Cherry wine at home: a simple step-by-step recipe

Homemade winemaking is gaining popularity every year as an original hobby and a way to cope with excess harvest. Fruits of various fruit trees and berries collected from their own garden are used as wine material. It is not difficult to make cherry wine at home, consider simple recipes for an alcoholic drink made from fresh berries, compote, juice and pulp.

The subtleties of making wine from cherries

Exquisite aroma of cherry wine and delicate tart taste will impress even real gourmets. Cherry wine made by hand is a real masterpiece of home winemaking.The peculiarity of the drink and the basis of the dispute among winemakers is whether to use pitted berries as a raw material or to remove them first.

There is no consensus on this issue, someone believes that the fusel oils contained in cherry pits are released into the drink and are harmful to he alth. Proponents of wine made with pitted cherries believe that there is no he alth hazard if the pits remain intact and do not split, and besides, such wine turns out to be more tart and original in taste.

How to choose the right raw material?

There are various recipes for making cherry wine. The recipe for making the drink mainly depends on the selected cherry raw material. Wine drinks insist on fresh cherries, cherry compote, juice or pulp.

Lovers of stronger drinks add vodka or cognac to the finished wine.

To create different shades of taste, white currants, raspberries, gooseberries are mixed into cherry tinctures.

How to make cherry wine at home?

To make wine at home, you will need glass bottles, silicone tubes about a meter long, 1.5 centimeters in diameter. Each winemaker adds sugar to the mash to taste, the amount of sweetener depends on the sugar content of the feedstock.

Homemade cherry wine is infused on the basis of natural fermentation, which lasts about three months. The wine must be filtered three times, with a filter press, the number of cleanings can be reduced.

Classic recipe

The traditional recipe for making cherry wine is to create a drink based on fresh berries. Bones are removed at will, whole berries are crushed with a mortar or hands.

The resulting mixture must be diluted with water in a ratio of 1:1. If the goal is to make dry wine, do not add sugar, just add yeast or raisin starter instead.

In the classic recipe, yeast does not need to be added, therefore, before mashing the berries in the mash, they are not washed. 4-5 days the wine ferments, covered with a lid or thick cloth, in a warm place.

After 5 days, it is necessary to remove the cake by straining the contents through gauze, all procedures are recommended to be done with gloves. Sugar must be added to the resulting wort, but this must be done correctly. Part of the cherry must is poured into a saucepan, where the sweetener is poured, put on the stove and heated to room temperature, stirring the sugar often until completely dissolved.

Important! It is impossible to boil the wort and heat it over 30 С, yeast and beneficial bacteria will die, the fermentation process will not start.

The sweet wort is poured into the main bottle, then the remaining wort is poured into the same place and the water seal is closed tightly. The stage of "silent" fermentation begins, the container with the wort must be removed in a dark, warm place.

After 12 days, a portion of sugar is added to the “quiet” must in the same amount as for the first time, you can dissolve the sweetener in young wine. Leave the drink to ferment for another 25-30 days. After this time, the wine must be filtered from the sediment. Usually this procedure is carried out using a hose or filter press. Leave the wine for another week, the wine drink will begin to lighten. Young cherry wine is ready, if a person wants to get an aged drink, leave the wine to ferment for another 3 months, filter the drink when sediment occurs.

Easy recipe without yeast and vodka

Cherry wine is created on the basis of a natural fermentation process, so there is no need to stimulate the process with yeast, as well as to fix the finished drink with vodka or cognac.

An important nuance of a simple recipe without yeast and vodka is the use of unwashed berries in the mash, which retain the natural bacterial background.A simple recipe without yeast and vodka is based on the step-by-step classic recipe for making cherry wine, presented above.

Option without water

In the classic recipe, cherry pulp must be prepared and diluted with water in a 1:1 ratio, but there is an option for making cherry wine without water. In this case, the taste of the wine is tart, and the color is darker.

Sugar does not need to be dissolved beforehand, it is laid in layers between the cherry pulp, so the mixture is left to ferment for a month, then the water seal is opened, the contents are mixed, the fermentation process is activated with renewed vigor. As soon as there are noticeably fewer carbon dioxide bubbles, the pulp is separated through gauze. The purified wine continues to ferment, when sediment occurs, the drink is filtered and continues to age.

Cherry compote

A rational way to recycle unused cherry compote. For 3 liters of compote use 1 handful of raisins. All components are mixed with sugar, mixed thoroughly and poured into a bottle under a water seal.

The drink fermentation system is the same as in the classic recipe: the wort is separated, the fermentation process is activated, the drink is filtered (several times if desired), and aged. After three months, the drink is bottled, for storage they must be put in the cellar.

From cherry juice

Cherry juice is a concentrated raw material for homemade wine, the juice can act as a preservative and the fermentation process will not start, so it is recommended to add yeast or raisin starter to the container when using cherry juice as home brew. The amount of sugar is doubled.

Yeast must be used live, it must first be softened in a glass of water at room temperature for about 40 minutes. The wort and the yeast mixture are brought to the same temperature (no higher than +25 ^{C) and gently mixed.}

Further, when the first sediment falls, the wine is filtered and left to age for 2 months, then filtered and bottled for storage.

From cherry pulp

Cherry pulp - a mixture of cherry juice with pulp and peel, pits of berries, prepared by hand. An alcoholic drink is prepared from cherry pulp according to a classic recipe. A winemaking trick that has been passed down from generation to generation is that the berries are crushed by hand, and the cherries themselves are not washed.

Fortified wine

Cherry wine with a high strength is prepared with the addition of alcohol. 2 cups of vodka are added to 15 liters of must, the wine is fermented in the cellar. It is necessary to introduce a “fixing” element after the 2nd filtration, a week before the final bottling of the finished drink.

With white currants

The original recipe for cherry wine. White currant makes the bouquet of wine extensive, and the taste more intense. For 3 kilograms of cherry pulp, 2 kilograms of white currant pulp are used. The pulp must be prepared by hand, crushing the berries with bare hands.

Yeast and sourdough are optional, the mix of cherries and white currants lends itself perfectly to natural fermentation.

Frozen cherries

Frozen cherries can be used as a raw material for homemade wine. In this case, it is necessary to use yeast or sourdough as fermentation catalysts. The amount of sugar is doubled compared to the amount of sweetener in a traditional recipe.

With raspberries

Cherry and raspberry wine has a rich bright red color and a sweet aroma. Refers to refreshing drinks, many winemakers call this drink homemade sangria.

Berries are mixed into the pulp in a ratio of 1:1. The pits are left in the cherry. The berry mix is diluted with water, sugar is added, stirred and left to infuse for natural fermentation. A week later, the pulp is filtered through gauze, and the wort continues to ferment; after a month, the first cleaning of the sediment is carried out. A month later, the young wine is ready.

Cherry Jam Wine

Cherry jam must be diluted with water in a ratio of 1:1 and add raisin starter or yeast. There is no need to add sugar. The must is separated through gauze 10 days after the start of fermentation. After another 3 weeks, the drink is cleaned of sediment. Further actions of the winemaker depend on the purpose of obtaining young or aged wine.

Storage rules

It is necessary to store containers with homemade wine in a dark place, the optimum storage temperature is +18 С. Limit light and direct sunlight on the bottles, and check the tightness of closed caps.

The best storage place is a cellar or pantry.

Under all storage conditions, homemade wines are stored for several years without loss of aroma and taste.

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