Many novice winemakers do not know why they are fortifying a wine drink. Experts recommend doing this, since homemade wine contains a low percentage of alcohol, which is why it turns out to be quite weak. This will cause the drink to quickly lose its aroma and taste. Therefore, it is recommended to familiarize yourself in advance with preparing fortified wine from grapes at home.
What is it for?
Before you start fastening, you need to familiarize yourself with why this procedure is being carried out.
There are several main reasons that you should familiarize yourself with in advance:
- Early stop of fermentation. Strengthening is done to stop fermentation. This is done to preserve the taste of the wort for a long time.
- Acceleration of lightening. The fortified drink clarifies itself without the additional use of clay or gelatin.
- Preventing re-fermentation. Sometimes wine drinks are re-fermented, causing their taste to deteriorate. Therefore, it is recommended to fasten it so that it does not ferment again in the future.
- Increase storage duration. Bonding is done so that the prepared drink does not spoil for a long time.
How to fix wine at home?
There are five common ways to fix a homemade wine drink.
Vodka or alcohol
Most often, young wine is sealed with ordinary vodka or alcoholic liquid. Alcoholization is carried out using the following ingredients:
- half a kilo of granulated sugar;
- five kilograms of grapes;
- liter of alcohol.
Sometimes you need to add more sugar. However, in this case, the proportions must be strictly observed so that more than one hundred grams of sugar are not used per liter of liquid.
First, the grape berries are kneaded by hand, after which they are transferred to a pan and left to infuse for 3-4 days. Then sugar is added to the mixture, the mixture is poured into jars, covered with a water seal and infused for half a month.
When fermentation stops, you need to add alcohol to the mixture. The alcoholized liquid is filtered and left in a cold room for three weeks.
Sugar
Some people do not want to add alcohol to a wine drink and therefore use other methods of fortification.You can fortify wine not only with alcohol or vodka. For this you can also use regular sugar, which everyone has.
Before you begin the procedure, you need to make a calculation and determine the exact amount of granulated sugar. Experts recommend adding 100 grams of sugar to each liter of wort. This is enough to increase the strength of the drink by five percent. However, you should not add too much, as this will stop fermentation and deteriorate the taste of the drink. If dessert wines are sealed, the sugar dissolves directly in the wine liquid. At the same time, it is added gradually, every 2-3 days during the week.
Freezing
To increase the strength of an alcoholic drink, it is recommended to use the freezing method. This method is based on the difference between the molecules of wine alcohol and water that make up the drink. The fact is that water molecules crystallize, but alcohol molecules do not. This leads to the fact that after freezing the strength of the liquid increases significantly.
To seal the wine, you need to put bottles of liquid in the freezer for 5-6 hours. All the water in the containers will freeze, but the alcohol will remain in a liquid state. After this, it is poured into separate bottles. The remaining ice can be reserved and used to add to tea. It is worth noting that the fortified drink is several times less than it was originally. 15 liters yield 6-8 liters of wine.
Pasteurization
To increase the strength of the drink, it is recommended to perform so-called pasteurization. When performing this procedure, the liquid is heated to sixty degrees. In this case, the process should last for an hour. You can also heat the wine composition to eighty degrees.However, in this case, the duration of the procedure is reduced to half an hour.
The procedure is performed in several successive steps:
- A thermometer is placed in a bottle of water to determine the temperature.
- The container with the thermometer is placed in a pan with water, after which bottles of wine are added to it.
- The filled saucepan is placed on the gas stove and heated to 60-70 degrees.
If you follow the above steps, the wine drink will become 2-3 times stronger.
Sulfurous acid
When making wine drinks, preservatives are often used. The most popular is sulfurous acid, which can increase the strength of the drink. Many experienced winemakers use this component to make wine stronger. Fixing the liquid with sulfurous acid can get rid of dangerous microorganisms that accelerate the spoilage of the drink.
However, the use of such an acid has certain disadvantages. For example, if you add too much of a substance, the drink becomes dangerous to human health. Therefore, sulfur dioxide must be used very carefully.
How to make fortified homemade wine
There are four recipes with which you can prepare a strong homemade wine drink.
From grapes
Grape wine made from ripe berries is especially popular among winemakers. The strength of this drink will be given by vodka, which is added during the preparation process. To create a drink you need:
- 3-4 kilograms of grapes;
- 300 milliliters of vodka;
- 300-400 grams of granulated sugar.
First, grape juice is prepared, which is transferred to a dark room to settle for 3-4 days.Then sugar is added to the mixture, after which the container is covered with a rubber glove and left for two weeks. Then the liquid is filtered, mixed with vodka and bottled.
From cherry
You can also make strong wine from red cherries. The drink is created from the following products:
- 5-7 kilograms of berries;
- five kilos of granulated sugar;
- alcohol or vodka.
The cherries are mixed with sugar, covered with a lid and infused in a cold place for about two months. The mixture is stirred regularly so that the granulated sugar dissolves faster. When fermentation stops, the mixture is filtered and mixed with vodka. The liquid is then poured into bottles and transferred to the cellar.
From apples
To make strong apple wine you will need:
- 3-4 kilograms of apple fruits;
- half a kilo of sugar;
- 350 milliliters of yeast for each liter of mixture;
- 200-250 milliliters of alcohol.
The apples are cut into equal parts, peeled, boiled and kept warm for three days. The prepared mixture is filtered, after which the apple pulp is squeezed out. After this, the mixture is mixed with wine starter and left to ferment.
The fermented mixture is filtered, alcohol is added to it and bottled.
From raspberries
To create a raspberry wine drink, you will need the following ingredients:
- five kilograms of ripened raspberries;
- 900 grams of sugar;
- half a liter of alcohol.
The berries are passed through a juicer and mixed with water. Then they are infused for six hours and squeezed again to obtain juice. Sugar and a liter of water are added to the mixture. After this, everything is poured into jars and placed on a water seal. After 10 days, sugar is added to the composition, after which it is left to ferment for a month. Alcohol is added to the fermented liquid.
How to store fortified wine?
Even though sealed wine stores better, it still has to be stored properly.
For long-term storage, use a cellar where the temperature will not rise above fifteen degrees Celsius.
Conclusion
To make the prepared wine last longer and become stronger, people fortify it. However, before this, you need to understand the methods of fastening the drink and the recipes for its preparation.
