Fortified wine from grapes at home: the best ways to store

Many novice winemakers do not know why they are fortifying a wine drink. Experts recommend doing this, as homemade wine contains a low percentage of alcohol, which makes it rather weak. This will cause the drink to quickly lose its aroma and taste. Therefore, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the preparation of fortified wine from grapes at home in advance.

What is it for?

Before you start fastening, you need to familiarize yourself with what this procedure is for.

There are several main reasons that you should familiarize yourself with in advance:

• Early stop fermentation. Fortification is done to stop fermentation. This is done to preserve the taste of the wort for a long time.
• Speed up lightening. The fortified drink clarifies itself without additional use of clay or gelatin.
• Prevention of re-fermentation. Sometimes wine drinks are re-fermented, due to which their taste quality deteriorates. Therefore, it is recommended to fasten it so that in the future it does not ferment again.
• Increase storage duration. Bonding is done so that the prepared drink does not spoil for a long time.

How to fix wine at home?

There are five common ways to fix a homemade wine drink.

Vodka or alcohol

Most often, young wine is sealed with ordinary vodka or alcohol liquid. Alcoholization is carried out using the following ingredients:

• half a kilo of granulated sugar;
• five kilos of grapes;
• liter of alcohol.

Sometimes you need to add more sugar. However, in this case, the proportions must be strictly observed so that more than one hundred grams of sugar is not used per liter of liquid.

First, the grape berries are kneaded with hands, after which they are transferred to a saucepan and left to infuse for 3-4 days. Then sugar is added to the mixture, the mixture is poured into jars, covered with a water seal and infused for half a month.

When the fermentation stops, add alcohol to the mixture. The alcoholized liquid is filtered and left in a cold room for three weeks.

Sugar

Some do not want to add alcohol to the wine drink and therefore use other methods of fastening. You can fortify wine not only with alcohol or vodka. To do this, you can also use regular sugar, which everyone has.

Before proceeding with the procedure, it is necessary to make a calculation and determine the exact amount of granulated sugar. Experts recommend adding 100 grams of sugar to each liter of must. This is enough to increase the strength of the drink by five percent. However, you should not add too much, as this will stop the fermentation and worsen the taste of the drink. If dessert wines are bonded, the sugar dissolves directly into the wine liquid. At the same time, it is added gradually, every 2-3 for a week.

Freezing

To increase the degree of an alcoholic drink, it is recommended to use the freezing method.This method is based on the difference between the molecules of wine alcohol and water, which are part of the drink. The fact is that water molecules crystallize, but alcohol ones do not. This leads to the fact that after freezing, the strength of the liquid increases significantly.

To fasten the wine, you need to put bottles of liquid in the freezer for 5-6 hours. All the water in the containers will freeze, and the alcohol will remain in a liquid state. After that, it is poured into separate bottles. The remaining ice can be left and used to add to tea. It is worth noting that the bonded drink is several times less than it was originally. From 15 liters comes 6-8 liters of wine.

Pasteurization

To increase the strength of the drink, it is recommended to perform the so-called pasteurization. When performing this procedure, the liquid heats up to sixty degrees. In this case, the process should last for an hour.You can also heat the wine composition to eighty degrees. However, in this case, the duration of the procedure is reduced to half an hour.

The procedure is performed in several successive steps:

• A thermometer is placed in a bottle of water to determine the temperature.
• A container with a thermometer is placed in a pot of water, after which bottles of wine are added to it.
• The filled saucepan is placed on a gas stove and heated to 60-70 degrees.

If you follow the above steps, the wine drink will become stronger by 2-3 times.

Sulfurous acid

Wine drinks are often made with preservatives. The most popular is sulfurous acid, which can increase the strength of the drink.Many experienced winemakers use this component to make wine stronger. Fixing the liquid with sulfuric acid can get rid of dangerous microorganisms that accelerate the spoilage of the drink.

However, the use of such an acid has certain disadvantages. For example, if you add too much of a substance, the drink becomes dangerous to human he alth. Therefore, sulfur dioxide must be used very carefully.

How to make fortified homemade wine

There are four recipes that can be used to make a strong homemade wine drink.

From grapes

Grape wine made from ripe berries is especially popular with winemakers. The strength of this drink will give vodka, which is added during the preparation process. To create a drink you need:

• 3-4 kilograms of grapes;
• 300 milliliters of vodka;
• 300-400 grams of granulated sugar.

To begin with, grape juice is prepared, which is transferred to a dark room for settling for 3-4 days. Then sugar is added to the mixture, after which the container is closed with a rubber glove and left for two weeks. Then the liquid is filtered, mixed with vodka and bottled.

From cherry

Also strong wine can be made from red cherries. The drink is created from the following products:

• 5-7 kilos of berries;
• five kilos of granulated sugar;
• alcohol or vodka.

Cherries are mixed with sugar, covered with a lid and infused in a cold place for about two months. The mixture is stirred regularly so that the granulated sugar dissolves faster. When fermentation stops, the mixture is filtered and mixed with vodka.The liquid is then bottled and transferred to the cellar.

From apples

To make strong apple wine you will need:

• 3-4 kilograms of apple fruits;
• half a kilo of sugar;
• 350 milliliters of yeast per liter of mix;
• 200-250 milliliters of alcohol.

Apples are cut into equal parts, pitted, boiled and infused in heat for three days. The prepared mixture is filtered, after which the apple pulp is squeezed. After that, the mixture is mixed with wine sourdough and left to ferment.

The fermented mixture is filtered, alcohol is added to it and bottled.

From raspberries

To create a raspberry wine drink, you will need the following ingredients:

• five kilograms of ripe raspberries;
• 900 grams of sugar;
• half a liter of alcohol.

Berries are passed through a juicer and mixed with water. Then they are insisted for six hours and re-squeezed to obtain juice. Sugar and a liter of water are added to the mixture. After that, everything is poured into jars and put on a water seal. After 10 days, sugar is added to the composition, after which it is left to ferment for a month. Alcohol is added to the fermented liquid.

How to store fortified wine?

Despite the fact that sealed wine is better stored, it still has to be stored properly.

For long-term storage use a cellar where the temperature will not rise above fifteen degrees Celsius.

Conclusion

In order for the prepared wine to be stored longer and become stronger, people are engaged in its fastening. However, before that, you need to figure out how to bond the drink and recipes for its preparation.

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