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The desire of many people to eat the healthiest food possible has not bypassed home winemaking. Increasingly, when making your own wine, recipes are used that do not involve the addition of additional sugar.

Be prepared for the fact that natural grape wine, prepared at home without added sugar, will turn out completely dry. This means that all the natural sugar contained in the grapes will be processed by yeast into alcohol.

Dry wine is, in fact, the basic product of winemaking, when grape juice, fermented under natural conditions without diluting it with water or adding sugar, turns into an alcoholic drink. All other wine recipes - sweet, sparkling, fortified, dessert, and so on - are just taste experiments and artificial interference in the technology of the fundamental process. Dry wine is considered the purest and healthiest, and the recipe for making it is extremely simple.

Usually, to make grape wine at home according to the classic recipe, amateur winemakers use natural yeast for fermentation, which is found in abundance on the skins and ridges of the berries. This is the same whitish coating visible to the naked eye. When harvesting, carefully cut the bunches and place them in a wide, flat container for carrying, being careful not to rub off the bloom. Never wash the berries before crushing. With such careful handling, wild yeast will remain on the surface in the greatest possible quantity and provide you with high-quality fermentation.

The alcohol content of a drink obtained using wild yeast cannot be more than 12–13°. And this is understandable, since the maximum sugar content of technical grape varieties under favorable ripening conditions is 20–22 Brie. And we know that one gram of sugar produces approximately 0.6% alcohol. There are new grape varieties whose sugar content reaches 28–32 Brie, but these are mostly table varieties used for food and not used for winemaking.

Technical grape varieties such as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and others are suitable for making dry red wines. For whites, respectively, Chardonnay, Tokaj, Riesling, Muscat and others. This is a world classic. But in our time, many technical varieties have been bred for central Russia. Table varieties, as mentioned above, are unsuitable for making wine, but technical varieties are quite edible, and, of course, they make wine. The grapes, bred specifically for central Russia, ripen quickly, managing to gain the required amount of sugar during a not very long and warm summer, simply put, to ripen. These varieties, which is very important, are frost and disease resistant.

So, if you are going to plant grapes on your plot with the purpose of both enjoying them and making natural wine without any additives, including sugar, you need to choose the sweetest variety, with a natural sugar content of at least 20 Brie. With such sugar content, you don’t have to resort to any tricks when making wine at home. You can find out which varieties are grown for wine production in your area by talking to local winemakers.

If you already have grapes, you need to determine their sugar content. What is it for? To understand what kind of wine we can count on in terms of alcohol content. For what? The fact is that if the sugar content in your grapes is too low, for example, as in the well-known Isabella, about 17 Brie, then the resulting wine will have an alcohol content of about 10°, and in unfavorable years, when the summer is cold and rainy, and even less so. Such low-alcohol drinks are very unstable, they are poorly stored and are susceptible to many diseases and defects.

There are many recipes for unsweetened grapes. As a rule, sugar is added to the wort from it, thus increasing the alcohol content. A sufficient amount of alcohol, as well as a large amount of sugar in dessert wines, is a good preservative-stabilizer that blocks the action of pathogenic bacteria. Of course, you can preserve wine with a low alcohol content, but for this you will have to use at least pasteurization.

How do you know how much sugar is in your grapes? To do this, you can use tables that are easy to find on the Internet, which present the main characteristics of different grape varieties, including sugar content. But these are fairly average values. As noted above, the place of cultivation, climatic conditions, location of the vineyard on the cardinal points, and more are of great importance. Therefore, for a more accurate measurement, home winemakers use a special device that measures the sugar content of the wort by its density, it is called a refractometer.

If you are the proud owner of sweet grapes, you can easily make great wine at home without adding sugar using one of the recipes below.

We remind you that using the white method you can prepare a drink from both white and red grapes. But using the red method, that is, fermenting the juice on pulp, wine is made exclusively from dark grape varieties.

Natural wine made from grapes using the white method without added sugar

Preparation for making wine according to this recipe is the same as for all the others. The only thing you should pay special attention to is the time of harvest. The grapes must ripen, but under no circumstances become overripe. A couple of weeks before the target date, taste the berries hanging from different sides of the vineyard, at different heights, for sweetness. As soon as you feel that the sweetness does not increase, and the acidity remains at the same level for a couple of days, it’s time.

Immediately carefully sort the harvested grapes without washing them, separating unripe, rotten and moldy berries and removing the ridges. Then squeeze the juice out of the berries. To do this, you can use a clean sugar bag. Load the berries into a bag and place it in a large saucepan or bowl. Start pressing the grapes through the bag with your hands or a kitchen masher, whichever is most convenient. After crushing the berries, twist the bag, thus squeezing the juice through the pores of the bag. This should be done as quickly as possible to avoid oxidative processes that change the color of the juice. The resulting liquid will be very cloudy, with pieces of skin, ridge fragments and other suspended particles. You need to let it sit in a cool place for 12–18 hours, and then drain it from the sediment. It is better to leave the juice in the refrigerator; at low temperatures, oxidative processes slow down, which will prevent the juice from turning brown. After draining the sediment, send the juice for fermentation in an open container at a temperature of 16–20°C. Maintaining temperature conditions is extremely important when making wine without added sugar. If fermentation occurs at a higher temperature, it will proceed much faster, which can cause the wine to lose up to 2% of its potential alcohol. At lower temperatures, fermentation can drag on for a long time, be very sluggish, and then you will have to “cheer up” it, which is also undesirable.

Pre-washed fermentation dishes are filled with juice to three-quarters of the volume. Since in this recipe fermentation occurs without the participation of pulp, bottles with a narrow neck are suitable. Partially filling the vessel leaves room for carbon dioxide, which is produced by the yeast during alcoholic fermentation. At the beginning of fermentation, carbon dioxide forms a protective barrier, preventing the wort from coming into contact with oxygen, but gradually it becomes less and less. To ensure that excess carbon dioxide comes out and oxygen does not have the opportunity to come into contact with the future wine, a water seal is installed on the dish or a medical glove is put on, piercing 1-2 holes between the fingers with a needle.

The wine will ferment for about three weeks. The end of this process will be indicated by very rarely bubbles coming out through the water seal or a fallen glove. At the end of vigorous fermentation, the wine is drained from the sediment using a siphon into a clean container. When draining, avoid contact of the wine with oxygen so that it does not oxidize.

Now comes the turn of “quiet” fermentation, which takes place without intense gas release. The container is filled to the top with wine, closed tightly and left to ferment for about three more weeks. Then it needs to be drained from the sediment again, and again after a month. Each time you overflow, add wine to the top from small bottles prepared in advance from the same batch. This is extremely important to do to prevent vinegar from souring the wine.

With each new precipitation, the wine should become clearer. If it is still cloudy, perform cryostabilization by leaving the vessels with wine at a temperature of 0+6°C for a couple of weeks. Tartar will precipitate and the dregs will go away.

Your white wine is ready. You can enjoy it in a friendly company or bottle it and store it in a cellar or other dry room with a temperature of +13–15°C.

Natural wine made from grapes using the red method without added sugar

To make wine using the red method, it is fermented on pulp. Pulp is the pulp obtained after pressing grapes, consisting of juice, pulp, peel, seeds of berries and, in some cases, branches of the bunch. A separate question that you must answer for yourself is the separation of the ridges. Whether to do this or not, everyone decides for themselves, depending on their taste preferences. The twigs contain tannins, which then pass into the wine and give it astringency.

We collect grapes as indicated in the recipe above. Prepare clean dishes for fermentation in advance. It should be a vessel with a wide neck, since fermentation on pulp involves stirring the wort several times a day. If the bottle has a narrow neck, this will be extremely inconvenient.

We sort through it, don’t wash it, and start pressing. The main thing is to crush all the berries and not damage the seeds. Then fill three quarters of the container with the resulting wort, cover with gauze and leave to ferment. Gauze will prevent the appearance of wine flies. Fermentation will begin in a few hours. A cap consisting mainly of peel and other solid particles will rise to the surface. It needs to be churned periodically, three to four times a day, stirring the wort. On the fourth or fifth day, the skin will give up most of the coloring pigment to the wine and become whitish, then the must must be filtered by passing it through a cloth or other filter, and the pulp must be squeezed out. Pour the resulting liquid into the fermentation vessel three-quarters full. At this stage, you can already use bottles with a narrow neck. Place a water seal on your throat or wear a glove. The stage of “violent fermentation” will begin. After it’s finished, drain the wine from the sediment and then proceed according to the previous recipe.

That's basically it. The recipe for making natural wine without adding sugar, water or chemicals is extremely simple.

If you have tried your young wine, made according to the first or second recipe, and found that there is very little alcohol in it, but, let’s say, there was a lot of wine, and you plan to store it for some time, without changing the taste of the resulting drink by adding alcohol or sugar, pasteurize wine bottles. This will protect your drink from souring and other troubles.

Alexander Gushchin

I can’t vouch for the taste, but it will be hot :)

Content

The secrets of winemaking can be studied for almost years. Although anyone can easily learn this art. The first time you try, you may not get a masterpiece worthy of world exhibitions, but a homemade drink will be no worse than a store-bought one. Want to try? Then study simple recipes with photos describing how to make wine from grapes at home.

How to cook

Making homemade wine requires three main ingredients. This list includes:

• grape;
• sugar;
• water.

The last component is not used in all recipes for making homemade wine. It is added only if the grape juice is very sour and even cramps the cheekbones. In other cases, diluting with water only worsens the taste of the drink. Making wine from grapes at home begins with harvesting and processing. The wild yeast necessary for fermentation must remain on the bunches. To do this, you need to pick the fruit after 2-3 days of dry weather. If the grapes are purchased, then the berries cannot be washed.

Making homemade wine after processing the harvest involves three stages. Step-by-step instructions on how to make the drink can be described as follows:

1. Receiving pulp. It is an intermediate product of winemaking and is a mass of crushed grape bunches. It is not necessary to remove the ridges, but the wine with them will be slightly bitter.
2. Wort separation. This stage begins 3-5 days after receiving the pulp. From it the must is released - unclarified grape juice. This is already wine, but young and has not begun to ferment.
3. Fermentation. At this stage, wine yeast multiplies and converts fruit sugars from the grapes into alcohol. Here the wort is separated from the pulp, poured into a working glass container and closed with a stopper with a water seal or a medical glove. You can sweeten your homemade wine at this same step.

Fermentation time

The fermentation of the drink is influenced by many factors - temperature, amount of sugar and yeast activity. Therefore, there is no exact answer to the question of how long homemade grape wine plays. This process may take approximately 30-90 days. Fermentation is divided into three stages:

1. Elementary. Yeast fungi begin to actively reproduce.
2. Stormy. The bacteria finish multiplying, occupying the entire volume of the wort. The first couple of days it actively hisses and foams. How long does the wine ferment during this phase? It can last from 0 to 100 days, depending on the desired strength of the drink.
3. Quiet. The wort calms down and very few bubbles are released. The foam settles, and fermentation occurs in the lower layers. The duration of this phase is determined by the time it takes for the fungi to process all the sugar into alcohol.

Amount of sugar

Approximately 1% alcohol in the finished drink is provided by 2% sugar in the wort. The sugar content of grape varieties common in central Russia rarely exceeds 20%. They will make a drink with a strength of about 6-7%, maximum 10%. In addition, the sweetness of the drink will be zero, and the taste will be sour and astringent. The sugar content of the wort should not exceed 15-20%, otherwise the yeast will stop fermenting.

So how much sugar does grape wine need? The product is added fractionally after the juice tastes sour. For each liter, 50 g of granulated sugar is required. They are diluted in 1-2 liters of drained wort, then sent back to the bottle. This is done once every 3-4 days during the first 2-3 weeks of fermentation. When the juice no longer tastes sour, it means there is already enough sugar and no more need to be added.

Proportions

In the classic version, 10 kg of grapes are taken. If each requires about 100-200 g of sugar, then in total you will need 1-2 kg. In rare cases, water is needed. It is taken at the rate of 500 ml per 1 liter of juice. When finished, the wine is made semi-sweet, sweet or fortified. There is another option - a liqueur drink. The table contains the proportions of homemade grape wine relative to the alcohol and granulated sugar content.

Sweet

The sugar and alcohol content in sweet homemade wine should be between 12-18% and 16-20%. Acidity does not exceed 0.8%. It is better to make this drink from blue grapes or use muscat varieties. Sugar should be added at the rate of 50-100 g per 1 liter of juice. This is at the fermentation stage. Once finished, you can make sweet homemade wine to your liking by adding a little more sugar.

Fortified

According to the traditional recipe, fortified grape wine is prepared at home with the addition of sugar and alcohol or vodka. The strength of the drink will depend on their quantity. By adding fruits or berries to the grape must, you can get different types of fortified homemade wine - vermouth, port or sherry. The proportions for them are approximately as follows:

• grapes - about 6 kg;
• granulated sugar for fermentation - 0.6 kg; for fixing - at the rate of 100 g per liter of wort;
• medical alcohol – 1 l.

To make homemade dry wine with your own hands, you should know that it is made completely without sugar or its amount does not exceed 0.3%. Fructose from the wort is fermented only by the action of yeast. Sugar is not added for this purpose at all. For this reason, dry wines are considered the most natural, tasty and healthy. For their production, grapes are needed with a sugar content of 15-20%. It is better to take the Isabella variety:

• From such grapes a wine of a pleasant ruby ​​color is obtained;
• This variety belongs to the table variety.

Semi-sweet

Homemade semi-sweet wine is especially popular. It is more delicate, pleasant to the taste and has a distinct grape aroma. This drink contains no more than 8% sugar and up to 13% alcohol. The low content of the latter makes this wine ideal for a regular feast. The proportions of the ingredients here are approximately the following: for 1 kg of grapes, about 800 g of sugar and 1.5 liters of water.

Recipe

Before you make homemade wine with your own hands, you need to choose the right grapes. Only ripe fruits are suitable. Unripe ones have a lot of acid, while overripe ones already begin acetic fermentation. Carrion should not be collected, because it has an unpleasant earthy taste. Technical wine grape varieties are suitable for winemaking. Their clusters are not very large, and the berries themselves are small and fit tightly together. Among these varieties are Isabella, Muscat, Riesling, Merlot, Chardonnay and Cabernet. Crystal, Kishmish, Druzhba, Rosinka and Regent are also recommended for home winemaking.

Isabel

• Number of servings: 22 persons.
• Calorie content of the dish: 72 kcal.
• Cuisine: Russian.

Wine from Isabella grapes is very easy to prepare at home. This variety is unpretentious - the berries are frost-resistant, have a dense structure and pleasant taste. You can even make a white variety from this variety if you use green, unripe fruits. According to this recipe, a fortified drink is prepared, so you will also need medical alcohol.

Ingredients:

• Isabella – 5 kg;
• medical alcohol – 1 l;
• granulated sugar – 0.6 kg.

Cooking method:

1. Sort the grapes, then mash them with your hands or a masher. Transfer the resulting mass into a glass jar.
2. Leave the pulp for 3 days, then add sugar.
3. Next, cover with a lid and send to a warm place to ferment for 2 weeks.
4. Take thick gauze, fold it in three and strain the drink through it, then send it to a dark place for 2 months.
5. After the specified time, pour alcohol into the container. Leave the preparation for another 2 weeks.
6. Then pour the drink into bottles and place them in a horizontal position for storage.

With water

• Preparation time: 45 days.
• Number of servings: 20 persons.
• Calorie content of the dish: 96 kcal.
• Purpose: for the holiday table.
• Cuisine: Russian.
• Difficulty of preparation: medium.

Making your own grape wine with the addition of water turns out thin and not so cloying, but no less pleasant in taste. Almond essence gives the drink an unusual aroma. If you don't like this smell, you can add a little vanilla. The technology involves an ordinary glove. It does not allow oxygen into the wort, but releases carbon dioxide through a small hole.

Ingredients:

• wine yeast – 10 g;
• sugar – 400 g;
• grapes – 2 kg;
• water – 3 l;
• almond essence – 1 tsp.

Cooking method:

1. First, sort the grapes, then mash and dilute with filtered water.
2. Next, put in a warm place and leave for 4 days so that the wort separates from the cake.
3. Then strain the juice, squeeze out the liquid from the pulp, and pour everything into a glass container.
4. After squeezing, add half the sugar, almond essence and yeast, mix.
5. Put on a glove with a small hole in the finger on top and leave for 4 days.
6. Take a little wort, add 100 g of granulated sugar to it, pour it back.
7. When the glove stops inflating, remove the sediment using a thin hose.
8. Cover with a nylon lid and let stand for another week.
9. Remove the wine from the sediment again, you can drink it after full maturation after 1 to 12 months.

From grape juice

• Preparation time: 76 days.
• Number of servings: 30 persons.
• Calorie content of the dish: 133 kcal.
• Purpose: for the holiday table.
• Cuisine: Russian.
• Difficulty of preparation: easy.

To the surprise of some gourmets, you can make wine at home. Apart from punctuality and patience, nothing is required from you here. But the drink turns out very tasty, and the aroma is simply amazing. The grapes themselves can be used along with the squeezed juice. The proportions of sugar can again be adjusted to your taste, making semi-sweet or sweet dessert wine. As for varieties, it is recommended to use several at once. For example, merlot and cabernet make very tasty wine.

Ingredients:

sugar – 1.5 kg;

grape juice – 5 l.

Cooking method:

1. Place the squeezed juice together with the grapes in a container of suitable size.
2. Leave the mixture in a warm place for 3 days. Stir twice a day.
3. Next, squeeze the mass under a press or with your hands, then strain into a glass container, put on a glove with a small hole.
4. Infuse for 40 days in a well-ventilated area.
5. If some of the wort is not included, then add it every 2 days.
6. When carbon dioxide stops coming out, add sugar in the specified amount.
7. Next, filter the drink, bottle it and leave it at a temperature of 11-14 degrees for a month.

Secondary from pulp

• Preparation time: 48 days.
• Number of servings: 20 persons.
• Calorie content of the dish: 56 kcal.
• Purpose: for the holiday table.
• Cuisine: Russian.
• Difficulty of preparation: easy.

According to the classic recipe, only the wort is involved in the fermentation process, i.e. The cake that remains after straining is not used for making wine. Although there is a separate recipe for it. Learn how to make a “second wine.” It will not be as rich as a first-class drink. It's a matter of taste - some people even really like this wine. Its aroma is no worse, it just has a different shade. The secondary wine itself from the pulp is obtained with a lower strength.

Ingredients:

• purified water – 5 l;
• dark grape cake – 5 kg;
• sugar – 1 kg.

Cooking method:

1. Transfer the pulp into a clean, dry container.
2. Next, add a mixture of sugar and water.
3. Pour the resulting mixture into 3-liter jars.
4. Put rubber gloves on top of them. Make a small puncture on one of the fingers with a needle.
5. Leave the drink to ferment until the pulp is compressed and loses its original color. This will take about 40-45 days.
6. Next, strain the wort, removing all the cake.
7. Leave the wine for another 3-4 days.
8. If you are satisfied with the taste of the drink, then bottle it. Otherwise, leave it to ferment for another couple of days.

White

• Preparation time: 4 months.
• Number of servings: 15 persons.
• Calorie content of the dish: 128 kcal.
• Purpose: for the holiday table.
• Cuisine: Russian.
• Difficulty of preparation: easy.

After studying the recipe for wine from white grapes, you will learn how to prepare a unique drink with exceptional aroma and taste. The process will take several months, so you will have to be patient. But the result will please not only you, but also your guests. Connoisseurs of noble drinks will definitely appreciate this wine. You can adjust the sweetness of the drink yourself. This recipe produces a semi-sweet wine.

Ingredients:

• sugar – 3 kg;
• grapes – 10 kg.

Cooking method:

1. Carefully sort the grapes, remove rotten berries, and put the rest into an enamel bucket.
2. Mash the product thoroughly. When the juice comes out, cover with gauze.
3. Leave for 5 days in a warm place. Stir the contents several times a day with a wooden spatula.
4. Next, drain the pulp in a colander and strain the juice into a glass container, filling it only 75%.
5. Add sugar, put on a glove with several punctures on top, and secure it with an elastic band.
6. After 3 weeks, fermentation will almost be over. At this point you can add more sugar to suit your taste. In this case, leave the drink for another 1-2 weeks.
7. Then strain the juice into bottles, cork them, and send them to the cellar to infuse for 3 months.

Recipes with a glove

• Preparation time: 3 months.
• Number of servings: 12 persons.
• Calorie content of the dish: 112 kcal.
• Purpose: for the holiday table.
• Cuisine: Russian.
• Difficulty of preparation: easy.

Homemade wine made from glove grapes is very aromatic. This recipe is used to prepare it for both Lydia and Isabella varieties. More precisely, the juice of this grape is taken. A mixture of elderberry, oak bark and sage gives the drink a special taste. It is added to the bottle with the wort in a gauze bag. At the end of fermentation it is simply taken out, and thanks to this the wine acquires an unusually fragrant aroma.

Dry (table) wines are produced by fermenting natural juice without adding sugar. To prepare dry drinks, only first-press juices are used. Recipes for such wine may differ in terms of technology, but they only have one ingredient - grapes.

The taste of such wines is very light, harmonious, soft. The drink is moderately tart with a pleasant sourness. The sugar content does not exceed 1% (approximately 4 g/l). There are varieties that have zero sugar content. Homemade dry wine has a light fruity and herbal aroma.

What are we talking about?

White and dark grape varieties are used to make dry wines. White wines have warm golden colors. Dry red wines are characterized by various shades of garnet and ruby.

Semi-dry wine, which, like dry, belongs to the table type, contains 3–8% sugar (4–18 g/l), and its strength is 12–14%. To obtain dry and semi-dry wines, you can use the same recipes.

To make dry wine at home, you need grapes with a sugar content of at least 15%. The best option is 20–22% sugar or more. Sugar content is an important indicator for obtaining high-quality dry wine, since the recipe (production technology) for such a drink excludes the addition of sugar.

The strength of homemade dry wines also depends on the sweetness of the grapes: 1% sugar produces 0.6% alcohol. Thus, from berries with a sugar content of 15% you can get wine with a strength of up to 10%.

The sweetness of the berries depends on the grape variety, season (weather conditions under which the grapes ripened), and region. In colder climates, the berries will be less sweet.

Sour and very tart berries are not suitable for the production of dry wines, as problems may arise with the fermentation process, and the young wine will be weak and not very tasty.

Important. All utensils and tools used in wine production must be clean. Containers must be thoroughly washed with soda, doused with boiling water and dried; glass bottles and containers for wine should preferably be sterilized. For winemaking, enameled (without defects), glass, wooden dishes, as well as containers made of stainless steel and high-quality food-grade plastic are used.

Dry wine recipe

This recipe is suitable for white and red wines. It is worth noting that white wine can be made from dark grape varieties, while red wines require grapes with dark berries. Making the drink is troublesome, but not difficult. To make dry wine at home, you will need one product:

• grape.

Preparation of material

To make high-quality dry wine, use grapes of one of the technical varieties (for example, Aligote, Sauvignon, Chardonnay). It is advisable to harvest ripe grapes for winemaking in dry, warm weather.

The grapes are separated from the branches of the brush and carefully sorted. Unripe, spoiled, rotten fruits should not be included in the wine preparation. Preparation of raw materials is a critical stage; low-quality berries and ridges will give the drink an unpleasant bitter taste and a heavy sour smell. It is almost impossible to improve the quality of a product made from poor wine material.

Important. Grapes for wine preparation cannot be washed. On the skin of the berries there are microscopic fungi - wild yeast. These beneficial microorganisms are essential for fermentation. Water washes away a significant part of wine yeast. Very dirty or dusty fruits can be wiped with a dry cotton cloth.

Wine preparation

Prepared berries must be crushed. This can be done by hand or using improvised means. It is important to crush each grape without damaging the seeds. Grape seeds contain a significant amount of tannins, which can give the drink excessive astringency. Therefore, many experienced winemakers do not recommend pressing grapes with a press.

This recipe will use both juice and grape pulp (marc). Substances contained in the pulp and skin of grapes will help create a richer taste and aroma.

Fermentation on pulp

Fill 3/4 of the grape mixture into a suitable container with a wide neck. Cover with cotton cloth or gauze.

At this stage, the technology for white and red dry alcoholic drinks is different, but the difference is insignificant, so the recipe is used to prepare two types of wine.

Dry white wine. The juice is infused on the pulp at 20–25 °C for no more than a day (if the berries are dark, then infused for 3–5 hours, otherwise the drink may turn out pink). Next, pour the liquid into a clean container and squeeze the juice out of the pulp. Strain the juice (wort) through cheesecloth (it must be folded in several layers). Pour the wort into a fermentation vessel with a narrow neck (suleyu).

Dry red wine. This drink is made from dark grapes by fermentation on pulp. The container with the wine preparation must be left for 3–5 days in a room where the temperature is constant and ranges from 18 to 30 °C. Within a day, as a result of rapid fermentation, the pulp will “float” to the surface, forming a foamy “cap”. It must be constantly “heated”, thoroughly mixing the contents of the container two to three times a day. If this is not done, the wort will deteriorate (sour).

Fermentation on the pulp is accompanied by abundant foam, the juice gradually acquires a rich ruby ​​hue and a recognizable wine smell. The liquid should be drained and the lightened pulp squeezed out. Strain the resulting grape must and pour it into the suley.

Fermentation

The wort should occupy only 2/3 of the volume in the fermentation vessel. One-third of the empty space is required for the accumulation of wine (carbon dioxide) gas and foam that will form during vigorous fermentation.

A container with wort is installed on it, which prevents contact of the liquid with air, but allows the free release of wine gas, which is intensively formed during fermentation.

The water seal must be installed correctly; it must seal the bottle hermetically and reliably protect the contents from contact with air.

You can make the shutter yourself. There are very simple and reliable options, for example, at home you can use a regular surgical glove. It must be firmly secured to the neck (this can be done with tape), and a hole must be made in one of the fingers with a needle for the release of wine gas.

The container with the fermenting wort must be placed in a room with stable temperature conditions (fermentation should take place at 17–28 °C). The fermentation container should not be exposed to direct sunlight; it can be covered with thick cloth.

The period of active fermentation depends on the quality of the wine stock and fermentation conditions; it can take from 20 to 60 days.

During fermentation, the liquid gradually becomes lighter, and a dense sediment accumulates at the bottom. The completion of the fermentation process is indicated by the absence of bubbles in the water seal or a deflated rubber glove.

Important. Do not miss the moment of the end of fermentation, so as not to overexpose the wort on the lees. This may negatively affect the quality of the drink.

Maturation

The young wine must be promptly drained from the sediment into a clean container. This operation must be performed with great care. This can be done using a thin hose. In this case, the containers must be installed at different levels. Fill the vessel with young homemade wine to the very top and seal tightly (no air should get into the container).
The wine can be aged in a large bottle, in a soulie, or even in wine bottles.

The taste of young dry wine is quite sharp. To balance the flavor bouquet and maximize the best qualities of the drink (taste/aroma/color), the wine is sent to mature in a cool room (kept at 6–16 °C).

To ripen dry white wine, it takes at least 30 days, red dry drinks are aged for at least two months, but experienced winemakers recommend aging red wines longer (up to six months) before drinking. Over time, their taste and aroma only improve.

The maturation of wine requires constant monitoring, since sediment may continue to form at the bottom of the container. In a red drink, this process occurs more intensely. As it accumulates, the bottle is opened and the wine is carefully drained from the sediment into a clean container. If the wine was matured in a large container, then after sedimentation has stopped, it can be poured into bottles, placed horizontally where it is dry and cool (wine cellar, basement, refrigerator) for storage. Under the right storage conditions, the shelf life of such a drink is from 3 to 5 years (red wine lasts longer).

Semi-dry wine

To obtain semi-dry wine, you can use recipes for dry wines followed by a forced stop of fermentation so that not all the sugar in the wort ferments. That is, to prepare a natural semi-dry drink, a recipe with a single ingredient without added sugar is also used. In the must or by cooling it, due to this, a certain part of the grape sugar is retained, which makes the drink more refined, pleasant and aromatic.

There are recipes for semi-dry wines in which the amount of sugar in the original product is increased by gradually adding beet sugar.

The given recipe allows you to get high-quality dry natural wine at home. This tasty and healthy product, when consumed in small quantities (no more than 150–200 ml per day), improves well-being, mood, and has a positive effect on health. For example, homemade white wine is indicated for the prevention of cancer, while red wine regulates blood pressure.

Dry wine is called wine without sugar or with minimal sugar content (up to 0.3%). During fermentation, the yeast processes all the fructose in the juice, but the drink is not artificially sweetened. Such wines are considered the most natural, tasty and healthy, but require high quality raw materials. I will tell you how to make homemade dry wine from grapes (red or white) using simple effective technology. The recipe uses only berries.

To make dry wine, you need grapes with a sugar content of at least 15-22%. The sweetness of the berries depends on the variety and region of cultivation. The colder the climate, the more sour the grapes (of the same variety).

In industry, sugar content is determined by special devices - a refractometer or a hydrometer with a measuring cup. But the presence of such devices among novice amateur winemakers is very rare. Therefore, the sweetness of grapes at home has to be determined approximately, based on taste. The main condition is that the berries should not be sour or tart, otherwise there may be problems with fermentation, and the finished drink will be very weak.

The fact is that the strength of homemade dry wine depends on the sweetness of the berries; 1% sugar in the juice gives 0.6% alcohol. For example, with a sugar content of 15%, a wine with a strength of 8-10% is obtained.

Before starting preparation, all containers used must be washed with boiling water and wiped dry, otherwise foreign odors or even mold may appear in the finished wine.

Ingredient:

• grape berries - 20 kg.

Dry wine recipe

1. Preparing the grapes. Separate ripe berries, collected in dry weather, from the ridges and carefully sort them, discarding unripe, too small and rotten ones. This is a very important stage, since scallops and spoiled berries deteriorate the wine, making it overly sour, tart and bitter. It is impossible to correct the taste of a drink made from bad raw materials.

Attention! Grapes cannot be washed. Wild wine yeasts, necessary for normal fermentation, live on the surface of the peel; water washes them off. If the berries are dirty or dusty, I recommend wiping them with a dry cloth. For the same reason, grapes should not be harvested in rainy weather.

2. Obtaining wort. Immediately crush the selected berries with your hands. The bones should remain intact. Therefore, I do not recommend pressing grapes with a press. Next you will need not only juice, but also pulp (pomace).

The skin and pulp of grapes contain substances that largely shape the taste of wine. Manual processing of berries promotes the natural release of these beneficial substances and creates suitable conditions for fermentation. The mixture of juice and pomace is called “wort”.

3.Preparation for fermentation. Fill a container with a wide neck (bucket, can, enamel pan, etc.) three-quarters full with wort, cover with gauze. Further during this stage, the technology for preparing white and red dry wines is slightly different.

Leave the wort for dry white wine for 24 hours at a temperature of 20-25°C. Next, drain the sediment and squeeze the pulp with your hands through cheesecloth. Pour the pure juice into a fermentation container with a narrow neck.

Dry red wine is made by first fermenting juice together with pulp. The container is kept for 3-5 days in a room with a stable temperature of 18-30°C. After a day, the pulp rises up, forming a “cap” on the surface. This dense layer must be knocked down by stirring the wort 2-3 times a day, otherwise the wine may turn sour.

The fermenting wort foams abundantly, has a rich red color and a characteristic wine aroma. At the specified time, drain the liquid part from the sediment, squeeze out the pulp through gauze or cloth. Pour all the resulting juice (drained and squeezed) into a bottle with a narrow neck.

4. Fermentation. Fill fermentation containers with juice no more than 2/3 of the volume. Free space is necessary for the carbon dioxide released, which increases the pressure inside the bottles.

To prevent contact of the wort with air, install a water seal on the neck of the container (see photo). An alternative option is a medical glove with a hole in one of the fingers (puncture with a needle). There are also special closure lids for glass jars.

The container must always be kept in a room with a stable temperature of 16-28°C. Active fermentation lasts 25-50 days. Its completion is indicated by a prolonged absence of bubbles in the water seal or a dropped glove. The drink becomes lighter, and sediment appears at the bottom.

5. Maturation. Carefully pour the young wine into storage containers, being careful not to disturb the sediment. The easiest way to do this is through a thin tube, setting the containers at different heights (capillary principle). Fill the vessels with homemade dry wine up to the neck and close the lid tightly to prevent contact with air.

The taste of young wine is sharp and unbalanced. This problem is solved by aging in a cellar or basement at a temperature of 6-16°C. I recommend aging dry white wine for at least 1 month, red wine for at least 2-3 months. Over time, the taste only improves.

As sediment appears at the bottom in a layer of 2-4 cm, it is advisable to filter the wine by pouring it into another container. When sediment no longer appears, the drink can be bottled for storage. If the temperature conditions are observed, the shelf life is 3-5 years.

The video shows the technology for preparing dry white wine.

• in red,
• in white.

There are also variations of the drink recipe, red wine over white, white over red.

Water and sugar in grape wine

Red winemaking with pulp fermentation

Stage 1. Preparing starter for homemade dry wine

1. It is better to ferment using selected (sold in online stores) yeast - ChKD. Fermentation with a pure yeast culture is always predictable and pronounced; the yeast is characterized by increased alcohol content and high starting reliability even under unfavorable conditions. Good for grape wine or .​​

1. But for better reliability, it is better to prepare the yeast first by diluting the nutrient mixture (add.1) 1 tsp. per 10l in warm water (+40g), stir thoroughly.

• After 10-15 minutes, add the yeast according to the recipe, stir and let cool slightly to room temperature. ​
• Then add a portion of berries (50% of the volume of the starter), crushed to pulp and place in a warm place.
• After 1-3 hours, fermentation will begin, which can be easily controlled by the presence of foam. Add another 50% of crushed berries.

Stage 2. Preparation of pulp for natural grape wine (Appendix 2)

1. It is necessary to separate the berries from the grapes, selecting the rotten and spoiled ones.

1. It is advisable to carry out preliminary measurements:

• determine sugar content using a refractometer
• titrate the acidity of the juice
• measure PH
• total weight

All these parameters will be useful in the further production of grape wine at home.

1. Place the berries in a clean glass or plastic container, in which they will then be crushed. Add a fermentation stopper (Appendix 3) (potassium pyrosulfite) 5-15g/100l into the container with berries according to the scheme depending on the pH of the juice (Appendix 4). It is better to mash the berries with your hands, you can use a wooden pestle or masher. If you have a mechanical fruit chopper (crusher), the process will happen faster.

1. To prevent oxidation of the juice, it is necessary to grind in a cool, dark place (in the basement), or pre-cool the berries.

Stage 3. Rapid fermentation of homemade wine

1. Fermentation is best carried out in a dark, cool place at the temperature specified in the instructions for this type of yeast (+18-24 degrees)

• Add the prepared yeast mixture to the pulp
• Stir thoroughly
• Cover to prevent small flies
• Stir the pulp twice a day, periodically drown the floating cap of pulp in the juice

In order for fermentation to take place in the recessed pulp, there are certain pressures that are not difficult to do. This can be a fine plastic mesh with a pressure, wrapped in a plastic bag. In this case, stirring can be reduced to 1 time per day.

1. For better extraction of aromatic substances from berries, it is advisable to use a softening enzyme or Lallzyme EX-V 2g/100l, to preserve the aroma OPTIRED 20-30g/100l.

1. Fermentation and joint maceration (destruction of berry cells and dissolution of aromatic substances in alcohol) can occur as residual sugar is found in the pulp with attenuation, but for better complete fermentation of everything, it is necessary to add nutritional supplement FERMAID E 20-30g/100l to the pulp.

1. Long-term tincture on the pulp produces a high-tannin coarse wine, so it is not suitable for all varieties; long-term maceration is carried out for weakly colored, poorly aroma-bearing varieties such as Pinot Noir; for ordinary wines it is limited by fermentation time (7-10 days) ​ ​​

1. To enrich weak wine material, you can add tannins 5-15g/100l (according to taste and desire) ( ) ​​​​​

1. The final fermentation can be seen by the absence of foam and the lowering of the pulp cap. You can detect a burning match by the presence of carbon dioxide released; if it goes out, then fermentation is still occurring. The next stage is pressing and pouring for subsequent quiet fermentation.

For the continuation of the recipe on how to make dry grape wine at home, read the following article:

Applications:

1. ActiFerm - starting feed for the start of fermentation of the ChKD starter;
2. Pulp - mechanically mashed berry in its own juice;
3. Fermentation stopper/Potassium pyrosulfite (E-224) - a sulfur preservative, suppresses harmful flora in food production, antioxidant, the total amount of sulfur in general is not more than 0.2 g per liter (0.4 pyrosulfite)
4. Recommended dose at the beginning of fermentation:

for white wines:

• ​pH 2.8 - 40 mg/l;
• pH 3.0 - 80 mg/l;
• pH 3.2 - 120 mg/l;
• pH 3.4 - 140 mg/l;
• pH 3.6 - 160 mg/l;
• pH 3.8 - 240 mg/l.

for red wines:

• pH 2.8 - 30 mg/l;
• pH 3.0 - 50 mg/l;
• pH 3.2 - 80 mg/l;
• pH 3.4 - 100 mg/l;
• pH 3.6 - 120 mg/l;
• pH 3.8 - 200 mg/l.