Lesson 3. Processed products

The main raw materials for making fruit wine are the fruits and berries themselves, sugar and water.

You can also use last year’s and older homemade preparations to make wine: compotes, jams, juices, and even better, berries ground with sugar. The main thing is that they are free of mold and not sour.

The sugar and water used to make wine can be almost anything. The main thing is that everything is of high quality. So that the water is not rotten, without foreign odors and impurities, preferably settled. In areas where the quality of tap water is low, it is better to use imported water. It is not advisable to use boiled water - it contains too little dissolved oxygen.

Sugar, preferably “sand”, should also not have any foreign odors, especially the smell of petroleum products. These odors may remain in the wine.

In fruits and berries it is necessary to highlight the following properties that affect the quality of the future wine and the technology of its preparation:

1. Fruit quality

As I have already emphasized, the quality of the fruits that we want to use for wine must be the highest. “Wine is not made from waste, wine is made from excess.” The fruits must be ripe, but not overripe, sour or rotten. It is not advisable to pick the fruits from the ground, as the wine may develop an earthy or putrid taste or smell. Fruits and berries that have clusters (or clusters) (grapes, currants, serviceberry)are collected with clusters, but the pulp is prepared from peeled berries.

2. The amount of juice contained in the fruits (Juice content)

The juice content in different fruits is different. And the fruits release juice in different ways - some easily, others worse. There are different ways to extract juice from fruits, but first let’s talk about juice content.

Table 1

Approximate yield of pure juice (in liters) from 10 kg of fruits and berries

Using the table data, we find out that if we collect, for example, 10 kg of raspberries, we will get not 10, but only 6 liters of juice.

And in order to get 10 liters of juice we need to collect 16.7 kg of raspberries (solved by simple mathematics).

3. Sugar content (Fruit sugar content)

Fruit sugar content is the main property of fruits and berries in winemaking. After all, it is sugar that, when fermented, turns into alcohol. As we remember, 1 (one)% sugar in the wort during fermentation turns into ~ 0.6% ethyl alcohol. Thus, to obtain wine with a strength of 12% vol. (alcohol content in %) – the presence of sugar in the wort must be at least 20%.

Table 2

Approximate percentage of sugar in juices of fruits and berries

As can be seen from the table, only from grape juice, and in exceptional cases from apples or serviceberries, can you get natural wine with a strength of 12% vol. The percentage of sugar in the juice of these fruits reaches 20% or more. In all other cases, you will have to add sugar to the juice.

For reference:

1 kg of sugar dissolved in wort increases the volume of wort by 0.6 liters.

The total amount of sugar in juice is determined by its specific gravity using precision scales or by determining density using a hydrometer. In practice, in home winemaking, the sugar content in juice is assessed using tables and the organoleptic method, that is, by taste.

4. Acid content (Fruit acidity)

The need to dilute the juice with water depends on the amount of acid in the fruit juice. The fact is that the presence of excess acid in wine (more than 0.7%) leads to unpleasant consequences when consuming it - heartburn. The acid content in wine can only be reduced at the production stage - by adding water to the must. In some cases, the acid content in juice is reduced by diluting a more acidic juice, such as currant juice, with a less acidic one, such as apple juice.

The percentage of acid below 0.7% negatively affects the taste of the wine and its resistance to disease. Therefore, you need to dilute the juice with water in moderation.

Table 3

Approximate percentage of acid in juices of fruits and berries

The low acid content in the juice (less than 0.7%) is raised by blending, adding more acidic juice of other fruits or adding citric acid.

The acidity of the juice is determined by the amount of alkali spent to neutralize the acid contained in the juice. This procedure is not complicated, but it requires certain conditions, chemical instruments, chemicals and knowledge. It is practically not used in home winemaking. Instead, they use tables and the organoleptic method, that is, tasting the juice.

Using homemade preparations for making wine

As we have already noted, last year’s and older, unused preparations can be used as raw materials for making wine: compotes, jams, juices, and even better, berries ground with sugar. It is important that the workpieces are not sour and mold-free. Otherwise, instead of wine, we can get fruit vinegar. By the way, this is also a necessary and useful product.

Also, unused preparations can be added to the wort when preparing wine from natural fruits.

Why should preference be given to berries ground with sugar? Yes, because there are “live” berries there, and not boiled ones, as in jams and compotes. And all the beneficial properties of these berries are preserved.

Using ground berries, you can also postpone the process of making wine to a later time. What I mean? For example, if at the moment, for some reason, you cannot make wine, and the berries are collected, grind them with sugar and preserve them. And at any time when it is convenient for you, make wine. Even in winter.

Of course, there are also some nuances here. Grinded berries tend to ferment and come out of the jars, and to prevent this from happening, they must be properly prepared.

But we’ll talk about how best to do this separately.

Your questions and comments:

Lesson 3. Processed products

Victor2017-10-1919:07

Why are red and white currants eaten in one line? They have different acidity and different sugar content! So different that when preparing wine together, red currants completely dominate and suppress the flavors of white currants. Lately (about 5 years) I have been making it separately from white currants and the wine turns out to be very pleasant, but from red currants it turns out to be very unstable and just vinegar. This year I tried adding serviceberry juice (20%), so far the results are good.

Answer

Vyacheslav2021-02-1421:05

I agree with you. Tabular data is not guaranteed to be accurate. They are becoming obsolete. Moreover, many new sweet varieties of white currants have now appeared. Well, winemaking is a creative process. I, like you, make white wine from white currants and believe that this is the best option for white fruit wine. Sometimes I make it mixed with gumi berries. They ripen at approximately the same time. It turns out to be a very good blend. As for red currants, I think that they are more suitable for making jelly, and in winemaking as an additive to a blend. I have red currant bushes with a dark cherry color, the berries of which I use as an additive to blackcurrant must. They do not spoil the color of blackcurrant wine and somewhat dilute its density. I also add about 10% raspberry juice to the wort. It makes amazing wine. In principle, you can also make good wine from red currants. I think that in your case, to avoid “just vinegar,” you just needed to add more water. As for the blend with serviceberry juice, I think this is an excellent solution.

Answer

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