelon drink will turn out to be bitter. Such wine can be considered spoiled.
- Fourthly, having chosen the pulp from the watermelon, you need to quickly squeeze the juice so that it does not wind up.
- Fifthly, when filling the fermentation tanks, they are not poured to the top, but only 75%, so that there is room for the fermentation of the pulp and carbon dioxide.
- Sixth, many of our readers are interested in using sugar for making wine from watermelons at home or starting a drink without it. We answer that this ingredient is required. Do not rely on the fact that when we eat watermelon, we feel sweetness. In winemaking, there is not enough natural sugar in the berry. Each recipe indicates the required amount of granulated sugar. As a rule, winemakers add from 0.4 to 0.5 kg of sugar for each liter of nardek (watermelon juice).
- Seventh, raisins or fresh grapes are added to watermelon wine at home. It is essential for successful fermentation. It is forbidden to wash these ingredients before putting them in the wort, since the surface contains special bacteria, which winemakers call wild yeast. You will need 100 or 150 grams of this yeast supplement. In the event that fermentation is poor, add a little lemon juice.
- Eighth, fortified watermelon wine is most often made at home, adding vodka or other intoxicating drink to it. But not everyone will like the taste and aroma of such wine.Therefore, experienced winemakers prefer to use tartaric or tannic acid to obtain fortified wine from watermelons.
Homemade Watermelon Wine Recipes
As a rule, homemade wine from watermelons is made at the height of the harvest. It should be noted that it is in such fruits that the least harmful substances are. Watermelons bought in a store in winter are not suitable for winemaking.
We bring to your attention different options for making watermelon wine at home. If you follow our advice, watch the proposed video, then everything will turn out great for you.
A simple recipe step by step
To make homemade watermelon wine according to a simple recipe, you will need the following components:
- ripe watermelons with sugar pulp - 10 kg;
- granulated sugar - 4 kg 500 grams;
- raisins - 200 grams.
Technology features
And now we will tell you how to prepare watermelon wine at home step by step:
- First, rinse the watermelon thoroughly, wipe it dry. Cut into pieces and select the red sugary pulp.
Grind it with a blender until smooth. The resulting juice needs to be measured as sugar will be added for every liter.
- Then add unwashed raisins containing wild yeast and lemon juice on the surface.
- On top of the fermentation container, we tie gauze folded in several rows so that insects do not get into the future wine from watermelons. We put the container in heat for fermentation for two days. Do not shine direct sunlight on the pan. The pulp will rise, it needs to be "drowned" at least twice a day.
- When the mixture begins to bubble, add 150 grams of granulated sugar for each liter of watermelon juice. Mix the resulting mass until the sugar is completely dissolved and pour it into a bottle. We install a water seal from above or pull on a medical glove, pre-piercing one of the fingers with a needle.
- After three days, remove the pulp, pour the liquid into a new bottle. Pour some of the wine into a small container, dissolve the sugar (150 g) and pour the syrup into the total mass. We put under a water seal or pull a glove over the neck. And then after another four, add the remaining sugar again, all the same per liter of water. Pour 75-80% into the bottle so that there is room for fermentation.
- As a rule, future wine will ferment for about a month. Determine the end of fermentation by a deflated glove. If a water seal was installed, then gas bubbles will no longer be released in it. A yeast sediment will appear at the bottom of the bottle, and the wine itself will become light.
- Now the drink needs to be drained from the sediment. This is best done with a straw so as not to touch the sediment, followed by filtration. We definitely try young wine. If it seems to you that there is not enough sweetness in it, add granulated sugar again, close tightly and leave for 2 or 2.5 months to ripen. The place where we put the bottle should be dark, and the temperature should be from 5 to 10 degrees Celsius.
- The wine will have to be removed from the sediment and filtered several times. The finished watermelon drink should not have any suspension at the bottom of the bottle.
- Watermelon wine is stored at home for no more than 12 months. Although experienced winemakers advise using it ten months in advance.
Student style watermelon wine
Fortified wine can be obtained using the simplest recipe. For this we need:
- ripe fruit - 1 piece.
- vodka or other strong alcoholic drink - 400 ml;
- needle and large syringe.
How to proceed
The drink obtained according to this simple recipe tastes like fortified wine. And now about the manufacturing rules:
- We wash the watermelon so that no dirt remains on the surface, wipe it dry.
- We pierce the fruit in the area of the tail with a thin knitting needle and pump the alcoholic drink with a large syringe. Having introduced the first portion, set the watermelon aside so that the air comes out. So we proceed until we have pumped all the alcohol.
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Vodka or another drink must be pumped exactly into the center of the watermelon, where the voids are located. - The hole from the knitting needle must be covered. You can use plasticine or wax for these purposes.
- Our fermentation "chamber" is kept in a cool place for about a day. During this time, the watermelon will soften.
- We make an incision in it and decant the resulting liquid into a convenient container, then filter. That's it, watermelon wine is ready.
If you do not like highly fortified wines, then you can use martini, a cognac drink for making watermelon wine at home, not vodka or alcohol. Even champagne is poured into a watermelon!
For testing, you can prepare watermelon wine of various strengths. And only then decide what drink you will make next time.
A bit of history
Watermelon wine in watermelon is also called student wine. Young people, to go to the hostel, bought a watermelon and pumped a liter of vodka into it. For a long time, the watchmen had no idea how alcoholic beverages got to the students, because they did not bring vodka or wine past them. Most likely, it was the students who became the "authors" of the simplest recipe for watermelon wine at home.
How to make a delicious watermelon liqueur, winemaker's tips:
Let's summarize
You will not find watermelon wine in stores, because it is not made on an industrial scale. This is purely home production. Using any recipe, you can independently prepare several bottles of dessert wine of various strengths.
The only drawback of the drink is that it does not differ in the splendor of its taste. But despite this, there are not so few fans of the intoxicating drink made from watermelons. Try to cook, perhaps you will join their ranks.
