Dried fruits are a universal 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 from raisins is completely different from grape, but no less tasty.
Homemade raisin wine - the basic principles of preparation
The main stage of wine making is the right choice of raisins. The problem is that almost all the raisins that are sold in stores are treated with chemicals that not only inhibit the fermentation of wine, but can also harm health.
It is advisable to buy raisins from trusted suppliers, and even better at home. Get a few varieties of raisins and make a little starter from each to see which product will give the best results. Subsequently, you will know which raisins are best for making wine.
From high-quality raisins make leaven, which is used for making wines.
In order to cook it, you will need warm water, granulated sugar and raisins. The last ingredient is not washed! They simply pour it into a clean liter jar and fill it with warm water to the top, add sugar and cover the throat with gauze. Leave warm for three days.
After the allotted time, the leaven should begin to ferment. If this does not happen, then such raisins are not suitable for making wine.
Now they put a rubber glove on the jar, pierce it with a needle and keep it warm for another day. After this, the sourdough can be used to make wine.
Recipe 1. Sourdough for raisin wine
Ingredients
200 g of dark raisins;
50 g of granulated sugar;
350 ml of purified water.
Cooking method
1. Quality raisins should be matte and dense. The required amount of raisins, without washing, fall asleep in a clean sterile bottle.
2. Pour it with slightly warm boiled water, in which we previously dissolve the sugar. We close the bottle with a cotton swab and leave it in a warm room for four days.
3. After the allotted time, the leaven is ready. We store it in the refrigerator for no more than ten days. Before use, the fermented container is placed in heat, a little sugar is added and kept for a couple of days so that the yeast “wakes up”.
Recipe 2. Homemade raisin wine
Ingredients
purified water - seven liters;
white sugar - two kilograms;
raisins - 1 kg 200 g.
Cooking method
1. Twist 200 g of raisins without washing it. We shift the resulting mass into a jar, pour two tablespoons of sugar and fill everything with warm water so that it slightly covers the raisins. We put the leaven in the heat for four days.
2. We take a ten-liter capacity, wash it and wipe it dry. We spread in it a kilogram of raisins twisted in a meat grinder. We fill everything with sugar and pour seven liters of slightly warm water. Mix until sugar is completely dissolved.
3. We install a water lock or a rubber glove on the throat, making a few punctures in it with a needle. We place the container in the heat and leave to wander for a month.
4. We remove the young wine from the sediment, using a thin tube so as not to affect the cage. We pour the wine into clean bottles, cork tightly and keep in the basement for four months.
Recipe 3. Sugar-Free Homemade Raisin Wine
Ingredients
kilogram of raisins;
half a liter of raisin yeast;
five liters of purified water.
Cooking method
1. Sort raisins, removing spoiled fruits and twigs. Pour two liters of unboiled warm water and leave for several hours. The berries should swell properly.
2. Grind the swollen raisins with a blender or meat grinder. Transfer the resulting mass to a container where the fermentation process will take place, fill it with the infusion that remains from the raisins swelling. Add three liters of clean, slightly warm water and place the leaven, covered with marlichka, in a warm place for two to three days. The bottle should be на full. Shake the container periodically to bring down the foam.
3. As soon as the wort starts to ferment, put on a glove with a hole or a water seal on the neck of the container. Fermentation, depending on the temperature, will last up to two months.
4. When the wort becomes lighter, and a dense precipitate falls to the bottom, this means that the fermentation process has completely stopped. Gently drain the wine through a straw.
5. Transfer it to another bottle without filling it to the top. Close the bottle with a water lock and send it to the basement or dry cellar. There, the wine will slowly ferment for another 2-3 months. After this time, drain the wine through a straw so that the precipitate does not get 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.
Cooking method
1. Stir the jam with warm boiled water until a homogeneous mixture is obtained, like a thick compote. Add raisins to the strawberry mixture. I don’t wash raisins in advance so that a light white coating remains on the berries. It is thanks to him that the wort fermentation takes place. Pour the mixture into a glass container of a suitable volume, put on it a water seal or a rubber medical glove.
2. We leave the jar with the must to roam in a dark, warm room. When the wort is fermented, we filter the young wine and pour it into pre-prepared bottles.
3. Cork bottles tightly with corks or caps and keep in a cool place for three to four days. Once the wine is a little infused, it can be served.
Recipe 5. Homemade Polish Raisin Wine
Ingredients
per kilogram of raisins and dried apricots;
top dressing for yeast;
1 kg 200 g sugar;
yeast;
ten liters of filtered water;
200 g of dried black elderberry.
Cooking method
1. We thoroughly rinse dried apricots and raisins under running water. Then we lay out dried fruits on a disposable towel and slightly dry. Finely chop them or chop them in a blender. Dissolve granulated sugar in hot water and cool it. We grow yeast in warm water and leave it to ferment.
2. We transfer the chopped dried fruits into the fermentation tank, add the elderberry, fill it with barely warm syrup and add so much water that the wort takes no more than ¾ of the container. Pour in the yeast and stir well. Cover the throat of the bottle with gauze.
3. After 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 shutter, and the wort becomes light, we drain the sediment. The remaining pulp is thoroughly squeezed and poured into a separate, smaller container with a shutter.
5. Pour young wine into pre-prepared bottles and place in the cellar. Secondary fermentation will last from 2 to 5 months - until the wine becomes transparent. During this period, it is drained several times from the precipitate using a tube. Before bottling wine, sugar can be added to it to taste.
Recipe 6. Homemade raisin wine with rice
Ingredients
half a liter of sourdough;
a kilogram of unboiled rice;
four liters of filtered water;
a pound of raisins;
3 g of citric acid;
one and a half kilograms of white sugar.
Cooking method
1. Add sugar and citric acid to one and a half liters of water and boil the syrup. Cool it to a warm state.
2. We put the rice in a clean, dry 3-liter jar and fill it with warm syrup. Wrap with a towel and leave to swell in a warm room.
3. After a day, we transfer the swollen rice with syrup into a bottle suitable for fermentation. Add raisins and pour the remaining water. We brew the leaven in warm water and leave until the yeast begins to "work". Pour the sourdough into the bottle. We leave in a warm room for a couple of days, covering the throat of the container with gauze. Shake from time to time so that the foam settles.
4. Fermentation will begin in a couple of days. We close the throat of the bottle with a water seal or a rubber glove and leave it for another month.
5. Once rice and raisins settle to the bottom, the fermentation process is over. Gently drain the liquid through the tube, and squeeze the pulp. Pour the wort into another clean container, filling it in 4/5 of the volume. We install a shutter on the throat and put it in a cool place.
6. Leave the container alone until the wine becomes clear. In the process, it is periodically removed from the sediment, carefully draining through a tube.
7. After about a month and a half, the wine is finally bottled, corked tightly and sent to infuse for three months in the cellar.
Homemade raisin wine - tips and tricks
- Do not rinse raisins before use, otherwise the wine will ferment much more slowly.
- If you soak the raisins, then use the infusion that remains from the soaking.
- Make a little leaven from the purchased raisins to see if it is suitable for wine or not.
- Store leaven only in the refrigerator for no more than ten days.
- Before bottling wine and storing it, you can add sugar to your taste.
