With all the richness and variety of fruit and berry crops on the planet, perhaps only strawberries are the main and favorite ingredient of chefs around the world when it comes to making dessert for a romantic dinner. In addition, you can serve the same aromatic wine to emphasize the taste of dessert and the charm of the evening. True, to make homemade wine from strawberries, you will need much more time and some experience in home winemaking.
Homemade strawberry wine recipes - basic technology principles
Strawberries or strawberries, garden or forest - the perfect berry for making wine.
The positive component is the aroma of the berry. With strawberry wine, you can veil the defects of any failed home-made wine in such a way that it seems as if it were intended.
It is easy enough to get natural juice from strawberries, while the losses will be the smallest compared to other berry materials. But even the cake removed from natural juice remains a valuable wine material for processing, a component for the preparation of re-juice, berry syrup, tincture or liquor.
The main focus in winemaking, including at home, paid to the presence and percentage of fruits and acids and sugars, which are the basis of the wort, as well as a guarantee of the preparation of quality wine and the duration of its storage.
With a norm of acid content of 0.7-1.0%, including tartaric and tannic, in the finished wine, almost all known garden varieties of strawberries (strawberries) correspond to these indicators. But cultivated strawberry varieties have a less pronounced aroma than wild berries, with a higher acid content (up to 1.2 - 1.3%). Home winemakers, if possible, seek to enhance the aroma of homemade wine from strawberries by adding wild berries to the wort, which, accordingly, increases the acid content in the wort.
The maximum allowable acid value for the wort is 1.4%. Therefore, there is no particular problem in mixing forest and garden berries. The only point that must be taken into account, with a small number of sunny days, some other weather conditions, changes in soil structure, the acid content in strawberries can exceed the permissible norm. In such cases, the problem of high acid content is eliminated by diluting the juice with water, adding (blending) another, more sweet juice.
But, despite the almost perfect biochemical composition for use in home winemaking, it still has one drawback - there is no tannic acid in this wine material, an important stabilizing component of any wine. To increase the stability and stabilize the taste, tannin (tannic acid) is added after fermentation. As this supplement, you can use tannin, which is sold in a pharmacy. Tannins are also found in some fruits (bird cherry, quince, persimmon).
The next component of wine must is sugar. Normal fermentation, spirituality and the taste of the finished wine depend on its quantity. Sugar is necessary for wine yeast as a source of energy. When processed, fungi form alcohol. More sugar - higher alcoholicity of wine. The natural sugar content of strawberries is 4-10%. With these indicators, you can get a weak and unstable homemade wine from strawberries. The minimum permissible spirituality for dry wines is 9%. To increase the strength by one degree, 20 g of sugar per liter is added to the must.
Sugar also has a direct bearing on wine storage issues. Sugar protects the drink from the development of microorganisms harmful to wine, acting as a preservative. It gives stability to wines with a low alcohol content. After the fermentation stops, sugar is added additionally. Its quantity is regulated by the requirements for the type of drink.
Wild yeast is enough for a weak homemade strawberry wine. that live on the surface of all fruit crops in natural conditions. But for stronger, dessert and liquor wines, it is recommended to add wine yeast cultures grown in special artificial conditions to strawberry wort.
In turn, the yeast needs to provide optimal working conditions. The main thing is the temperature regime. At the initial stage, when the wort is fermented, its temperature can reach 25 degrees, but t18-22 degrees is considered ideal for wine fermentation. When making homemade wines, you also need to know that the lowest critical temperature for the work of the wort is 14 degrees, and at +10 degrees the wine yeast in the wort dies. At +25 degrees, the wort continues to "wander", although not very actively. Yeast, like all living organisms, react to the environment, their performance decreases in hot conditions. In some cases, when the yeast lacks food, ammonium salt (ammonia) is added to the wort.
It remains to add that after receiving the juice, analyzing it and improving biochemical parameters, adding yeast to it, the whole process of further preparation of homemade wine from strawberries consists in fermentation, clarification and removal from the sediment, tanization and sweetening, aging and ripening, bottling and storage. As you can see, nothing complicated. You just need to be patient, which is very necessary in winemaking, and try out several recipes of homemade strawberry wine, at least in small quantities, for starters.
When calculating the required number of berries for juice, it should be borne in mind that 650-690 ml of natural juice are obtained from 1 kg of garden pineapple strawberries; from forest - 600-620 ml.
1. The recipe for homemade wine from garden and forest strawberries: dessert wine
Composition:
Strawberry 6.5 kg
Wild strawberry 5.0 kg
Sugar 4.1 kg
Wine Yeast 3 g
Tannic acid 20 g
Tartar 16 g
Cooking Technology:
Sort out fresh berries, remove the sepals, not mine, place under a press. Squeezed leftover berries can be used to make tinctures.
Cooked sugar is introduced into the wort in parts, so the required amount must be divided into parts:
To introduce 1.1 kg of sugar into the wort initially, dissolving it in fresh squeezed strawberry juice and adding tartaric acid; Pour the must prepared in this way into a glass bottle, filling it no more than 2/3 of the volume. Having established a water lock, watch the course of fermentation.
After completion of the rapid fermentation phase, when the evolution of gas bubbles becomes moderate, add another 500 g of sugar, after pouring a small part of the wort and dissolving a portion of sugar in it. Sugar should not settle to the bottom of the bottle - it must be immediately involved in the process.
Continue adding sugar in portions every 5-7 days of fermentation. The remaining portion (0.5 kg) should be added only after the finished young wine is removed from the sediment and clarified. To do this, again pour a small portion of the wine, dissolve the tannin in it and mix with the total mass. Allow the wine to stand ido transparency, pour again into a clean container. Add the last portion of sugar, mix until dissolved. After the wine must be allowed to ripen for 2-3 months. Watch him. Further care consists in the transfusion of wine (once every two weeks). If the wine will be stored in bottles, place them horizontally in the basement on the shelves so that the corks are wet.
2. Homemade strawberry wine recipe. Liquor wine
Composition:
Juice, strawberry 7.0 L
Sugar 5.1 kg
Tartaric acid 70 g
Tannin 30 g
Yeast, wine 5 g
Cooking method:
2.1 kg of sugar are left to sweeten liquor wine at the final stage of preparation; 3.0 kg are divided into two equal parts. 1.5 kg of sugar along with tartar and yeast are dissolved in fresh juice. Juice is poured into the bottle, leaving 1/3 of the free space for fermentation and the subsequent addition of sugar. When the first signs of fermentation (foaming of the surface of the wort) appear, a water shutter is installed. The next part of sugar is added no earlier than 10 days after the subsiding of the most active phase of fermentation.
The clarification of the wort and the sedimentation at the bottom of the tank signals that it is time to remove the wine from the sediment, add tannin and the last part of sugar. To do this, dissolve 2.1 kg of sugar with constant stirring along with tannin. Pour the wine into a clean bottle. The shutter can be removed by closing the wine with a cork or a lid. When the wine becomes completely transparent, pour it again, removing the sediment, and transfer the liquor wine to the basement for storage. Control the humidity in the basement. Twice a month it is better to pour the wine. After 4 months, the wine can be bottled and sealed. After a year of storage, it will acquire a tea color, retaining a strawberry bouquet.
3. Homemade strawberry wine recipe. Fortified wine
Composition:
Juice, natural strawberry 6.9 L
Sugar 1.4 kg (+ 1.2 kg for sweetening)
Vodka (40%) 0.75 L
Oak leaves
Order of preparation:
At the time of wine fermentation we put tincture of oak leaves on vodka for extraction. In the same dishes, you can add the thick left over when receiving strawberry juice to enhance the aroma of fortified wine. In a liter jar, put freshly washed and slightly dried, crushed oak leaves. Close the jar tightly and set it warm. Do not forget to shake it periodically to enhance extraction. When the wine is ready, the tincture must be filtered to connect it with the young wine and fix it, completely stopping fermentation.
In an enameled bowl, combine sugar and strawberry juice, mix well and pour the prepared wort into a fermentation bottle. After the appearance of foam, seal the bottle with a stopper and wait until the fermentation stops completely. Let the young wine stand for two weeks so that the sediment falls to the bottom. Pour wine, removing sediment. Do this carefully so as not to agitate the settled particles.
Sediment can be used as starter culture for home-made wines from fruits of a later ripening period.
Sweeten the removed young wine by adding the second part of the prepared sugar, pour in the prepared and refined tincture. Set for aging for at least a month. Keep it in this in a cool basement. Repeat sedimentation and bottle.
4. Homemade strawberry wine recipe. Strong table wine
Composition:
Garden strawberry, pineapple 14 kg
Sugar 1.6 kg
Tannin 75 g
Cooking method:
Ripe, selected berries, knead and combine with sugar. After a day, pass the fermented juice through a dense filter and pour it into the prepared bottle. Seal the wort with a stopper and, placing it in a suitable place, wait until the fermentation stops and the yeast settles to the bottom. Add tannin to the new wine. In a few days, it should become even more transparent. Again, remove the young wine from the precipitate and transfer it to another sterile bottle, which then transfer it for aging and ripening in a cool room (12-14 degrees).
5. A simple recipe for homemade strawberry wine. Dry table wine
Composition:
Garden berry juice 8.5 l
Wild strawberry 9.0 kg
Sugar 2.4 kg
Cooking:
Sort wild berries, chop and add to the juice of garden strawberries along with sugar. Put the wort for fermentation at 25 degrees, and then pour it into the bottle. Install the shutter. All further wine preparation steps are described in the previous recipe.
Tip: to make dry wine more resistant to disease during storage, put in a bottle in which it will be stored in the basement, a linen bag filled with oak bark.
6. Homemade strawberry wine recipe. Muscat semi-sweet sparkling wine
Composition:
Forest and garden strawberries (1: 1) 10 kg
Sugar 2.5 kg
Nutmeg, crushed 30 g
Order of preparation:
From the prepared berries, make a pulp, adding 2 kg of sugar to it. Filter the fermented pulp, pour the resulting juice into a bottle and add ground nutmeg. Close the neck with a shutter. Combine the finished, clarified young wine with the rest of the sugar, stir and pour into champagne bottles. Cork carefully. Soak the bottles for 24 hours at room temperature, and then transfer them to the basement. Lay horizontally and store at 10-14 degrees. You can taste sparkling wine no earlier than six months later.
Homemade Strawberry Wine Recipes - Tips & Tricks
Natural corks for corking wine can be reused. To seal a bottle of good homemade wine, fill the corks with boiling water and wait until they become soft. Seal the bottled wine. After that, if the used corks have through holes left by a corkscrew during printing, fill them with molten beeswax, wrap the neck with tape.
Be sure to label the home made wine left for aging. It is necessary to indicate on the labels the type of wine, strength (sugar content), date of manufacture. Home wine cellar can and should be better than the most famous in the world.
