Dried fruits are a versatile product that is used not only in cooking, but also for making wine. This is especially true in winter, when there are no berries and fruits suitable for winemaking. Wine made of raisins is not at all like grape, but no less tasty.
Homemade raisin wine - the basic principles of cooking
The main stage of making wine is the right choice of raisins. The problem is that almost all the raisins, which are sold in stores, are treated with chemicals that not only inhibit the fermentation of wine, but also can be harmful to health.
It is advisable to buy raisins from trusted suppliers, and even better homemade. Purchase several varieties of raisins and make a little leaven from each to see which product will give the best results. Afterwards you will know which raisin is best for making wine.
High-quality raisins make sourdough, which is used for making wines.
In order to prepare it, you need warm water, sugar and raisins. The last ingredient is not washed! It is simply poured into a clean liter jar and poured with warm water to the top, add sugar and cover the throat with gauze. Leave it warm for three days.
After the allotted time, the leaven should begin to ferment. If this does not happen, then this raisin is not suitable for making wine.
Now they put a rubber glove on the jar, puncturing it with a needle and keeping it warm for another day. After this, the starter can be used to make wine.
Recipe 1. Sourdough raisin wine
Ingredients
200 g dark raisins;
50 grams of sugar;
350 ml of purified water.
Method of preparation
1. High-quality raisins should be dull and dense. The required amount of raisins, without rinsing, we fall asleep in a clean sterile bottle. 2. Fill it with slightly warm boiled water, in which we first dissolve sugar. The bottle is closed with a cotton swab and left in a warm room for four days.
3. After the allotted time, the leaven is ready. Store it in the refrigerator for no more than ten days. Before using the container with the yeast put in the heat, add a little sugar and incubated for a couple of days, so that the yeast “woke up”.
Recipe 2. Homemade raisin wine
Ingredients
purified water - seven liters;
white sugar - two kilograms;
raisins - 1 kg 200 g.
Method of preparation
1. Twist 200 g of raisins, not rinsing it. Shift the resulting mass into a jar, add two spoons of sugar and pour all the warm water so that it lightly covers the raisins. Put the leaven in the heat for four days.
2. We take ten-liter capacity, we wash it and we wipe dry. We put in it a kilogram of raisins twisted in a meat grinder. Pour all the sugar and pour seven liters of lukewarm water. Stir until sugar dissolves completely.
3. At the throat we install a water seal or a rubber glove, making several punctures in it with a needle. Place the container in the heat and leave to ferment for a month.
4. Remove the young wine from the sediment using a thin tube so as not to affect the cage. Spill the wine in clean bottles, tightly corked and kept in the basement for four months.
Recipe 3. Homemade raisin-free wine
Ingredients
kilogram of raisins;
half a liter of raisin sourdough;
five liters of purified water.
Method of preparation
1. Raise the raisins, removing spoiled fruit and twigs. Fill with two liters of not boiled warm water and leave for several hours. The berries should swell properly.
2. Crush swollen raisins with a blender or meat grinder. Transfer the resulting mass to the tank, where the fermentation process will take place, pour the extract, which is left from the swelling of raisins. Add three liters of clean, slightly warm water and place the leaven, covered with a marlechka, in a warm place for two or three days. The bottle should be 3/4 full. Shake the container periodically to remove foam. 3. As soon as the wort starts to ferment, put a glove with a hole or a water seal on the container throat. Fermentation, depending on the temperature, will last up to two months.
4. When the wort becomes lighter, and a dense sediment falls to the bottom, this means that the fermentation process has completely stopped. Carefully drain the wine through the straw.
5. Pour it into another bottle, not filling it to the top. Close the bottle with a water seal and send it to the basement or dry cellar. There the wine will slowly roam for another 2-3 months. After this time, pour out the wine through a straw to prevent the sediment from getting into the drink. Bottle, cork tightly and store in the cellar.
Recipe 4. Strawberry homemade wine with raisins
Ingredients
150 g of raisins;
2.5 liters of filtered water;
liter of strawberry jam.
Method of preparation
1. Jam stir with warm boiled water to obtain a homogeneous mixture, like a thick compote. Add raisins to strawberry mix. The raisins are not mine in advance so that a light white bloom remains on the berries. It is thanks to him that the wine must ferment. Pour the mixture into a glass container of a suitable volume, put on it a water seal or a rubber medical glove.
2. Leave the jar with the must to roam in a dark warm room. When the wort ferments, we filter the young wine and pour it into pre-prepared bottles.
3. Seal the bottles tightly with stoppers or caps and keep in a cool place for three to four days. As soon as the wine is infused a little, it can be served.
Recipe 5. Domestic raisin wine in Polish
Ingredients
kilogram of raisins and dried apricots;
top dressing for yeast;
1 kg 200 g of sugar;
yeast;
ten liters of filtered water;
200 g black dried elderberry.
Method of preparation
1. Thoroughly rinse dried apricots and raisins under running water. Then we spread the dried fruits on a disposable towel and slightly dry. Finely chop them or grind in a blender. Dissolve sugar in hot water and cool it. Dissolve the yeast in warm water and leave it to ferment. 2. We transfer crushed dried fruits to the fermentation tank, add elderberry, pour barely with warm syrup and pour water so that the wort takes no more than 3/4 of the container volume. Pour in the yeast and mix everything well. Cover bottle throat with gauze.
3. In a few hours, active fermentation will begin. As soon as it becomes clear that the fermentation process has begun - we close the container with a shutter or a glove with a hole.
4. Primary fermentation will last from five days to two weeks. When bubbles stop appearing in the gate, and the wort becomes bright, it will be drained of sediment. The remaining pulp is thoroughly pressed and poured into a separate, smaller in volume, container with a shutter.
5. Young wine is poured into pre-prepared bottles and placed in the cellar. Secondary fermentation will last from 2 to 5 months - until the wine becomes transparent. During this period, it is several times poured from the sediment with a tube. Before you pour the wine into bottles, you can add sugar to taste.
Recipe 6. Homemade raisin wine with rice
Ingredients
half a liter of leaven;
a kilogram of not steamed rice;
four liters of filtered water;
half a kilo of raisins;
3 g of citric acid;
One and a half kilograms of white sugar.
Method of preparation
1. Add sugar and citric acid to one and a half liters of water and boil the syrup. Let it cool to a warm state.
2. Rice shift to a clean, dry 3-liter jar and pour it with warm syrup. Wrap a towel and leave to swell in a warm room.
3. A day later, we shift the swollen rice with syrup into a bottle suitable for fermentation. Add the raisins and pour in the remaining water. Sourdough diluted in warm water and leave until the yeast begins to “work”. Pour the leaven into the bottle. We leave in a warm room for a couple of days, covering the neck of the container with gauze. From time to time shake the foam to settle.
4. Fermentation will begin in a couple of days. The bottle's throat is closed with a water seal or rubber glove and left for another month. 5. As soon as the rice and raisins settle to the bottom - the fermentation process is over. Carefully drain the liquid through the tube, and squeeze the pulp. Pour the wort into another clean container, filling it to 4/5 volume. Set on the throat shutter and set in a cool place.
6. Leave the container alone until the wine becomes transparent. In the process, it is periodically removed from the sediment, gently draining through a tube.
7. After about a month and a half, the wine is finally bottled, we cork tightly with corks and send to the cellar for three months.
Homemade raisin wine - tips and tricks
- Do not wash the raisins before use, otherwise the wine will ferment much more slowly.
- If you are soaking the raisins, use the infusion that remains from the soaking.
- Make a little sourdough from the purchased raisins to see if it is suitable for wine or not.
- Store the leaven in the refrigerator for no more than ten days.
- Before bottling the wine and storing it, you can add sugar to taste.
