Homemade cherry wine: recipes for cherry wine from berries, compote and jam. Making aromatic cherry wine at home

In the notebook of many housewives there will probably be a couple of proven recipes for making cherry wine. As you know, homemade wines are almost as good in taste as the most famous varieties. On the contrary, they are considered a natural product that does not contain harmful preservatives.
Most often, when choosing a material, domestic winemakers give preference to cherries. This fact is explained by its wide distribution and rich species diversity represented on the territory of our country.

• Dry homemade cherry wine

Cherry wine - cooking secrets

Classic cherry wine recipe

Homemade cherry wine recipe with pits

Recipe for cherry wine with yeast

Dry homemade cherry wine

How to make fortified homemade cherry wine

Homemade wine from frozen berries

Cherry is one of the most beloved and fruitful berries, from which you can make various preparations. One of the most favorite is homemade cherry wine - a rich and aromatic drink reminiscent of warm summer days. There is nothing complicated in its preparation, especially if you know all the subtleties and requirements.

How to make the most delicious wine?

You can find a huge number of homemade cherry wine recipes online, but to get an aromatic and tasty drink, you need to know the intricacies of its preparation.

• The ideal fruit is a dark-colored berry, which after ripening becomes almost black and sour. These are the Shubinka and Vladimirskaya varieties, which produce a thick, dark and rich drink. The Lyubskaya variety, as well as the Voleka, provide an unusual smell, but the color will not be as bright.
• For cooking, you need only the ripest fruits, but without wormholes, mold, or rotten parts. You can even use overripe cherries.
• You can’t pick berries immediately after rain, as it washes away the natural yeast from them, and because of this, the pulp may not ferment, but simply become moldy. The ideal time for harvesting is a sunny, dry day. The harvested crop must not be washed!
• You don’t have to remove the seeds before fermentation starts, as they can easily separate later on themselves. In addition, thanks to them, alcohol will receive an original tart aroma and taste.
• The strength of cherry wine directly depends on the volume of sugar, because it is thanks to it that alcohol is formed in the liquid.

• To improve fermentation, it is recommended to add starter with pure yeast cultures. To prepare the starter, a glass of any unwashed berries is placed in a bottle, 250 ml of water and 100 g of sugar are added. The mixture is thoroughly shaken, sealed tightly and left for four days in a warm, dark place. Afterwards, the starter is filtered and homemade cherry wine is poured into the future. If the alcohol is to be dessert, then ten liters of wort requires 300 grams of starter.
• To obtain high-quality and pleasant-tasting alcohol, it is recommended to constantly separate the sediment. To do this, the drink is periodically poured from one container to another.
• To prevent souring, wine can be pasteurized. To do this, bottles of alcohol are tightly sealed, tied with a rope made of natural materials, immersed in a container of water and heated to 60 degrees for fifteen minutes.

Cherry wine at home should be prepared in stainless or glass containers, as this will avoid the appearance of an unpleasant plastic smell. To prevent the mash from turning into vinegar while standing, you should prevent its contact with air. To do this, use a water seal or an ordinary medical glove with a small puncture in one finger.

Classic recipes

If you don’t yet know how to make cherry wine at home, then we suggest you familiarize yourself with several basic simple recipes. Even a beginner in winemaking can handle them, and the drink itself turns out thick, rich and aromatic.

• A classic recipe for pitted cherry wine: crush 1 kilogram of unwashed berries and remove the seeds, pour in a liter of boiled water, add 700-800 grams of sugar. The container with the mass is left open for 3-4 days, and the contents are thoroughly mixed daily. The surface will bubble, indicating fermentation. After reducing the number of bubbles, the mass should be left alone for about 4-5 days. During this time, the mass (pulp) will rise, after which it should be removed and squeezed out. The remaining liquid (wort) is poured into bottles with a water seal or glove and left for a week in a warm place. After the glove has fallen, the liquid is separated from the sediment and poured into another container. Leave for another 15 days in a warm place, and then for ripening, transfer to a cool place for 1-3 months.
• Wine made from cherries with pits has a more tart aroma and a refined almond flavor. To prepare it, a bucket of fruits is kneaded without removing the seeds and transferred to a saucepan. Then a bucket of water is poured in, 3 kilograms of sugar are added. The container is left open, and the mixture itself is stirred a couple of times a day. After about a week, the mass is filtered using gauze, and all the juice is carefully squeezed out of the remaining pulp. The wort is poured into a bottle, onto which a water seal is placed, and left in a warm place for about 30 days. Afterwards, the liquid is filtered, poured into bottles and left in the cold for another month.
• Wine from frozen cherries is as rich and tasty as from a fresh harvest. To replace the natural yeast on the skin of the fruit, the most common raisins are used, preferably dark ones. To prepare you need 5 kilograms of berries, 3 liters of water, 1.5 kilograms of sugar and 100 grams of raisins. The fruits are defrosted at room temperature, and then kneaded, transferred to a large container, into which water, raisins and sugar are also added. Cover the container with a lid and place it in a warm place for about a week. After the end of active fermentation, the pulp is squeezed out, and the remaining liquid is poured into bottles for further fermentation and closed with a water seal. After fermentation is complete, the sediment is decanted, and the remaining liquid is moved to a cold place for 1-2 months to ripen.

As a result of this natural fermentation, an alcoholic drink with an alcohol content of no more than 10% is obtained. If you want something stronger, then after fermentation is complete, you can add vodka or alcohol.

Unusual recipes

There is more than one recipe for cherry wine, which uses not only fresh or frozen berries, but also fermented juices and jams. They produce equally tasty alcohol, which is very easy to prepare. It can be obtained from:

• Fermented compote (rolling): the liquid must be strained, carefully squeezing out the grounds, and then add 500 grams of sugar and five large raisins. A glove is put on the bottle and it is left in a warm place until fermentation is complete. Afterwards, the liquid is filtered and sent to ripen in a cool place for several months.
• Fresh juice: for 3 liters of this wort you will need 500 grams of starter, 500 grams of sugar and alcohol. Sugar and starter are added to the jar of juice, everything is thoroughly mixed and left under a water seal for fermentation. After a week, the liquid is filtered and alcohol is added. The resulting alcohol is tightly corked and sent to the basement for six months.
• Jam: pour a liter of warm water into a liter of sweets, throw in a handful of dark, unwashed raisins. The resulting mass is left in a warm place for 7 days, and then filtered. The wort is left under the glove and placed in the cellar for 40 days, and then drained, sealed and left in a cool place for another 40 days.

Now you know how to make cherry wine at home. All recipes do not require excessive effort, so anyone can prepare a tasty and healthy drink.

When cherry wine, prepared at home, appears on the table, it will certainly delight everyone present. Still would! First of all, homemade cherry wine is incredibly tasty! Secondly, you can’t buy cherry wine in all stores, and it costs an order of magnitude more than grape wine. The taste of cherry wine from the store will be worse than homemade: modern industry cannot do without preservatives. And thirdly, it is an opportunity to experience new taste sensations. The beauty is that homemade cherry wine is never the same.

1

The secret is that its taste is influenced by many factors. Not only the cooking recipe matters, but also, of course, the quality of the ingredients. Almost every locality has different sources of water and, accordingly, its quality, which can also change from year to year. As for the main ingredient, cherries, not only its variety matters, but also the area in which the tree grew, how old it is, and even what the weather was like when the berries ripened. The quality of sugar also depends on the raw materials from which it is made and on the manufacturer. Temperature and air humidity during the cooking process also affect the taste.

Cherry wine

2

When using any recipe, you must take into account the taste of the berry, its consistency, and the degree of sweetness of the sugar. Depending on this, you can safely adjust any recipe, focusing on your own taste preferences. Wine yeast is added to any recipe at the rate of 1 g of yeast per 1 kg of cherries. Raspberry starter is added at the rate of 1 part starter to 10 parts cherries.

1. Dry wine is prepared from cherries, sugar and water in the following proportions: 1 bucket of cherries, 1 bucket of water, 2-3 kg of sugar.
2. Fortified wine is prepared from cherries, sugar and water in the following proportions: 10 kg of cherries, 5 liters of water, 5 kg of sugar.
3. Liqueur wine is prepared from cherries and sugar in the following proportions: 10 kg of cherries, 3-4 kg of sugar.

Wine made from cherries

It is better to add sugar and water to the berries in parts over 7 days. This will allow you to achieve the most preferred taste. Stirring the mixture as you add it will ensure even fermentation. The container is filled no more than 2/3 full, because during fermentation the volume of the mixture increases. Cover the container with a rubber glove, previously pierced, or with a water seal. The glove will inflate during fermentation, and will fall off when it is finished. At the end of fermentation, air will no longer be released from the water seal. At an air temperature of 25°C, fermentation takes place in 4-5 weeks. After finishing, the wine must be filtered through several layers of gauze and placed in a cool place to ripen for 2-4 months.

3 How to give wine an unusual taste

All kinds of additives are used to add flavor to the wine. You can add raisins to homemade wine, which will add sweetness and have a beneficial effect on the fermentation process, because there is wild yeast on its surface. There is no need to wash raisins. You can also add various berries. Currants give an interesting taste. Sloes are good for adding tartness. Apples and plums are often added as fruits. Dried prunes give an interesting taste. The most commonly added herbs are cloves, cinnamon, mint, and wormwood. Everyone can choose a supplement according to their own taste.

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Cherry wine has long been among the favorite drinks of many winemakers. And probably each of them already has their own signature recipe. But if you are just starting your journey in the world of winemaking, then you will definitely be interested in different variations of this drink.

Cherry wine classic recipe

Ingredients

1. Ripe cherries – 3 kg
2. Granulated sugar – 1.5 kg
3. Water – 4 l

Cooking method

1. There is no need to wash the berries. It is necessary to sort it out, remove rotten fruits and remove all the seeds. It is very important to preserve all the juice as much as possible.
2. Heat the water to 25 degrees, mix with 500 g of sugar and pour the cherry pulp with this light syrup.
3. Cover the neck of the container with gauze and transfer it to a dark, warm place for 3-4 days.
4. Within a day, the first signs of fermentation should appear. And now every day we stir the wort several times.
5. After completing the active fermentation stage, strain the liquid through a fine strainer or cheesecloth.
6. Mix the resulting juice with 500 g of sugar and pour into a clean container for fermentation. The container should be filled to a maximum of 75%.
7. We install a water seal or a medical glove and transfer the vessel to a dark place with a temperature of 18–25 degrees. The fermentation process can last 25-60 days.
8. After 4-5 days, add 250 g of sugar to the wort. After another 5 days we repeat this procedure.
9. After fermentation is complete, the young wine must be drained from the sediment through a straw.
10. At this stage, you can take a sample and further sweeten the drink or add alcohol/vodka in an amount of 2–15% of the total volume of wine.
11. Pour the cherry wine into a clean container and transfer it to a room with a temperature of 6–16 degrees. As sediment settles, the drink must be poured through a straw into a clean container.
12. As soon as sediment stops falling, pour the wine into bottles and seal it well.
13. The finished product should be stored for no more than 5–6 years in a cool place. The strength of the drink is 11–13%.

Cherry wine without water

Ingredients

1. Cherry – 10 kg
2. Granulated sugar – 5 kg

Cooking method

1. We transfer the unwashed but selected cherry fruits, along with their seeds, into a container of suitable volume, sprinkling each layer with sugar.
2. Close the container with a lid and transfer it to a cool place. This stage may take from 1.5 to 2 months.
3. Stir the contents of the container from time to time so that the sugar is completely dissolved.
4. After fermentation is complete, the wort must be strained and the pulp squeezed out using gauze.
5. We bottle the young wine and send it to a cool place for a couple of months. Then you can start tasting.

Simple cherry wine

Ingredients

1. Unwashed cherries – 1 kg
2. Water – 1 l
3. Granulated sugar – 700 g

Cooking method

1. First, you need to sort the cherries, remove spoiled berries, excess debris and remove the seeds.
2. Mix all the ingredients in a wide-necked container, cover with gauze and leave in a warm place for 2-3 days. Stir its contents daily with a wooden spatula or spoon.
3. When the amount of bubbles and foam decreases, leave the mixture for another 3-5 days and do not stir it anymore.
4. During this time, all the pulp will rise up; it must be collected with a slotted spoon and then squeezed through gauze.
5. Pour the resulting liquid into a clean glass container and install a water seal.
6. After a week, sediment will appear. The wine should be carefully drained and bottled. Then leave it for 15 days under the same conditions.
7. Now we transfer the young wine to a cool place and leave it for 1.5–2 months to stabilize the taste.

Cherry compote wine

Ingredients

1. Cherry compote – 6 l
2. Sugar – 400 g
3. Raisins - a small handful

Cooking method

1. If you only have boiled compote, then it should be placed in a warm place for 2-3 days so that it begins to ferment. If you use canned food, then skip this step.
2. Mix the drink with unwashed raisins and granulated sugar, install a water seal and leave in a warm place until fermentation is complete.
3. Young wine must be filtered and bottled in glass bottles.
4. Before tasting, it must be kept in a cellar or refrigerator for at least 4–5 months.

Cherry juice wine

This recipe calls for the addition of sourdough starter. To prepare raisin starter, you can use the recipe that we previously published in the topic: “Raisin Wine.”

Ingredients

1. Cherry juice – 3 l
2. Sourdough – 500 g
3. Granulated sugar – 500 g
4. Alcohol - to taste

Cooking method

1. In a glass container, mix cherry juice, sugar and sourdough. Leave in a warm place for one week.
2. On the 7th day of fermentation, drain the liquid from the sediment and add alcohol according to your taste preferences.
3. The resulting drink is bottled and kept in a cool place for at least six months.
4. Cherry wine is ready! You can serve it to the table.

Alternative cherry wine recipe

Ingredients

1. Cherry – 4.5 kg
2. Unrefined sugar – 400 g

Cooking method

1. Sort the cherries, remove stems, wash thoroughly and dry.
2. Remove the bones and set aside. Mash the berries. Transfer the resulting mixture into a barrel or similar wooden container.
3. Weigh the seeds, take a sixth, finely grind, mix with sugar and add to the cherries.
4. For safety, bury the barrel in the sand at two-thirds of its height. It is necessary to ensure that the barrel is always full and, if necessary, top it up with cherry juice.
5. When the wine stops fermenting, seal the barrel tightly. Store in the cellar for 2 months.
6. Carefully pour the fermented wine, using a thin hose, into another container, trying not to disturb the sediment, and bottle it.
7. Seal the bottles and store them in a cool place, in a horizontal position.

Cherry pulp wine

Ingredients

1. Cherry pulp – 5 kg
2. Sugar syrup – 4 l
3. Water – 3 liters of water

Cooking method

1. Place the cherry pulp in a 10-liter bottle and pour warm 35% sugar syrup (based on 350 g of sugar per 1 liter of water).
2. Tie the neck of the bottle with gauze and place in a warm place.
3. On days 4-6, when the pulp in the bottle floats, remove the gauze from the neck, install a water seal and seal.
4. Fermentation time, depending on the room temperature, ranges from 30 to 50 days. After this period, carefully pour the juice into a clean bottle and squeeze out the pulp.
5. Filter the juice obtained from it, pour it into a bottle, reinstall the water seal, seal it and keep it under the water seal for another 20-30 days. Then carefully drain the wine from the sediment and pour it into clean, dry bottles, seal it and take it to a cold, dark storage room.

Strong cherry wine

Ingredients

1. Cherry juice – 10 l
2. Sugar – 3.5 kg
3. Water – 2.5 l
4. Alcohol – 0.5 l

Cooking method

1. Wash the ripe cherries, chop them, removing most of the seeds (70-80%), squeeze out the juice.
2. Make wort from juice, water and 2.5 kg of sugar, add yeast starter, and ferment.
3. After 10 days, remove the wine from the sediment, add alcohol, 1 kg of sugar, stir and leave for 7-10 days.
4. Filter, bottle and seal carefully.

Cherry and white currant wine

Ingredients

1. Sour cherry juice – 1 l
2. Water – 1 l
3. White (red) currant juice – 1 l
4. Sugar – 500 g

Cooking method

1. Crush ripe sour cherries. Cover the resulting mass and leave undisturbed for 24 hours.
2. Then press or squeeze the juice and add water, currant juice and sugar to it.
3. Pour the resulting mixture into a small barrel, cover it and stir occasionally for several days, and then allow it to ferment.
4. After fermentation is complete, fill the barrel to the very top with boiled water and after a few days, filter the wine and bottle it.

Cherry wine: benefits and harm

Before talking about any properties of cherry wine, you should remember that an alcoholic drink can only be beneficial if you drink it in moderation.

But even a small dose is not always beneficial. Especially cherry wine is contraindicated for people:

1. With increased acidity and diseases associated with it. For example, hyperacid gastritis.
2. Diabetes mellitus.
3. Stomach ulcer.

You should also remember that large amounts of cherry drink can destroy tooth enamel. Therefore, it is better to drink it a little at a time, then you will have an appetite, improve your mood, and also remove “bad” cholesterol from the blood.

Cherry is one of the favorite plants for many gardeners. The tree with beautiful sweet and sour fruits has always been sung by poets and written by artists, and the cherry orchard has been a favorite vacation spot for writers.

Choosing a cherry variety for wine - what kind of cherry is wine made from? Cherries come in different varieties and are divided according to many characteristics, and the preparation of wine is also slightly different.
Sour cherries when ripe it has a low sugar content, whereas southern griots(cherries pollinated by cherries, average between cherries and dukes) can be compared with grapes in terms of sugar content (up to 19 Brix).

If the former requires preliminary dilution of the sour pulp with water, then “clean” wine can be made from griots.
The most suitable cherry varieties for winemaking are those with abundant juice production and juicy pulp, such as the famous Podbelskaya, Novichikhina varieties (Rossoshansky nursery): Nadezhda, Black Sweet, Griot Michurinsky.

Is it necessary to pit cherries for wine?

Sugar in wine

This article will discuss the most technologically advanced method of preparing wine with fermentation (note 0).

Stage 1. Preparation of raw materials and fermentation

1. Wash the cherries, remove rotten and spoiled berries.
2. Remove the seeds using a stone extractor (note 1).
3. Further, if the cherries are sour cherries of Central Russian varieties, then after chopping, boiled warm water is added at the rate of 1/4 of the weight of the berries. If the cherries are of southern varieties (griot - sweet and juicy), then you can do without water.
4. The wine material must be kneaded either by hand or using a grinder (note 2).
5. After grinding, a dilution of alcoholic yeast (note 3) such as Lallvine E-1118, E-1116, Ziha Active (note 4) and a small amount of sugar (note 5) are added to the pulp. The Lallzyme EX-V enzyme can also be added to the wine material to extract aromatic substances from the skins of the berries (this applies more to professional winemaking).
6. Everything is thoroughly mixed and left to ferment for 3 days, during which it is necessary to drown the risen cap of pulp 3-5 times a day to avoid souring.

It is advisable to ferment in a wide food container with a lid. A 25 kg plastic container, commonly referred to as a “cube,” is well suited for such purposes. Next we start pressing.

Stage 2. Cherry wine fermentation

1. Pressing is carried out in two stages:

1. First, the liquid fraction is passed through a sieve, then the pulp, allowing the juice to drain, sending it under the press.
2. After squeezing, the pulp is not thrown away, but placed in a separate container, water is added and heated to +50 degrees.
3. Next, add sugar (20% of the weight of the liquid) to the squeezes, stir thoroughly and leave to cool.
4. Subsequently, yeast is added to this syrup and parallel fermentation is carried out for further use (note 6).

2. Fermentation takes place in two stages:

• stormy - with a lot of foam
• quiet - when foam on the surface is minimal

1. Fermentation of the main wort takes place in a container filled to 2/3 of the volume with gauze placed over the neck.
2. The first main portion of sugar dissolves in part of the drained and heated wort (note 7).
3. Depending on the sugar content of the berries, the total dose of sugar is 1.5-2 kg per 10 liters of wort (15-20%) to that present in the berries (7-10%, for griots 10-15%).
4. On days 3 and 5, additional doses of sugar are added in a similar way, but adding a full dose at once can lead to a stop in fermentation.
5. For effective fermentation, it is necessary to apply Actiferm yeast nutrition (note 8) in two stages: half at the beginning. During the entire vigorous fermentation, the wort must be stirred 2 times a day, enriching the wine material with oxygen.

1. After the end of the release of abundant foam (up to 10 days), a stage of quiet fermentation takes place, a membrane is put on the neck or a water tongue is placed.
2. Quiet fermentation can last up to 2 months, at the end of which you can judge whether the membrane has deflated and heavy sediment has formed.
3. Sometimes, when the sediment partially falls out, the membrane (glove) is pulled inside the container, which indicates the dissolution of sugar and a slight decrease in the volume of wine.
4. Next, the wine needs to be glazed (lightened) and corrected.

Stage 3. Clarification and adjustment of cherry wine

1. Using a tube, the wine material is carefully poured into a clean container under the neck (note 9). A preparation for pasting is added to it: bentonite or similar (note 10). Added or Lallzyme HC enzyme. The use of an enzyme improves the quality of the wine, but also improves its clarity and taste.
2. The wine is placed in the cold, and after 2-3 weeks it is carefully removed from the sediment.
3. Next, a fermentation stopper (or potassium pyrosulfite 0.2 g/l) is added to the wine (note 11) and placed in a basement or other cool place for long-term storage for 2-3 months, after which it must be adjusted by adding sugar and tartaric acid ( note 12).
4. After adding the latter, the cream of tartar should fall out in 2-3 weeks, and the wine will acquire a pleasant silky taste.
5. To obtain fortified wine, alcohol is added to it (100 g/l to obtain a total concentration of 20-25%).
6. Next, it is removed from the sediment and bottled into prepared bottles. Bottles of wine are pasteurized if a fermentation stopper (potassium pyrosulfite) or alcohol (note 13) was not added.

Storing homemade cherry wine

• Cherry wine, like any stone fruit, is not recommended to be stored for more than a year (note 14).

Recipe Notes

Note 0. Fermentation

• Fermentation is a well-known technique that is often used in fruit and berry winemaking. Fermentation begins, which lasts 3 days, the pulp softens, and maceration occurs. But it is not recommended to carry out complete fermentation on the pulp due to the possibility of the release of hydrocyanic acid from the stone tissues and giving the wine a bitter taste.

Note 1. Removing pits from cherries for wine

• It is better to remove the bones using a device. This can be a manual clamp with a pestle, or a semi-automatic crusher with a hopper. If the wine is made from sweet, juicy varieties such as Griot (cherries pollinated by cherries), then it is advisable to remove the pits before fermentation. If the varieties are sour cherries, the pits can be removed during pressing. It is believed that cherries and similar hybrids contain a greater presence of hydrocyanic acid than just cherries.

Note 2. Berry crusher

• The grinder is a hopper, under which there are two counter-rotating rollers with an adjustable gap. The berry, from the hopper, falls under the rollers, softens, and falls into the container with the juice. Roller drive is manual or electric.

Note 3. Yeast Propagation

• It is better to ferment with selected yeast (sold in online stores) - ChKD. Fermentation with a pure yeast culture is always predictable and pronounced; the yeast is characterized by increased alcohol content and high starting reliability even under unfavorable conditions. But for the best start, the yeast must first be prepared:

1. To do this, dilute the Actiferm nutrient mixture and mix thoroughly.
2. After 10-15 minutes, add the yeast according to the recipe, stir and let cool slightly to room temperature.
3. Then add some of the juice (200 g) and place in a warm place.
4. After 1-3 hours, fermentation will begin, which can be easily controlled by the presence of foam.
5. The finished starter is introduced into the fermentation container: first the starter, then the wine material.

Note 4. Yeast for sour cherries

• If the cherries are very sour, then it is better to use ChKD Lalvin B-71, which during fermentation reduces malic acid by 30%, thereby reducing acidity.

Note 5. Adding Sugar to Cherry Wine

• The amount of sugar for fermentation is taken approximately, usually no more than 5% of the weight of the pulp.

Note 6. Wine pressing

• The squeezed pulp is not thrown away, but transferred to a separate container, diluted with water and heated to + 50 g, sugar is added and, after cooling, it is put on parallel fermentation (all the same as the main raw material). In the future, this fermented decoction of “cherry pomace” can be used to top up the main wort or dilute cherry wine when adjusting the taste. The fact is that cherries contain a lot of fiber and enzymes, which are not completely consumed during fermentation, and the juices still contain nutrients for yeast (as in grapes). When producing wine from fleshy fruits, the must becomes too thick and resembles more of a liqueur. To correct this deficiency, a fermented solution with extracts (shmurdyak) is added to this wine. It is often used separately, especially in hot weather. If the cherry fruits are small and dry, then it is better not to use this step.

Note 7. Adding Sugar to Homemade Cherry Wine

• It is better to use it in three stages: half of the total volume is poured on the first day, the second half is divided into several equal parts and added to the wine on days 3.5 (days 3.5.7).

Note 8. Feeding yeast with Aktiferm

• Yeast feeding is applied in two stages: half in the middle, the second when vigorous fermentation subsides. This can be judged by the decrease in foam on the surface.

Note 9. Lightening and adjustments

• It is very important that the area of ​​contact between the surface of the wine and the air is as small as possible. To do this: if the level of wine is low, then you can carefully place a bubble of water from double cellophane into the bottle so that it forces the wine under the narrow neck, up to the shoulders, so that there is a little space left for a small foam (you can use another inert material, for example, glass beads); if there is more wine, then some of the wine can be poured into a PET bottle of the appropriate size, again up to the neck. In general, it is necessary to have an additional portion of wine in the future to top up the wine at the neck.

Note 10. Bentonite for clarification

• Bentonite serves for clarification of wine materials. This finely dispersed (powder) prepared blue clay, entering the liquid and having a negative static charge, begins to attract the smallest particles of pulp and precipitate them to the bottom (coagulation), thereby brightening the drink. Bentonite is used in drilling (construction), as a cat litter filler, and as a medicine such as Smecta (Neosmectin).

• Other drugs used for lightening are gelatin, , as well as folk ones: egg white, fish glue, cow's blood.

Preparation and addition of bentonite to wine

• Bentonite must be prepared before application. First, measure out a portion (according to the instructions), dilute it with a small amount of boiling water, stir until it becomes a jelly-like state (porridge), then add a portion of wine material, stir thoroughly and pour into the wine. The lightening process works best in the cold (0 - +5 degrees). A sediment forms at the bottom and the liquid becomes clear. It is worth noting that wine material cannot be infused on the lees for a long time.

Note 11. Potassium pyrosulfite (fermentation stopper)

• It is a chemical that can suppress harmful microflora. It (additive E-223) is used in all perishable products, even in baby food, not to mention wine. There is still ongoing debate about the undesirability of using this chemical. But in the absence of it, so many harmful microorganisms (for example, botulism bacteria) can develop in products that will cause 1000 times more harm than sulfite itself.​ ​

• An alternative to this antiseptic is alcohol, so in Soviet times, in stores where there was no refrigerator, only fortified wine was sold. But alcohol is also a strong carcinogen that causes poisoning, and ultimately the use of pyrosulfite became widespread, but in strictly limited doses (per 10 liters no more than 0.2 g of all sulfur used, in pyrosulfite there is approximately 2 times less sulfur). There are tables for the amount of pyrosulfite used depending on the sugar content of the must and the winemaking process used.

Note 12. Adding tartaric acid

• During long-term storage in a not very cold room, sluggish malolactic fermentation of JAMB is possible, during which the total acid will decrease by 2-3 g/100. The wine will acquire a bland, bitter taste, which can be easily corrected by adding natural tartaric acid. A small part of which will fall out in the form of cream of tartar within 2-3 weeks, after which the wine acquires a soft, silky taste. In essence, some of the hard malic acid is replaced with soft tartaric acid.

Note 13. Wine stabilization

• To stabilize the wine, simply add a fermentation stopper (or potassium pyrosulfite). Follow the instructions for the drug. There is also an ancient method of pouring the material in sulfur smoke. To do this, an empty container (bottle) is filled with sulfur smoke (burning a sulfur bomb). The wine is poured into a bottle using a tube, where a stream passes through sulfur smoke, displacing the latter, thereby sterilizing the container and the wine itself.

• For fumigation with sulfur, you can make a simple “smoker”. Place a burning piece of sulfur in a three-liter jar on a small ladle with a long handle, cover it with a rag and wait until the entire jar is filled with smoke. Then quickly remove it and close it with a lid with two holes. A funnel is placed in one, a hose is inserted into the second, and the other end into an overflow container. Water is slowly poured into the funnel; it displaces the smoke that enters the bottle, disinfects the latter and prevents contact with the air of the wine during further pouring. The procedure should be performed carefully in a ventilated area, protecting the eyes and respiratory tract from direct exposure to smoke.

Note 14. Adding beet sugar to wine

• Increased attention must be paid to the stabilization of fruit and berry wines with the addition of beet sugar. Sugar in wine is a time bomb and can quickly spoil the wine. To do this, the wine is either pasteurized, or an increased dose of potassium pyrosulfite is added, or potassium sorbate (E-202) 0.2 g/l is used. You can also use ethyl alcohol 10-15% of the amount of wine, but the taste of the product will completely change and the wine will resemble a tincture. In any case, cherry wines, like all other fruit and berry wines made from stone berries, must be stored in a cold place and consumed within a year.

In food production there is a preservative unit - Dele. A product with 80 units is considered completely preserved. Dele.

1. 1% alcohol is equal to 4.5 units. (for simplicity we take 4)
2. 1% sugar is equal to 1 unit.

When the bottle is sealed with a cork, excess pressure is created inside, which prevents the penetration of aerobic bacteria from outside. When opening a bottle, it is advisable to consume the contents immediately.