Original mulberry wine will diversify your home cellar and will pleasantly surprise guests with its subtle, refined taste. Making the drink at home is not difficult; there are many simple recipes for making a drink from mulberries. Properly selected ingredients, clean spring water and a good mood are the key to success in home winemaking.
Composition and features of mulberry wine
A distinctive feature of homemade wine made from mulberries is the delicate, refined taste of the drink. Many winemakers believe that the taste of a mulberry drink is simple and has a modest bouquet of aromas, so they add various components to the product: mint, cinnamon, raspberries or cloves.
Mulberries have a number of advantages in terms of suitability for winemaking:
- The berries are quite sweet, with a high sugar content, and at the same time have pronounced acidity.
- Suitable for natural fermentation.
- Contains a complex of vitamins and microelements.
- Astringency gives the wine a refined taste.
The color of the finished wine is valued by winemakers for its rich ruby red hue. An alcoholic drink made from mulberry goes well with meat dishes and confectionery.
Rules for choosing ingredients
The first step in making homemade wine is choosing and preparing the ingredients. Basic Rules:
- Ripe mulberries are used for wine; unripe fruits do not contribute to active fermentation.
- Remove rotten berries and moldy fruits.
- Use clean, preferably spring water.
- The dishes for the mash must be sterilized; the pulp and wort are stored in glass containers.
To make wine with a rich ruby-red color, use ripe, juicy mulberries; green and hard ones are removed. After selecting the ingredients, you can proceed directly to preparing the drink; follow the recipes and proportions of the components.
Important! There is no need to wash mulberries and raisins for fermentation, this will preserve the natural bacterial background necessary for fermentation.
To make homemade wine, it is recommended to use glass containers with a volume of 10 liters.
How to make mulberry wine at home?
Each winemaker who makes wine at home carefully prepares for the process of setting the pulp for fermentation: the wine material is sorted, the dishes are sterilized. Be careful about the place where the wine is placed during the fermentation period. Avoid direct sunlight on the bottles, install a tight water seal and ensure an optimal constant ambient temperature.
A simple recipe for beginners
Making mulberry wine is not difficult; you can use any recipe for making homemade wine from the berries as a basis. In order for the fermentation process to proceed actively, a raisin starter is prepared in advance; you can use “live” yeast, which must be dissolved in water with a small amount of lemon or orange juice.
For 2 kilograms of ripe mulberries, use approximately 1.5 kilograms of white cane sugar and 5 liters of water.
The mulberries are crushed by hand, then sugar and a little water at room temperature are added, stirred thoroughly, and transferred to a sterilized bottle. The temperature of the raisin starter should be the same as in the container with the pulp. After filling the bottle, the water seal is hermetically sealed, the fermentation process should begin within 3-5 days. 10-14 days after the start of fermentation, the pulp is filtered through cheesecloth, the resulting wort is poured into a smaller container and left to ferment. As soon as sediment appears at the bottom of the bottle, the wine is cleared using a tube and left to age for another month or two.
It may be necessary to carry out another filtration; the winemaker decides for himself, assessing the condition of the wine by eye. At the final stage, the drink should become discolored, there should be no turbidity or sediment left.
Classic version
The traditional homemade mulberry wine recipe does not require any additional ingredients. The wine is prepared from berries, sugar, water and yeast starter.
If the taste of the resulting drink seems too simple, try to diversify the flavor range with mint, cinnamon, cloves or other herbs. Cranberries are a proven companion to mulberries in homemade wine.
To make dry wine, the amount of yeast starter is increased; such a drink must be made without adding sugar.
With mint and cinnamon
It is recommended to add cinnamon to tyutin wine at the initial stage of pulp formation. It is better to use spicy spices in the form of sticks. A fragrant companion for cinnamon is mint; it can also be added to the pulp in the form of chopped leaves and flowers.
The amount of additives added depends on the taste of the winemaker. Cinnamon and mint give the wine a bright taste; you can make mulled wine from the finished drink by adding honey and orange; this remedy is a proven cure for colds and viral diseases.
With raspberries
Recipe for making the most delicious mulberry wine. Mulberries and raspberries are similar in appearance, differing only in color. The berries perfectly complement each other in wine, the drink has a fresh, delicate taste, and the color of the product becomes redder.
Raspberries in relation to mulberries are added in a 1:1 ratio. It is necessary to add raisin starter to the mulberry-raspberry must, otherwise the wine may not ferment. The amount of sugar can be reduced to avoid excessive sugariness in the taste of the finished homemade wine.
With the addition of white wine
Blended homemade wines gained popularity among winemakers during the Soviet years.White wine must be fortified; an additional ingredient is added after the first purification of the must (removal of the first sediment). Add 250 milliliters of fortified white wine to a 5-liter bottle.
Mulberry wine with the addition of white wine has a tart taste and original aroma.
Fortified wine
Berry wines are considered dessert wines; the percentage of alcohol in them is minimal. To achieve a warming effect from the drink, the wine is fortified with alcohol or vodka.
The “fixing” element is added after distillation of the wort. You can determine the strength of the resulting drink using an alcohol meter, immediately before bottling the finished product.
Storage rules
It is not recommended to store berry wines for more than two years. The optimal place to store homemade bottles is a cellar or pantry. At the same time, the finished product should not be exposed to direct sunlight.
Be sure to check the tightness of the lids before storing wines. The temperature in the bottle storage room should not be higher than +18 0WITH.
