Homemade wines occupy a special place in the manufacture of wines, and this was the origin of industrial winemaking.
Wine can be prepared from any fruit that contains sugar and the necessary set of acids, therefore, for its production at different times and in different corners of the earth, fruits grown in one or another climatic zone were used. Countries with a warm climate and plenty of sunny days, nature has reserved a place for the growth of the sweetest fruits. In these areas, viticulture originated and developed. But temperate and even northern latitudes also have their wealth. Although berries in these places ripen in more severe conditions, their value is no less high.
No one even wants to imagine the fruit and berry diversity of our planet without blueberries, unique in its biochemical properties of the berry, which is useful not only for fruits, but also for flowers, leaves and even roots. In the area where blueberries grow, residents use its magical properties all year round. It is dried, frozen, jam and stewed, boiled, prepared sauces, it is used instead of tea, dumplings are made with it, baked cakes, added to pickles.
But you can also make wine from blueberries, which in many properties will not be inferior to wines made from red grapes growing somewhere far from blueberries, on the southern slopes and plains.
Blueberry wine - basic technological principles
The stages of preparing fruit wines only slightly differ from the home and production technology of wine from grapes, which is a traditional culture for winemaking:
Collection and preparation of wine raw materials;
Getting juice or pulp;
Cooking wort;
The introduction of yeast;
Fermentation;
Removal from sediment and clarification of young wines;
Wine transfusion and ripening;
Sweetening and aging;
Re-removal from sediment;
Bottling and storage.
For grape wine, juice is not required to be flavored, as for other wine materials at the stage of making wort.
What is it and why is it necessary to regulate the composition of fruit juice? To obtain wine, a certain sugar and acid content in the juice is important. If in grapes these components are in the required amount in a natural form, then in most fruits and berries the ratio of acid to sugar for wine must be balanced.
There is a certain norm of acidity and sugar content of the wort. The total amount of acids contained in various berries should not exceed 0.7-0.8% per unit volume. There are also upper and lower boundaries of this norm, respectively, 0.6 and 1.2%. Exceeding this value can cause infection of the wort (and future wine) with mold or vinegar bacteria, not to mention the unpleasant taste of the drink. A deviation in the direction of a decrease in acidity below the limit also makes the wine weak, makes storage difficult, during which the wine will also be attacked by unwanted microorganisms.
Blueberries contain an average of 0.8-1.45% acid, including tannic, which is also important for wine. This acidity is almost perfect for making blueberry wine. True, at home it is difficult to determine the exact value of this indicator and, most likely, it is necessary to determine it in an organoleptic way.
But these indicators may fail. In this case, it is possible, to more accurately determine the acid, resort to arithmetic calculations, which will be correct from a technological point of view. However, given that, depending on the season, the number of sunny days, the berries may be more acidic than indicated in the upper limit of the norm, and if we take the lower indicator as a basis, the acidity of the juice may be lower than 0.6%, which is not permissible. In this case, in order to avoid mistakes, it is better to resort to this method of determining acidity using a litmus test, a solution of caustic sodium (5.97%) in distilled water, a glass tube with a division scale that allows you to determine the volume of liquid (juice and solution) and a glass for transfusion of juice. Remember that 0.1% acid is neutralized in 1 ml of alkali. A litmus test in an alkaline solution turns blue, and in acidic - red. Further - everything is simple, and there will be no errors in compiling a wort from blueberry juice.
Just in case, write in a notebook that from 1 kg of blueberries you can get 700 ml of pure juice.
If the question of obtaining wine from natural juice is not critical, then just add a little water. At the same time, remember that for blueberry wine, the addition of water to the juice should not exceed 50%, otherwise the wine will turn brown and its taste will also be hopelessly spoiled. If you still want to get natural wine, then alkalize part of the juice to remove acid from it, and then combine it with sour juice.
We turn to the question of the role of sugar in wine. It is the basis of taste, energy for yeast microorganisms and the spirituality of wine.
20 grams of granulated sugar increase the alcohol content by one degree (per 1 liter of wine). For example, the natural sugar content of blueberries is 5.8% per 1 liter of juice. Here we take into account that the juice should already be balanced in acid content. To make wine, with a strength of 12%, you need to add 6.2% sugar for each liter of wort. For sweet blueberry wine, dessert sweet (14-16%) or strong dessert (17-20% and above), the amount of sugar increases, respectively.
Sugar is added to the wine at the end of fermentation and after removal from the precipitate to improve the taste, after which the wine is left to aged at a lower temperature than the fermentation temperature.
Sometimes in home winemaking, fermentation is made using wine starter or wild yeast. In the case of blueberry wine, only a pure culture of wine yeast grown under special conditions should be used.
For blueberry wine, only high-quality yeast is needed, and they need to create ideal conditions for the conversion of sugar into alcohol, which implies that, like all living organisms, yeast needs nutrition, which for yeast is not sugar, but, oddly enough, ammonia which requires 0.2-0.4 g per 1 liter of wine must.
Of course, speaking of wine yeast and the fermentation of wine, it must be emphasized that the temperature regime is an important condition. Therefore, remember that the lower temperature threshold for fermentation of any wine is +14 degrees. At this temperature, fermentation stops. At +25 degrees, the yeast gets a little hot, and they work sluggishly. But blueberry wine takes longer to prepare than other berry wines. These two numbers must be remembered so as not to spoil the wine. You can start fermentation again and fix the wort, but the wine will not be so excellent. The normal temperature is 18-22 degrees and the complete absence of sudden changes in temperature and drafts in the room where there is a bottle of future wine.
The addition of tannic acid (tannin) is required only in the case of the preparation of strong, dessert and liquor wine from blueberries.
Recipe 1. Table dry blueberry wine
Composition:
Blueberry juice (acid. 1.1%; sugar. 6.2%) 7.3 L
Sugar 1.45 kg
Water 1.9 L
Ammonia 4 g
Wine Yeast 3 g
Technology:
It is imperative to sort out the berries, remove the overripe, using a press or other devices, squeeze the juice. Pour the remaining pulp with water, add sugar and, slightly warming, stir the sugar until completely dissolved. Separate the resulting juice of the second plum from the cake and combine with natural juice. Add ammonia after dissolving it in a small volume of wort. Pour the wort into a prepared sterile bottle (at least 12 l), cover the neck with a gauze swab for several hours so that the yeast can breathe.
Stir the wort until bubbles appear on the surface, and then replace the gauze swab with a water seal. Keep the bottle for normal fermentation at a temperature of 18-22 degrees. When the gas ceases to be released and exit through the water-lock tube, and the line of the precipitate formed is clearly marked on the bottom of the bottle, transfer the wine to another container, gently, without agitating the settled particles of juice and fermented yeast. Do this using a tube, according to the principle of communicating vessels. Wash the bottle, pasteurize it and dry it. Pour the wine into it again through the funnel and put it in a cool place (+ 10-14 degrees). The wine should completely lighten and become transparent. Re-remove it from the sediment. If desired, you can add sugar to improve the taste, pour the wine into a sterile bottle again and stand for at least six months.
Recipe 2. Strong Blueberry Table Wine
Composition:
Sugar 1.9 kg
Water 5.7 L
Wine yeast 5 g
Ammonia 4 g
Blueberry juice 8.25 L
Cooking:
A strong blueberry table wine is prepared as described in the previous recipe. After a six-month exposure, pour the wine into bottles, filling them 8 cm below the level of the neck, seal tightly and pasteurize in a pan with water, heated to 60-70 degrees for 8-10 hours, avoiding overheating. Refrigerate without removing from pan. Store in the basement. Be sure to check the closure for leaks.
Recipe 3. Strong blueberry wine using port technology
Composition:
Juice 8 L
Tartaric acid 2 g
Sugar 3.2 kg
Ammonia 5 g
Tannin 30 g
Cognac 40% (brandy) 1.6 L
Cooking:
Prepare the wort by combining all the ingredients except tannin and cognac. At the beginning of silent fermentation, interrupt the process by removing the wine from the sediment and filtering it very carefully. Add tannin and brandy to completely stop fermentation. Pour wine until sediment is completely removed. Keep the bottle in the basement. The perfect port matures in oak barrels. Therefore, put in the bottle a linen bag filled with oak bark. Bottle and seal.
Recipe 4. Dessert Muscat Blueberry Wine
Composition:
Sugar 3.9 kg
Nutmeg, ground 40 g
Tartaric acid 6 g
Blueberry juice 7.6 L
Ammonium salts 4 g
Tannic acid 30 g
Cooking Technology:
Mash prepared ripe blueberries, cover with half the required amount of sugar. After fermentation begins, squeeze the fermented juice. Add ammonium powder, tartaric acid, and ground nutmeg to it. Pour the wort into a bottle and cover it with a fermentation dowel. At the end of the fermentation, not later than two weeks later, remove the wine from the precipitate and add the remaining sugar. Soak the wine for at least six months in a cool place, periodically removing it from the sediment, until completely transparent.
Recipe 5. Blueberry Distilled Wine
Ingredients:
Blueberry juice 6.2 L
Raisins, white 2.1 kg
Sugar 3.6 kg
Brandy 1.5 L
Cooking Technology:
Grind raisins with a blender. Heat the juice to 25 degrees, pour half of the prepared sugar and crushed raisins into it. Mix thoroughly to dissolve the sugar. Pour the wort into the fermentation bottle, but only install the water lock after fermentation begins.
Be patient, because fermentation in the manufacture of liquor wines takes 1.5 times longer than for ordinary wines. After the rapid fermentation phase, when gas bubbles are most actively released, remove the shutter, transfer the wort to another dish through a sieve to remove particles of raisins. Pour it into the bottle again and place the shutter. Repeat this operation within a month 5 times, in five days, to stop the process of sugar processing by yeast. After the fifth transfusion, add the second part of sugar and the prepared tincture to the wine. Leave in the bottle, placing it in a cool room, for clarification. Do not forget to check the liquor wine regularly and once every two weeks and remove from the sediment, if necessary. Pour into bottles only after full clarification, achieving maximum transparency.
Preparation of tinctures for liquor wine:
Put the pulp remaining after squeezing the juice into a separate bottle and fill in the brandy. Insist until the wine is fermented, then wring it out by pressing and pass the tincture through a dense filter.
Blueberry Wine - Tips and Tricks
Blueberry, as a wine material, goes well with fruits that have low acidity, for example, pears, mulberries, cloudberries, oranges, cherries, cherries, strawberries. Making a blended wort will expand the range of homemade blueberry wines. The ratios of fruit juices can be different, but if it is necessary that the taste of certain fruits prevail in wine, then for making wort it is necessary that these fruits make up ½ part, and add the remaining fruit juices in proportion to their number, dividing into equal parts. It should be borne in mind that, for example, oranges or strawberries have a rather rich aroma that can drown out the other components of the wort. Therefore, using fruit components with a bright aroma, you need to add them in a smaller volume so that the taste of the wine is well balanced.
Blueberry wine is prepared for a long time. Therefore, for the preparation of wort and normal fermentation, you need to use "cultured" wine yeast, not wild, so that the wort can complete the fermentation without becoming infected with other bacteria, the presence of which can ruin the wine.
By its biochemical qualities, blueberries are close to red muscat grapes. Therefore, it will be quite fair to consider that the effect of sunlight is harmful for blueberry wine, which will turn the wine into a brown liquid, destroying useful enzymes in it.
