How to make wine from Isabella grapes: 6 step-by-step recipes at home

Not all grape varieties are suitable for making alcohol. The best grape variety is Isabella. The taste of the fruits cannot be called dessert, but they have a thick aroma that they convey to the drink. Winegrowers have been growing a variety for winemaking for a long time, many recipes have been created on how to make dry and sweet wine from Isabella grapes. The prepared drink is not only tasty, but also he althy, it cleanses the body, supports the immune system, and gives tone.

Features of making wine from Isabella

It's easy to make Isabella wine.This grape variety is not used in the wine industry. Studies have established that methyl alcohol and hydrocyanic acid are present in high concentrations in the fruit pulp. However, these compounds are not capable of harming the human body if wine is consumed in moderation.

Therefore, Isabella grapes are used today only in home winemaking. Summer residents and growers love this variety for unpretentiousness in cultivation, plentiful annual harvests, high-quality fruiting even in non-native climatic conditions.

To make a drink with your own hands, you need to prepare dishes and a water seal.

They take enameled or wooden dishes, but not metal ones, because metal spoils the taste of the drink.

If there is no ready-made water seal, then instead of it you can use a medical sterile glove, puncturing each finger with a needle. The function of a water seal is to release carbon dioxide from the dishes. The prepared container is poured with boiling water.

Before starting work, it is advisable to wear rubber gloves, because the skin of the Isabella grape has a lot of coloring pigment, and the fingers will be dirty.

Raw material selection rules

Isabella grapes are harvested in dry weather before frosts come. Clusters should be cut carefully, trying not to wipe the bluish bloom from the fruit, because it contains yeast fungi, without which the fermentation process will not proceed.

To make high-quality wine, it is necessary to carefully sort out the fruits, remove shrunken, rotten, overripe ones. The remaining good berries are torn off from the brushes, spread on a clean waffle towel for drying. Then pour into prepared dishes.

How to make wine from Isabella grapes at home

Preparing a drink from Isabella grapes is one of the easiest activities in winemaking. There are recipes with water and without adding water, as well as with yeast and using bagasse.

Easy step by step recipe without water

If you don't have time to mess around with full preparation, then you can make a semi-sweet red wine Isabella according to a simple recipe, without using water. The finished drink has a rich grape aroma, which intensifies with long-term storage, a light sweet taste with a barely perceptible sourness.

To make wine, take:

• 10 kg of grapes;
• 3 kg of granulated sugar.

Step cooking:

1. Grapes are pounded in an enamel basin by hand or using a wooden pestle.
2. The dishes are covered with gauze or a thin natural cloth, put in a warm place for a week to start fermentation.
3. Every day 3 times the wine must is stirred by hand or with a pestle to remove foam.
4. The finished fermented liquid is filtered. The cake is squeezed well.
5. The liquid is poured into a large bottle, sweetener is added. Install a water seal.
6. The bottle is left for about 3 weeks for the juice to ferment. The completion of the fermentation process is judged by a deflated rubber glove, the precipitation of yeast sediment to the bottom, and the cessation of bubbling.
7. The drink is poured into a storage container so as not to touch the sediment. Usually use a thin tube.
8. The poured wine is hermetically sealed and sent for storage.

The classic way to make dry wine

To make dry grape wine, sugar and fruits are taken in a different proportion:

• 5 kg Isabella grapes;
• sugar - at the rate of 50 g per 1 liter of wine must.

Step cooking:

1. The grapes mashed in an enamel bowl are covered with gauze, put in a warm place for a week. Every day, the fermenting mass is thoroughly stirred.
2. A week later, the grape mass is filtered, the juice is squeezed out of the pomace.
3. The fermented liquid is poured into a large bottle. If you check it with a sugar vinometer for sugar concentration, then at this stage of preparation the indicator should be 16-18%.
4. A water seal is placed on the bottle. Leave the must for fermentation for 8-10 days.
5. Next, the wine is carefully poured into small containers using a thin tube so that the sediment remains at the bottom. Pour 50 g of sugar for every liter of must. The total amount of sweetener should be approximately 500 g, it is added to one of the containers, thoroughly stirred until dissolved. It is important to observe the proportions to get exactly dry wine.
6. The big bottle is washed. The sweetened wort is poured back into it. Install a water seal. Leave the wine to ferment for a month.
7. After a month, the wine is drained, leaving sediment at the bottom. They try it: the drink is still cloudy, but it should already acquire a rich, pleasant aroma. The bottle is washed, the wine is poured back. Leave to ferment for another 10 days.
8. Repeat the sediment removal procedure. The wine should have some clarity by now.
9. The wine is kept until sedimentation for another 10 days. It turns out a transparent drink of a beautiful red color. It is poured into sterilized bottles, hermetically sealed, sent for 3 weeks to ripen at a temperature of 10-12 °C.

Ready dry wine from Isabella grapes has a sugar concentration of not more than 0.5%.

With added water

To make Isabella's less strong wine, water is used. The advantage of this method of preparation is to obtain a larger volume of drink.

The ingredients are the same as in the classic recipe. The changes concern only the cooking technology.

Make Isabella wine with water as follows:

1. For 1 liter of grape juice take 40 g of sugar.
2. The dishes with the workpiece are placed in a warm place for 5 days. The berry mass is stirred regularly to remove foam.
3. Add boiled water in an amount of about 30% of the total grape mass.
4. Pour the liquid into the bottle. Install a water seal.
5. The fermented liquid is poured, leaving sediment at the bottom.
6. The wine is heated a little, add 200 g of sweetener per 1 liter.
7. The bottle is left for 2 months in a cool place at a temperature of 10-15 °C. Periodically poured into clean dishes, leaving a residue in order to eventually achieve transparency of the drink.

Wine is made with water to balance the acidity. This recipe is used in areas with an unfavorable climate, where, due to lack of sunlight and excessive soil moisture, Isabella grapes grow unsweetened.

If everything is in order with the sugar content of the grapes, then you should not use water. It will spoil the taste of alcohol.

With yeast

Yeast is used in cooking to keep wine for longer storage.

Preparing:

• 5 kg fruit;
• 100g yeast;
• 1 kg of granulated sugar.

Isabella wine is prepared with yeast as follows:

1. Crush the grapes.
2. The grape mass is poured into a saucepan, put on low heat. Heat to 70-80 °C, do not bring to a boil.
3. The mass is left for 3 days to infuse.
4. Add yeast. Pressed, filtered mass.
5. Pour in 0.5 kg of sweetener. Stir thoroughly.
6. Put a water seal on the bottle. Leave the must to ferment in a warm place for several months. Stir occasionally.
7. The fermented wine is poured into another bottle without affecting the sediment. The procedure is repeated several times to make the drink clear.
8. Pour in the remaining amount of sugar. Stir.
9. Bottled. Sent for storage.

With sugar

Making a grape drink is impossible without the use of a sweetener. But the amount of sugar is adjusted according to the acidity level of the grape juice. You can check the indicator by taste, but it is better to use a pH meter. The acidity rate of wine must is 4-6 g / l.

If the level of acidity is not satisfactory, then sugar is added to taste after fermentation is completed.

From cake

The cake left after squeezing the juice is not thrown away. It is also used to make wine, which is not as rich as the original, paler, lighter, but still tasty.

Add cake to the composition immediately after squeezing the juice. Stale, shriveled grape skins are not suitable for cooking.

Ingredients are taken in the following proportion:

• 6 l cake;
• 5 liters of water;
• 1 kg of sweetener.

Preparing Isabella wine from pomace follows the standard recipe with water.

Further product storage

Ready-made homemade wine from Isabella grapes is poured into clean glass bottles, hermetically sealed. Store the product in a cellar equipped with racks for horizontal placement of bottles, or in another dry place where ultraviolet does not penetrate.

Isabella wine is good for 5 years.

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