How to make cherry wine at home

The very word "wine" indicates that this drink is made from grapes. It is in the vine berries that the ideal proportion of sugar and acid is contained. By the way, in the bunches also live the necessary for fermenting alcohol bacteria, which process non-alcoholic juice into a intoxicating drink. Unfortunately, cherry can not boast such an ideal ratio of sweetness and acidity, and it often inhabits completely different, acetic bacteria. But if you know the secrets, you can prepare a nice cherry wine at home. It's all about the climate. If the grapes in our country ripens only in the far south, then cherries are present in every garden.

The first - and indispensable - the premise of the transformation of juice into a drink of the gods is the creation of conditions in which alcohol bacteria will develop and vinegar will die. For this we need to take the cherry not overripe. After all, the vinegar fungus has already appeared in it and is rapidly developing. It is necessary to take a good one, which is not shameful and on the table to file. Berries are better to use classic, black and sour, because in dessert, fermentation will not develop at all - cherry wine will turn out to be weak, underfed, stifled and without flavor.

The algorithm is as follows. Cherries my, remove the stems, from the fourth part of the berries we extract the stones, crush them and return them to the total mass, which we mercilessly press. In professional winemaking, the juice (wort) is separated from the mashes (pulp) already at this stage. But we're not in the factory. As we make cherry wine at home, this process will be left for later. And now we put the gruel into a container with a wide neck, filling it in half. Separately, prepare sugar syrup (based on 10 kg of berries 2 liters of water and 2 kilos of sugar). The must must turn out to be sweet, even sugary.

Alcohol bacteria need very little air, whereas vinegar requires constant "breathing". Therefore winemakers go to a lot of tricks: they block the barrel and bury it half in the sand, use a water gate - a special curved tube, into which a little water is poured. This water barrier prevents the penetration of oxygen and allows the carbon dioxide released during the fermentation period to freely escape. Such special adaptations negate the enthusiasm of those who want to make cherry wine at home. But in free sale there are rubber gloves - we will use them.

After filling the syrup immediately cap the container, pulling on the neck of the jar a mitten. Place the dishes in a dark room with an even temperature balance of + 20-25 C. After a couple of days, the mass will begin to "play": above the liquid, a foam cap will rise and the glove will be filled with gas. At this stage, when cherry wine at home is boiling, it should be 2-3 times a day to open the jar and mix the must in order to lower the pulp down. So you need to wait a week.

After that, for another 6-7 days leave the wine alone. The liquid must enter the stage of silent fermentation. The foam will subside, and a thick layer of pulp will appear on the surface. It's a sign that it's time to separate the mash from the mash. Carefully take it with a noise. Again for a week we forget about wine. During this time, the remains of the pulp fall to the bottom, the gas becomes clearly less. Somewhere on the 18-20 day we proceed to the overflow (removal from the sediment). Clean dishes are placed below the container with the wort. Using a flexible hose, we pour liquid from one container to another so as not to disturb the sediment on the bottom and walls. We fill the dishes as tightly as possible so that there is no room for air, and we seal the lid. Now cherry wine at home should ferment 10-12 days in a cool and dark place (up to +15 C). After that, it is poured again - already in glass bottles.