From grapes without sugar. Homemade grape wine recipe without added sugar. Filling and storage

Dry wine is called wine without sugar or with a minimum content (up to 0.3%). During fermentation, the yeast processes all the fructose in the juice, but the drink is not artificially sweetened. Such wines are considered the most natural, tasty and healthy, but they require high quality raw materials. I will tell you how to make homemade dry wine from grapes (red or white) using a simple effective technology. The recipe uses only berries.

To prepare dry wine, you need grapes with a sugar content of at least 15-22%. The sweetness of the berries depends on the variety and the growing region. The colder the climate, the more acidic the fruit of the grapes (of the same variety).

In industry, sugar content is determined by special devices - a refractometer or a hydrometer with a measuring cup. But the availability of such adaptations among novice amateur winemakers is very rare. Therefore, the sweetness of grapes at home has to be set approximately, focusing on taste. The main condition is that the berries should not be sour and tart, otherwise problems with fermentation are possible, and the finished drink will be very weak.

The fact is that the strength of homemade dry wine depends on the sweetness of the berries, 1% sugar in the juice gives 0.6% alcohol. For example, with a sugar content of 15%, a wine with a strength of 8-10% is obtained.

Before starting cooking, all used containers must be washed with boiling water and wiped dry, otherwise third-party odors or even mold may appear in the finished wine.

Ingredient:

• grapes - 20 kg.

Dry wine recipe

1. Preparation of grapes. Ripe berries, collected in dry weather, separate from the ridges and carefully sort out, discarding unripe, too small and rotten. This is a very important step, as scallops and spoiled berries degrade the wine, making it overly sour, tart and bitter. It is impossible to correct the taste of a drink made from poor raw materials.

Attention! The grapes must not be washed. Wild wine yeast, necessary for normal fermentation, lives on the surface of the peel, the water washes them away. If the berries are dirty or dusty, I recommend wiping with a dry cloth. For the same reason, you cannot pick grapes in rainy weather.

2. Getting the wort. Sort the sorted berries immediately with your hands. The bones must remain intact. Therefore, I do not recommend pressing the grapes with a press. Next, you will need not only juice, but also pulp (pomace).

The skin and pulp of grapes contain substances that largely shape the taste of wine. Manual processing of berries promotes the natural release of these beneficial substances and creates suitable conditions for fermentation. The mixture of juice and pomace is called wort.

3. Preparation for fermentation. Fill a container with a wide neck (bucket, can, enamel saucepan, etc.) three-quarters of the wort, cover with gauze. Further, during this stage, the technology for preparing white and red dry wines is slightly different.

Defend the must for dry white wine for 24 hours at a temperature of 20-25 ° C. Then drain from the sediment, squeeze the pulp with your hands through cheesecloth. Pour the pure juice into a fermentation vessel with a narrow neck.

Dry red wine is made by the initial fermentation of the juice together with the pulp. The container is kept for 3-5 days in a room with a stable temperature of 18-30 ° C. A day later, the pulp rises up, forming a "cap" on the surface. This dense layer must be knocked down by mixing the wort 2-3 times a day, otherwise the wine may turn sour.

The fermenting wort is richly foamy, has a deep red color and a characteristic wine aroma. At the indicated time, drain the liquid part from the sediment, squeeze the pulp through cheesecloth or cloth. Pour all the resulting juice (drained and squeezed) into a bottle with a narrow neck.

The wort is ready

4. Fermentation. Fill the fermentation tanks with juice no more than 2/3 of the volume. The free space is necessary for the emitted carbon dioxide, which increases the pressure inside the bottles.

To prevent the wort from coming into contact with air, install a water seal on the neck of the container (see photo). An alternative option is a medical glove with a hole in one of the fingers (pierce with a needle). There are also special closure lids for glass jars.

Hydraulic seal scheme Glove Shutter cover

The container must always be in a room with a stable temperature of 16-28 ° C. Active fermentation lasts 25-50 days. Its completion is evidenced by the prolonged absence of bubbles in the water seal or a drooping glove. The drink brightens, and a sediment appears at the bottom.

5. Maturation. Pour the young wine carefully into storage containers, taking care not to touch the sediment. The easiest way to do this is through a thin tube, setting the containers at different heights (capillary principle). Fill the vessels with homemade dry wine to the very neck and close the lid tightly to prevent contact with air.

The taste of a young wine is sharp and unbalanced. This problem is solved by holding in a cellar or basement at a temperature of 6-16 ° C. I recommend aging white dry wine for at least 1 month, red - at least 2-3 months. The taste only improves over time.

As a 2-4 cm layer of sediment appears at the bottom, it is advisable to filter the wine by pouring it into another container. When the sediment no longer appears, the drink can be bottled for storage. Subject to the temperature conditions, the shelf life is 3-5 years.

The video shows the technology for making white dry wine.

This drink is prepared exclusively from berries without the addition of sugar, water, taste and aroma components. Strict adherence to technology, the correct choice of raw materials provide quality products with a rich aftertaste, bouquet, intense color and many useful properties. Making grape wine without sugar is the easiest way to make it at home. The procedure requires a minimum set of ingredients, utensils and equipment.

Production technology

The use of just one component for preparing a drink requires strict adherence to step-by-step instructions and recommendations for the selection of raw materials, since the slightest deviation from the rules can negatively affect the quality and organoleptic properties. The grapes must have the maximum sugar content, otherwise the fermentation will be sluggish and end quickly.

Particular attention should be paid to the preparation of dishes and utensils. It is recommended to use items made of enamelled steel, ceramics, glass, wood. In extreme cases, it is possible to use plastic containers and short-term contact of the grape mass with stainless steel. Regardless of the material, pre-wash all dishes with detergent, rinse with hot water and dry. It is important that milk and dairy products are not stored before. Disinfection of wooden products can be carried out by fumigating with a sulfur stick or by treating with a sulfite solution at a concentration of 1 tbsp. l. for 1 liter of water.

To protect the grape must from oxidation by atmospheric oxygen, a special water seal should be installed. At home, instead of it, it is permissible to pull a medical glove without talcum on the neck of the bottle, fasten it well so that it does not break off from high pressure, make a small hole on the finger to release excess carbon dioxide. Such devices protect the glass container from explosion.

On a note! Sugar-free wine is made according to the simplest recipe. The result is the highest quality product, since fewer operations reduce the risk of making mistakes.

Selection and preparation of raw materials

No technology can help make a delicious drink if the main ingredient is incorrectly selected and processed. When making homemade wine from grapes without sugar, you should choose varieties with a level of this substance from 18%. A smaller amount will affect not only taste, but also fermentation, since yeast will have nothing to feed on, nothing to be processed into alcohol. The result is a weak, unstable, acidic product.

It is recommended to grow or purchase special technical varieties that differ in their small size, high percentage of juice. It is necessary to take into account the region of grape growing, weather conditions, peculiarities of the variety. With a lack of sunlight and heat, the berries contain little sugar and a lot of acids; it is better not to use them for winemaking. If you want to add astringency to the drink, it is permissible to take thick-skinned fruits or leave a few scallops in the wort.

On a note! Dry white wine is made from white or red fruits with clear juice. It is better to make homemade alcohol of rich color from dark grape varieties.

The berries should be well ripened and sweet in taste. It is recommended to cut the bunches when the acidity stops decreasing. It is advisable to harvest on a dry, sunny day. After the rain, at least 3-4 days should pass. Do not pick up fruits that have fallen to the ground in order to avoid pathogens entering the wort and acquiring an earthy flavor to the drink.

It is impossible to wash the harvested crop, so as not to remove the natural yeast necessary for fermentation from the peel. For this reason, at home, a thorough examination of the grape brushes is carried out, the removal of leaves, twigs, ridges, insects, dried, green, rotten berries. Dry wine cannot be masked by adding sugar; excess acidity cannot be reduced either. Prepared raw materials should be poured into an enamel pot or basin, pressed with a wooden pestle or hands, which should be clean and dry. It is advisable to grind everything without violating the integrity of the bones.

In addition to grapes, the recipe may include soft purified water, alcohol. The first liquid is introduced if the grape juice is too sour - it reduces the cheekbones, stings the tongue. This operation is undesirable, since it significantly reduces the quality of the drink. The alcohol is added in the last step to increase the strength. At the same time, the taste of the wine turns out to be more harsh, the aroma deteriorates. Both components are rarely administered. It is believed that real, high-quality products are made only from berries.

White wine without sugar

Ingredients:

• grape.

Wine making technology:

1. Prepare, crush the grapes.
2. Place the mass in a dark room at a maintained temperature of 18-22 ° C for a day. If the grapes are dark, 3-5 hours are enough. The main thing is that foam forms on the surface.
3. Pour the juice by gravity using a sieve into a glass bottle, do not squeeze the pulp. For maximum clarity, filter through a cloth several times.
4. Fill the container by ⅔ of the volume. With excessive acidity and astringency, it is allowed to add water. Install a water seal on the neck.
5. Leave the bottle under the same conditions for 1-2 months. When the gas stops forming, the glove is deflated, the young wine is drained from the sediment using the principle of combined vessels. To do this, lower the tube with one end into the liquid so that at least 2-3 cm remains until the dense mass, and the other into a clean container located one level below.
6. Further aging is carried out. Fill the bottle to the brim, close the lid so that no air layer remains. Leave in a dark room at a temperature of 10-15 ° C for at least 1-2 months.
7. If necessary, top up the same grape wine in the container, since as the sediment falls, the total volume of liquid decreases. Pour the drink from the dense suspension at the bottom into a clean bottle.
8. Ideally, ripening ends when the grape wine becomes transparent, no sediment precipitates. Then you need to pour into dark glass bottles, cork and put away for storage.

On a note! The spent pulp can be used to prepare a second portion of wine products or moonshine.

Red wine without sugar

Ingredients:

• dark grapes.

Cooking method:

1. Prepared grapes must be crushed, transferred to an enamel bowl.
2. Cover the container with clean gauze or cloth. Leave for 3-5 days in a dark place at 22-27 ° C until hissing and sour smell appears. The mass must be mixed 3-4 times a day so that a dense crust does not form on the surface. Otherwise, instead of wine at home, you will get wine vinegar.
3. Strain the wort, filter, pour into a glass bottle, filling only 70%. Close the neck with a water seal.
4. Active fermentation of red wine lasts 1-2 months. After the completion of the process, it is necessary to drain the liquid from the sediment, fill it to the brim with another glass or wooden container.
5. Close with a lid, put to ripen in a dark place at 10-15 ° C for at least 2-3 months. As the sediment forms, drain, under the same conditions, leave until fully ripe.
6. Pour the finished wine into bottles, cork, store in a dark, cool basement or cellar.

Lightening

In some cases, as a result of home winemaking, a cloudy drink is obtained, the presence or absence of sugar does not affect this in any way. This phenomenon spoils only the appearance of homemade wine, but not the quality. In the production of expensive branded products, long aging (3-6 years) is used. At home, it is recommended to use special substances that make dense particles and fungi precipitate much faster. Pasting is optional, but slightly increases the shelf life of the alcohol.

The procedure can be carried out using:

• gelatin - 10-15 g per 100 l;
• egg white - 2-3 pcs. per 100 l;
• white clay - 3 g per 1 liter;
• skim milk - 1 tsp for 1 liter;
• heat;
• cold.

Dissolve any of the proposed substances in water, add the required amount to the grape wine, mix thoroughly. The effect after gelatin and proteins will be noticeable after 3-4 weeks, it is enough to add white clay for 5-7 days, and milk for 3-4 days. Then drain from the sediment and store.

Pasteurization is carried out at a temperature of 50 ° C. Put tightly closed bottles in a large saucepan, pour cold water up to the neck, bring to the desired temperature with slow heating. Turn off the stove, leave the wine to cool completely. The procedure is repeated 2-3 times, in room conditions, let stand for 5-6 days, drain from the sediment, cork, put away for storage.

Cold clarification consists in cooling down to -2 ° C, draining from the sediment. In this case, the liquid should not be allowed to heat up. Under the influence of low temperatures, dense particles and yeast sink to the bottom, removing them, subsequently there will be nothing to form a dense suspension, so the wine can be poured into bottles, corked and transferred to the cellar.

When making a drink at home according to recipes without added sugar, it should be borne in mind that the alcohol content in them is less. The shelf life of wines with a low strength and the absence of a preservative ingredient in the form of sugar is somewhat reduced. The quality and organoleptic characteristics of the finished product directly depend on the raw materials used. The drink must be prepared in accordance with a time-tested recipe, a violation of the technological process can lead to poisoning.

Making wine at home is a painstaking job that takes a lot of time and requires adherence to the recipe. Despite the complex process, this business can be mastered by every person. Our article focuses on where to start and how exactly you can get wine.

The painstaking work of making wine consists of several phases. Of course, you should start by sorting the grapes, even slightly damaged ones will not work. We take only good whole berries, remove them in branches, but they should not be washed, as the yeast contained on the surface of wild fruits will disappear.

A special press is used to crush the fruit, or you can do it manually. It is important not to touch the pits, because this will make the wine bitter.

After pressing, the resulting mixture is infused for 2 days. Then it should be filtered and passed through cheesecloth. Add sugar if desired. Now you need to put the liquid to ferment. The reservoir in which it is located must be sealed with a water seal or put on a regular rubber glove on the neck.

After the transformation, the liquid is poured into another tank, while the formed sediment does not need to be poured. This can be done carefully using a special thin hose in the valve.

The end will be bottling the beverage and holding it until it is fully ripe. The longer the shelf life, the more refined the wine will be.

Isabella classic grape wine

Sweet wine from the popular grape type with an alcohol content of 9-12%

Required Ingredients: Isabella grapes - 15 kg, sugar - 3 kg, water as needed.

Cooking progress. We put the selected selected berries under a press or squeeze out by hand. Infuse the substrate obtained after pressing for 3-4 days, stirring 2 times a day. This is followed by the procedure for filtering the liquid. If the wine turns out to be sour to your taste, then add water, at the rate of 50-500 ml per 1 liter of the resulting drink. Pour into a container, leaving 1/3 of the total volume, add sugar in a ratio of 100 g per 1 liter. We seal it tightly with a water seal or put a glove on the neck, having previously made a hole in one phalanx. We put it in a dark place with an air temperature of + 16- + 22ᵒC. After 5 days, pour out half of the remaining granulated sugar. After another 5 days, pour out all the remaining sugar. The preparation process should take 35-70 days.

As the air leaves the glove and the contents of the bottle become light, a sediment will appear at the bottom, now it's time to pour into another container without disturbing the sediment. If you wish, you can add sugar and leave for 7 days. You need to keep the bottles cool for six months, then pour them into bottles and send them to the cellar or refrigerator for a shelf life of up to 5 years.

Unpretentious grape wine

The recipe is very simple to prepare, even a novice winemaker can handle

Required Ingredients: grapes - 10 kg, sugar - 2.5-3 kg.

Cooking progress. Select good berries and crush them with a press. Next, cover the resulting mixture with a cloth that conducts air well and leave for 5 days, stirring twice a day. The next step will be filtering: pour through cheesecloth into a container and squeeze the berry cake. Add sugar, stir thoroughly. Place the glove on the neck and let it ferment for 3 weeks. As the air leaves the glove, you need to pour the contents into a clean container without disturbing the sediment. We insist for another 1 month in a cool room. Pour into a clean vessel every 10 days, leaving sediment at the bottom. After a month, we pour the wine into bottles and store for another 1 month.

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White wine at home

Light wine with a unique aroma and memorable taste.

Required Ingredients: noble grapes - 10, sugar - 3 kg.

Cooking progress. Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Rislin varieties are ideal. We send the grapes to the press and leave for 5 days, stirring once a day. Then strain into a container, squeeze the berries through cheesecloth. We add sugar to taste, depending on your personal preferences and the sweetness of the berries themselves. We seal with a water seal and put in a dark and chilled place for fermentation for 21 days. After this time, you can pour the wine without touching the sediment. Leave on for another 4 weeks to improve the taste.

Homemade red grape wine

If you follow the recipe, you will get a very tasty wine with a bright aroma and rich flavor bouquet.

Required Ingredients: grapes - 5 kg (Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Isabella), sugar - 1.5 kg.

Cooking progress. To create this wine, it is better to take grapes of the types Cabernet Sauvignon, Isabella, Merlot, Pinot Noir. The berries that you have selected must be pressed. We filter the juice into a saucepan and squeeze the berries there. We put on low heat and heat, pour 750 g of sugar, stir until it is completely dissolved. Place the berry cake in a vessel and pour it with sweet juice. Cover and leave for 5 days. Do not forget to stir the mixture 2 times a day. Then we filter and squeeze again, pour everything into a clean bottle, pour out the remaining sugar and close it with a water seal. We leave for further fermentation for another 21 days. When the process is complete, pour it back into a clean container without touching the sludge. We seal and put away in a place inaccessible to sunlight for 28 days. During this period, every 10 days, it is necessary to pour the drink into a new tank, without sediment. Then you should place the vessel with wine for at least 28 days in the refrigerator.

Light grape wine

With the addition of water, the taste of the wine becomes more delicate and light. It is important to maintain the correct proportions.

Required Ingredients: grapes - 5 kg, sugar - 3 kg, water - 12 liters.

Cooking progress. Prepare an enamel bowl, squeeze out the fruits you have selected in it. Cover and leave for 3 days, stir the mixture twice a day. We filter through cheesecloth into a bottle and squeeze out the leftovers, add 1/3 granulated sugar, stir thoroughly, close with a hydraulic seal and leave to ferment for 1-2 months in a dark place. Once every 7 days, it must be poured into a new container, without precipitation. The remaining sugar must be added in the first 10 days. Dilute with water after another 7 days. After the fermentation process is complete, you can bottle the drink and put it in a cool and dark place. The taste will be better if it is infused longer.

Dry grape wine at home

To prepare dry wine, you need grape varieties that contain 20% sugar.

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Required Ingredients: black or white grapes.

Cooking progress. Place the selected grapes under a press and crush. Leave the resulting composition to infuse at room temperature. The white variety should stand for at least a day, and the dark variety should last for 3 to 5 days, during which time the berry cake should rise to the surface of the mixture. Then we filter and squeeze the juice into a vessel, close it with a water seal and send it to ferment in a dark place for 10-25 days. When the period is over, it is necessary to pour it into another tank without affecting the sediment and put it in a cooling place. White wine is infused for 1 month, red wine for 2-3 months.

Grape wine Moldova

A properly prepared drink will have a sweet, concentrated red color with the right tart aftertaste.

Required Ingredients: grapes - 30 kg, sugar - up to 5 kg, water - up to 10 liters.

Cooking progress. Press the selected fruits, set to infuse for 4 days, gently stirring twice a day. Strain it into a tank, squeeze out the cake, add granulated sugar, put a glove on the neck and leave it to ferment for 1-2 months out of the reach of light at room temperature. Then we pour it into another vessel and put it in a cool place for six months for aging.

Homemade grape wine Lydia

By following the recipe, you will get a good drink that will delight you with its quality taste and sweet strawberry aroma.

Required Ingredients: grapes - 10 kg, sugar - 3 kg.

Cooking progress. We crush the berries you have chosen, put everything in a tank, cover and leave, at room temperature away from light, to infuse for 5 days. After straining the pulp is no longer needed, pour the juice into a vessel and add sugar, mix thoroughly. We close and set to wander in a darkened room for 21 days. We remove the drink from the sediment, fill the bottles with it. We put the containers in the cellar or pantry until the taste ripens for up to 40 days.

Homemade grape wine without sugar

So that the drink does not turn out to be too sour, for its preparation, you should choose the fruits of sweet grapes.

Required Ingredients: white grapes.

Cooking progress. We press the grapes that you have chosen and stand for 12-18 hours in the cool. Next, we filter and remove the processed pulp. Pour everything into a bottle, seal with a water seal and set at room temperature for 21 days. After that, everything must be poured into another container, hermetically sealed and removed for another 21 days. After that, you need to repeat the procedure and leave it in the same way for 1 month and pour it over again without affecting the sediment. If the drink turns out to be cloudy, it must be placed in an absolutely dark and chilled room with a temperature of 0- + 6ᵒC, preferably for at least 2 weeks. Pour clear ready-made wine into bottles and place in the cellar for storage.

Grape wine in a jar

You can also prepare drinks not in the bottles intended for this, especially when you do not have them at hand. For these purposes, you can use a regular jar.

Required Ingredients: grapes - 10 kg, sugar - 2.5 kg.

Cooking progress. Remove the grapes from the twigs and remove all the stems. Compress everything in an enamel bowl, cover and leave for 4-5 days, stirring twice a day. Next, you should pass everything through a sieve, squeeze the pulp and pour everything into jars. Pour equal amounts of granulated sugar into the juice jars and stir. Put rubber gloves on the cans, having previously made one hole in each of them. We set aside for fermentation for 14-21 days. Remove gloves, strain without touching the sediment at the bottom. Then you need to pour into bottles and remove for 1 month in a cool room. We pour the drink into another container every 10 days. At the end of 30 days, you can taste the resulting drink and put it in the cellar.

Dry (table) wines are obtained by fermenting natural juice without added sugar. For the preparation of dry drinks, only first pressing juices are used. The recipes for such a wine may differ in terms of technology, but there is only one ingredient in them - grapes.

The taste of such wines is very light, harmonious, soft. The drink is moderately tart with a pleasant sourness. The sugar content does not exceed 1% (approx. 4 g / l). There are varieties in which the sugar content is zero. Homemade dry wine has a light fruity and herbal aroma.

What is it about?

For the production of dry wines, white and dark grapes are used. White wines have warm golden colors. Dry red wines are characterized by all sorts of shades of pomegranate and ruby.

Semi-dry wine, which, like dry, belongs to table types, contains sugar 3–8% (4–18 g / l), and its strength is 12–14%. For dry and semi-dry wines, you can use the same recipes.

To make dry wine at home, you need grape berries with a sugar content of at least 15%. The best option is 20-22% sugar or more. Sugar content is an important indicator for obtaining high-quality dry wine, since the recipe (production technology) of such a drink excludes the addition of sugar.

The strength of home dry wines also depends on the sweetness of the grapes: 0.6% alcohol is obtained from 1% sugar. Thus, from berries with a sugar content of 15%, you can get wine with a strength of up to 10%.

The sweetness of the berries depends on the grape variety, season (weather conditions under which the grapes ripened), region. In colder climates, the berries will be less sweet.

Sour and very tart berries are not suitable for the production of dry wines, as problems with the fermentation process may arise, and the young wine will be weak and not very tasty.

Important. All utensils and tools used in the production of wine must be clean. The containers must be thoroughly washed with soda, rinsed with boiling water and dried; glass bottles and wine containers should be sterilized. For winemaking, they use enameled (no defects), glass, wooden dishes, as well as stainless steel containers and high-quality food grade plastic.

Dry wine recipe

This recipe is suitable for white and red wines. It is worth noting that white wine can also be made from dark grape varieties, while red wines require grapes with dark berries. Making a drink is troublesome, but not difficult. To make dry wine at home, you need one product:

• grape.

Material preparation

To make high-quality dry wine, grapes of one of the technical varieties (for example, Aligote, Sauvignon, Chardonnay) are used. It is advisable to pick ripe grapes for winemaking in dry, warm weather.

The grapes are separated from the twigs of the brush, carefully sorted. Unripe, spoiled, rotten fruits should not get into the wine stock. Preparation of raw materials is a crucial stage, low-quality berries and combs will give the drink an unpleasant bitter taste and a heavy sour smell. Improving the quality of a product made from poor wine material is almost impossible.

Important. Wine grapes must not be washed. On the skin of the berries there are microscopic fungi - wild yeast. These beneficial microorganisms are essential for fermentation. Water, on the other hand, washes away a significant part of the wine yeast. Very dirty or dusty fruits can be wiped off with a dry cotton cloth.

Wine preparation

Prepared berries must be crushed. This can be done by hand or with the help of improvised means. It is important to crush each grape without damaging the seeds. Grape seeds contain a significant amount of tannins, which can impart excessive astringency to the drink. Therefore, many experienced winemakers advise against crushing grapes with a press.

This recipe will use both juice and grape pulp (pomace). The substances contained in the pulp and skin of grapes will help to form a richer taste and aroma.

Fermentation on the pulp

Fill 3/4 of a container with a wide mouth of a suitable volume with the grape mass. Cover with cotton cloth or gauze.

At this stage, the technology for white and red dry alcoholic beverages is different, but the difference is insignificant, so the recipe is used to make two types of wine.

Dry white wine. The juice is infused on the pulp at 20-25 ° C for no more than a day (if the berries are dark, then infuse for 3-5 hours, otherwise a pink drink may turn out). Next, drain the liquid into a clean dish, squeeze the juice from the pulp. Strain the juice (wort) through cheesecloth (it must be folded in several layers). Pour the wort into a fermentation vessel with a narrow throat (suleu).

Dry red wine. This drink is obtained from dark grapes by fermentation on the pulp. The container with the wine preparation should be left for 3-5 days in a room where the temperature is constant and in the range from 18 to 30 ° C. Already in a day, as a result of violent fermentation, the pulp will "float" to the surface, forming a foamy "cap". It must be constantly "heated" by thoroughly mixing the contents of the container two to three times a day. If this is not done, the wort will deteriorate (sour).

Fermentation on the pulp is accompanied by abundant foam, the juice gradually acquires a rich ruby ​​hue and a recognizable wine smell. The liquid should be drained, squeezed out the lightened pulp. Strain the resulting grape must, pour into the sulet.

Fermentation

The wort should occupy only 2/3 of the volume in the fermentation vessel. One third of the headspace is required for the accumulation of wine (carbon dioxide) gas and foam, which will form during vigorous fermentation.

A vessel with wort is installed, which prevents contact of the liquid with air, but allows the wine gas, which is intensively formed during fermentation, to escape freely.

The odor trap must be installed correctly, it must seal the bottle hermetically and reliably protect the contents from contact with air.

The shutter can be made by yourself. There are very simple and reliable options, for example, you can use a regular surgical glove at home. It must be well fixed on the neck (this can be done with scotch tape), and in one of the fingers make a hole with a needle for the wine gas to escape.

The container with fermenting wort should be placed in a room with stable temperature conditions (fermentation should take place at 17-28 ° C). The fermentation tank should not be exposed to direct sunlight, it can be covered with a thick cloth.

The period of active fermentation depends on the quality of the wine stock and the fermentation conditions; it can take from 20 to 60 days.

During fermentation, the liquid gradually brightens, a dense sediment accumulates at the bottom. The completion of the fermentation process is indicated by the absence of bubbles in the water seal or by a deflated rubber glove.

Important. Do not miss the moment of the end of fermentation, so as not to overexpose the wort on the lees. This can negatively affect the quality of the drink.

Maturation

From the lees, young wine must be promptly drained into a clean bowl. This operation must be done with great care. This can be done with a thin hose. In this case, the containers must be set at different levels. Fill the vessel with young homemade wine to the very top and seal it tightly (no air should enter the vessel).
Wine can be ripened in a large bottle, in sulie and even in wine bottles.

The taste of young dry wine is rather sharp. To balance the flavor bouquet and maximize the best qualities of the drink (taste / aroma / color), the wine is sent to maturation in a cool room (kept at 6–16 ° C).

It takes at least 30 days for dry white wine to ripen, red dry drinks are aged for at least two months, but experienced winemakers recommend aging red wines longer before drinking (up to six months). Over time, their taste and aroma only improve.

The maturation of wine requires constant monitoring, since sediment may continue to form at the bottom of the container. In a red drink, this process is more intense. As it accumulates, the bottle is opened, the wine is carefully poured from the sediment into a clean container. If the wine has matured in a large container, then after the precipitation stops, it can be bottled, placed horizontally where it is dry and cool (wine cellar, cellar, refrigerator), for storage. Under the right storage conditions, the shelf life of such a drink is from 3 to 5 years (red wine is stored longer).

Semi-dry wine

To obtain semi-dry wine, you can use dry wine recipes with the subsequent forced stop of fermentation so that not all of the sugar is fermented in the wort. That is, for the preparation of a natural semi-dry drink, a recipe with a single ingredient without added sugar is also used. In the wort or cooling it, thanks to this, a certain part of the grape sugar is retained, which makes the drink more refined, pleasant and aromatic.

There are recipes for semi-dry wines in which the amount of sugar in the original product is increased by gradually adding beet sugar.

The above recipe allows you to get high quality dry natural wine at home. This tasty and healthy product, when consumed in small quantities (no more than 150-200 ml per day), improves health, mood, and has a positive effect on health. For example, homemade white wine is indicated for the prevention of cancer, red wine regulates blood pressure.

The desire of many people to consume as healthy food as possible has not spared home winemaking either. Increasingly, recipes are used to make their own wine that do not involve the addition of additional sugar.

Be prepared for the fact that natural grape wine, made at home without added sugar, will turn out to be completely dry. This means that all the natural sugar contained in grape berries will be processed into alcohol by yeast.

Dry wine is, in fact, the basic product of winemaking, when grape juice, fermented under natural conditions without diluting it with water and adding sugar, turns into an alcoholic drink. All other wine recipes - sweet, sparkling, fortified, dessert and so on - are just taste experiments and artificial interference in the technology of the fundamental process. Dry wine is considered the purest and healthiest, and the recipe for its production is extremely simple.

Usually, to make grape wine at home according to the classic recipe, amateur winemakers use natural yeast for fermentation, which is found in abundance on the skins and crests of berries. This is the same whitish plaque visible to the naked eye. When harvesting, carefully cut the bunches and place in a wide, flat container for carrying, being careful not to rub off any plaque. Do not wash the berries before crushing. Handling this carefully will keep the wild yeast on the surface as much as possible and ensure a quality fermentation.

The alcoholicity of a drink obtained with the help of wild yeast cannot exceed 12-13 °. And this is quite understandable, since the maximum sugar content of technical grape varieties under favorable conditions of ripening is 20-22 Brie. And we know that about 0.6% alcohol is obtained from one gram of sugar. There are new varieties of grapes with a sugar content of 28–32 Brie, but these are mostly table varieties, used for food and not used for winemaking.

For the production of dry red wines, technical grape varieties such as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and others are suitable. For whites, respectively, Chardonnay, Tokay, Riesling, Muscat and others. This is a world classic. But in our time, many technical varieties have been bred for central Russia. Table varieties, as mentioned above, are unsuitable for making wine, but technical ones do eat for themselves, well, they prepare wine, of course. The grapes, bred specifically for central Russia, ripen quickly, having time to collect the required amount of sugar for a not very long and warm summer, to put it simply, ripen. These varieties, which is very important, are frost and disease resistant.

So, if you are going to plant grapes on your plot for the purpose of enjoying them, and making natural wine without any additives, including sugar, you need to choose the sweetest variety, with a natural sugar content of at least 20 Brie. With such a sugar content, you do not have to indulge in any tricks when making wine at home. You can find out which varieties are grown for wine production in your area by talking with local winemakers.

If there are already grapes, it is necessary to determine its sugar content. What is it for? To understand what kind of wine we can count on in terms of alcoholism. What for? The fact is that if the sugar content in your grapes is too low, for example, as in the well-known Isabella, about 17 Brie, then at the output we will get a wine with an alcohol content of about 10 °, and in unfavorable years, when the summer is cold and rainy, and even less. Such low-alcohol drinks are very unstable, they are poorly stored and are prone to many diseases and vices.

There are tons of recipes for unsweetened grapes. As a rule, sugar is added to the wort from it, thus increasing the spirituality. A sufficient amount of alcohol, as well as a large amount of sugar in dessert wines, is a good stabilizing preservative that blocks the action of pathogenic bacteria. Of course, it is possible to preserve wine with a low alcohol content, but this will require at least pasteurization.

How do you know how much sugar is in your grapes? To do this, you can use tables that are easy to find on the web, where the main characteristics of different grape varieties are presented, including sugar content. But these are pretty average values. As noted above, the place of cultivation, climatic conditions, the location of the vineyard to the cardinal points, and more are of great importance. Therefore, for a more accurate measurement, home winemakers use a special device that measures the sugar content of the wort by its density, it is called a refractometer.

If you are the proud owner of sweet grapes, you can easily make a great wine at home without added sugar using one of the recipes below.

We remind you that using the white method you can prepare a drink from both white and red grapes. But according to the red method, that is, fermenting the juice on the pulp, wine is made exclusively from dark grape varieties.

Natural wine from grapes according to the white method without added sugar

The preparation for making wine according to this recipe is the same as for everyone else. The only thing that should be treated with particular attention is the time of harvest. The grapes should be ripe, but under no circumstances overripe. A couple of weeks before the scheduled date, taste the berries hanging from different sides of the vineyard, at different heights, for sweetness. As soon as you feel that the sweetness is not growing, and the acidity is kept at the same level for a couple of days, it's time.

Harvested grapes, not mine, immediately carefully sort through, separating unripe, rotten and moldy berries and removing the ridges. Then squeeze the juice out of the berries. To do this, you can use a clean sugar bag. Place the berries in a bag and place in a large saucepan or bowl. Start crushing the grapes through the bag with your hands or a pusher, as convenient. After crushing the berries, twist the bag, thus squeezing the juice through the pores of the bag. This should be done as quickly as possible in order to avoid oxidative processes that change the color of the juice. The resulting liquid will be very cloudy, with pieces of skin, scraps of ridges and other suspended particles. It is necessary to let it settle in a cool place for 12-18 hours, and then drain from the sediment. It is better to keep the juice in the refrigerator, at low temperatures oxidative processes slow down, which will prevent the juice from turning brown. After draining the sediment, we send the juice for fermentation in an open container at a temperature of 16–20 ° С. Temperature control is extremely important when making wine without added sugar. If fermentation takes place at a higher temperature, it will take place much faster, from which the wine can lose up to 2% of potential alcohol. At lower temperatures, fermentation can take a long time, be very sluggish, and then you have to "cheer up" it, which is also undesirable.

Thoroughly washed fermentation dishes are filled with juice to three quarters of their volume. Since in this recipe fermentation occurs without the participation of the pulp, bottles with a narrow neck are suitable. Partially filling the crockery leaves room for carbon dioxide, which is produced by yeast during alcoholic fermentation. At the beginning of fermentation, carbon dioxide forms a protective barrier, preventing the wort from contacting with oxygen, but gradually it becomes less and less. In order for excess carbon dioxide to escape outside, and oxygen was not able to contact future wine, a water seal is installed on the dishes or a medical glove is put on, 1–2 holes are punctured between the fingers with a needle.

The wine will ferment for about three weeks. The end of this process will be evidenced by the extremely rare bubbles coming out through the water seal or by a fallen glove. At the end of the vigorous fermentation, the wine is poured from the sediment using a siphon into a clean bowl. When draining, avoid contact of the wine with oxygen, so that it does not oxidize.

Now comes the turn of "quiet" fermentation, which takes place without intensive gas evolution. The container is filled to the top with wine, closed tightly and left to ferment for another three weeks. Then it must be drained from the sediment again, and again a month later. Each time when pouring, add wine to the top from small bottles prepared in advance from the same batch. This is extremely important to prevent vinegar from souring the wine.

With each new precipitation, the wine should become more transparent. If, nevertheless, it is cloudy, carry out cryostabilization, leaving the vessels with wine at a temperature of 0 + 6 ° C for a couple of weeks. A tartar will fall out into the sediment, the dregs will go away.

Your white wine is ready. You can enjoy it in a friendly company or bottle it and send it for storage to a cellar or other dry room with a temperature of + 13-15 ° С.

Natural wine from grapes in the red method without added sugar

To make wine using the red method, it is fermented on the pulp. Pulp is a thick, obtained after the pressure of grapes, consisting of juice, pulp, skin, berry seeds and, in some cases, bunch twigs. A separate question, which you must answer yourself, is the separation of the ridges. To do it or not, everyone decides for himself, depending on his taste preferences. The twigs contain tannins, which then pass into the wine and give it astringency.

We collect grapes, as indicated in the recipe above. Prepare clean utensils for fermentation in advance. It should be a vessel with a wide neck, since fermentation on the pulp involves stirring the wort several times a day. If the bottle has a narrow neck, it is extremely inconvenient to do this.

We go over, not mine, and we begin to press. The main thing is to crush all the berries and not damage the bones. Then fill three quarters of the dish with the resulting wort, cover with gauze and leave to ferment. The gauze will help prevent wine flies. Fermentation will start in a few hours. A cap will rise to the surface, consisting mainly of peel and other hard particles. It needs to be knocked down, periodically, three to four times a day, stirring the wort. On the fourth or fifth day, the skin will give most of the coloring pigment to the wine and become whitish, then the wort must be filtered by passing it through a cloth or other filter and squeezed out the pulp. Pour the resulting liquid into a fermentation vessel for three quarters. At this stage, you can already use bottles with a narrow neck. Put a water seal on your throat or put on a glove. The stage of "vigorous fermentation" will begin. After its completion, drain the wine from the lees and then proceed according to the previous recipe.

That's basically it. The recipe for making natural wine without adding sugar, water and chemicals is extremely simple.

If you tried your young wine, made according to the first or second recipe, and found that there is very little alcohol in it, but, for example, there is a lot of wine, and you plan to store it for some time without changing the taste of the resulting drink by adding alcohol or sugar, pasteurize wine bottles. This will protect your drink from souring and other troubles.