13 easy, step-by-step homemade apple wine recipes
Homemade wines, made from ripe juicy fruits and berries, have a rich rich taste and exquisite aroma. And most importantly, there are absolutely no harmful and dangerous components in them, since the whole process is controlled independently. Making apple wine is one of the easiest and most affordable ways to get a light hoppy drink. Coping with this task is not difficult. There are several variations of apple wine, among which everyone will pick up to their taste.
The nuances of making apple wine
Homemade homemade apple wine resembles cider in many ways - in particular, in terms of taste and aroma, as well as in terms of production. The difference is that the wine is stronger, and in order to achieve the required strength, sugar is necessarily added to the raw materials.
In order for the wine to ferment properly, apples should not be washed before laying. This is due to the fact that natural live yeast microorganisms live on the surface of the fruit, without which it is impossible to obtain a truly high-quality and environmentally friendly product.
Before starting the winemaking process, you need to figure out how to correctly select and prepare the main raw materials, as well as which containers should be used.
How to choose the right fruit
The choice of apple variety depends on what type of wine you plan to make - strong, semi-sweet or dry.
Zvezdochka, Calvil and other winter varieties are universal and suitable for almost any wines. The situation is similar with autumn varieties - such as Anis, Antonovka, Streyfling and others.
For semi-dry and table apple wines, it is recommended to use Moskovskaya grushevka, Melba and other early varieties.
Wild and forest apples should be used in combination with specimens of cultivars. And too sour varieties must be combined with sweet ones.
It is best to use apples from your own plot, but if you do not have one, you need to buy fruits only from reliable gardeners and sellers.
It is categorically impossible to use apple fruits for winemaking, the surface of which is covered with industrial wax. This not only impairs the taste, but can also be toxic.
From the dishes you will need:
- glass bottles with a capacity of ten liters;
- sealed plugs with hydraulic seals;
- juicer (which can be replaced with a meat grinder, press or gauze);
- capacious pots for juice and cake;
- glass bottles with quality stoppers.
How to make apple wine at home
There are several ways to prepare delicious apple wine, which differ in technology, timing, and a set of ingredients. Let's consider the most successful among them.
Simple Sugar-Free Glove Recipe
In the first recipe that we bring to your attention, a regular rubber glove is used as a water seal.
For a drink, you need 10 kg of ripe apples of the sweetest and most juicy varieties.
The simple cooking process consists of the following steps:
- Wipe the apples with a dry soft cloth to remove dust and dirt.
- Cut off areas with defects, as well as remove the core with grains.
- Cut into wedges and mince.
- Transfer the resulting apple mass to a glass or ceramic container.
- Cover with gauze and keep in a cool, dark place for three days.
- After this period, strain through cheesecloth into a wide and deep container. Throw away the cake remaining after pressing.
- Pour the infusion into a capacious bottle (at least 15 liters).
- Take a new rubber glove and poke a small hole in one finger with a needle.
- Putting this homemade odor trap on the neck of the bottle will provide protection from germs, as well as release the gas generated during the fermentation process.
- If, during fermentation, the glove is full of gas and is about to burst, you need to pierce a few more holes on your fingers.
- Transfer the bottle to a dark place at room temperature and keep for one month.
- For a while, the glove will continue to inflate and then fall off - this will indicate that the wine is ready.
- You need to check the status of your homemade drink. There should be sediment at the bottom of the bottle.
- Pour clear nectar into another free bottle using a rubber hose.
- Prepare sterile bottles and pour the finished apple wine into them using the funnel.
- Close glass containers tightly with stoppers and put in a cool dark place, where to stand for two to three months.
Option with pears
Adding sweet, ripe pears to apples will create a softer wine.
This recipe will require the following ingredients:
- 10 kg of apples (sweet and sour varieties);
- 10 kg of pears (the most sweet, juicy and soft varieties);
- 3 kg of white sugar.
Making apple-pear wine with your own hands is easy. For this you need:
- Lightly wipe unwashed apples with a dry soft cloth or paper towels.
- Cut in a convenient way and process in a juicer.
- Pears, also unwashed, but wiped from dust, cut into four equal parts so that they bloom along the longitudinal axis. Remove the cores with grains from the fruit, and then cut each piece into small pieces.
- Dissolve one third of the prepared granulated sugar in apple juice and pour into a bottle with a volume of approximately 20-25 liters.
- Add small pieces of aromatic pear to the liquid.
- Close the bottle tightly with a plug with a hole. After a while, remove the water seal hose, the free end of which is lowered into a jar filled with water.
- Place the bottle in a warm, dark place.
- After about a month, when bubbles begin to form on the surface of the fruit liquid, and the pieces of pears disintegrate when shaken, squeeze the pulp.
- Add another third of the sugar and stir until dissolved.
- Put the container with the wort back on the water seal. Keep in this state until clarification of the liquid and the formation of a characteristic sediment.
- Drain the clear apple-pear liquid into a separate container and add any remaining sugar.
- Stir until the granulated sugar is completely dissolved and pour the finished homemade drink into sterile glass bottles.
- Cork thoroughly and remove to a dark place with an air temperature within + 12-18 ° C.
- Bottles with wine should be ripened and stored in a horizontal position or at an angle of 30-45 degrees.
From green apples
Wine made from unripe apples is an excellent aperitif. This recipe requires the following ingredients:
- 20 kg of unripe apples;
- 200 g of granulated sugar for each 1 liter of apple juice (it is advisable to use unrefined sugar, with a yellowish or brownish tint).
The process of making wine from sour green apples includes the following steps:
- Rinse the apples, peel them and remove all damaged areas.
- Make applesauce using a blender or meat grinder.
- Put the prepared fruit mass into a large container - a saucepan or basin - and cover with a lid.
- Stir the applesauce twice for three days.
- For the next three days, keep it in a calm state at a temperature not lower than +22 and not higher than +25 degrees.
- After the six-day period, squeeze and discard the pulp.
- Add all the sugar to the wort at once.
- Fill the bottle with apple juice no more than two-thirds of its volume.
- Place a water seal on the neck of the glass bottle.
- Withstand for about two months at temperatures up to +22 ° C.
- Carefully, so as not to get sediment, pour the clear fruit liquid into a separate glass container, and then pour the wine into bottles using a funnel.
- Cork hermetically and place in a dark place. The maturation period of wine lasts up to four months.
Without juicing and adding yeast
For this easy-to-implement option, you will need:
- 15 kg of apples of any kind;
- 500 g raisins or fresh grapes;
- 3 kg of sugar;
- 10 liters of filtered drinking water.
The process is as follows:
- Rub the apples, cut into wedges and remove the cores.
- Grate and place in a convenient container of suitable size.
- Cover with all the sugar and leave in a dark place for six days, previously covered with gauze or a lid.
- Transfer the apple mass to a bottle and add raisins to it.
- To fill with water.
- Put a water seal on the neck of the bottle and hide it for a month in a warm place.
- After the specified period, pour the apple liquid without sediment into a separate glass container.
- Prepare several bottles and sterilize them.
- Using a funnel, pour the wine into bottles and seal them.
Dry wine recipe
For dry apple wine, sour fruits of good quality must be used, they must be plucked from the tree and not have the slightest signs of rot and other damage.
The set of ingredients is minimal:
- 15 apples;
- 1.5 kg of sugar.
The process of making a drink is simple, it requires the following actions:
- Squeeze out the apple juice in a convenient way and dilute with one fourth of the prepared sugar.
- Transfer to a large saucepan and cover with a tight lid.
- Stir the apple mass twice a day for three days. Close the lid tightly after each stirring.
- Squeeze out the pulp, and add the second quarter of sugar to the wort.
- Put a water seal on the bottle and lower the free tip into a jar of water. To prevent it from floating up, you first need to install a small weight.
- As soon as the formation of bubbles in the jars filled with water stops, carefully pour the fermented liquid into a separate container.
- Add the rest of the sugar and dissolve it.
- Pour wine into glass bottles and incubate for about two months at temperatures up to +16 degrees.
With chokeberry
Rowan will give this natural homemade wine a unique tart flavor.
This recipe will require:
- 2 kg of chokeberry;
- 1 kg of apples;
- 2 liters of hot boiled water;
- 3 kg of sugar.
Sequential process:
- Sort out rowan berries, discard rotten and low-quality specimens.
- Grind in a blender and transfer the resulting puree to a large container.
- Wipe the apples and cut out damaged spots.
- Cut into several pieces and remove the grains.
- Process in a blender and combine with rowan berries.
- Add a kilogram of sugar and mix thoroughly.
- Boil water, cool slightly and pour over the apple-mountain ash mass.
- Transfer to a glass fermentation vessel.
- Pour hot boiled water, leaving about 40% free space.
- Add a third of the remaining sugar, stir and cover with cheesecloth.
- Insist for 7 days in a dark place at room temperature.
- Stir the mixture with a kitchen spatula at least twice every day.
- Strain the fruit and berry mass through cheesecloth and discard the cake.
- Pour the wort into a new bottle and install a water seal.
- In this state, withstand for a week.
- Add another third of the sugar, stir and hold for another week.
- Add all remaining sugar and mix thoroughly.
- Keep under a water seal for about ten weeks.
- When sediment appears, pour the drink into a separate bottle.
- After installing the water seal, place in a cool dark place and hold for about five months.
- Pour into bottles and seal with airtight stoppers.
- Put in the refrigerator, pantry or cellar.
On vodka
This is an easy recipe that requires:
- 10 large ripe apple fruits;
- 1.5 liters of quality vodka.
You need to do the following:
- Rinse fruit, remove core and cut into thin wedges.
- Fill a three-liter jar with them about two-thirds.
- Pour with vodka and wait for the apple slices to float up.
- Cover the neck of the jar with a thick natural cloth or clean paper to ensure normal breathing of the apple mass.
- Insist on the windowsill for two weeks.
- Filter and pour into sterile glass bottles, seal securely with stoppers.
From apple juice
For a rich wine, you need the following ingredients:
- 10 kg of juicy apples;
- 1.5 kg of sugar.
This recipe is quick and easy to cook:
- Squeeze the juice from the apples. From ten kilograms, you get about seven liters.
- For each liter of juice, add 200 g of granulated sugar.
- Stir and boil.
- During the day, insist, covering the container with a thick cloth.
- Fill the bottle three quarters of the way with boiled juice.
- Put a water seal, after which the fermentation process will last about 1.5 months. Keep at room temperature in a dark place.
- When bubbles stop appearing, strain through cheesecloth folded in several layers.
- Install the water seal again and hold for another two weeks.
- Remove the odor seal and close the bottle with a tight cap.
- When the sediment settles to the bottom, pour the liquid into another bottle.
- Pour carefully into bottles, cork and put in a cool place for ripening, which will last another month and a half.
Wine yeast
It is easy to make apple wine with the addition of wine yeast. To do this, you need to prepare the following ingredients:
- 5 kg of apples;
- 800 g sugar;
- 2 tsp dry wine yeast.
The following is required:
- Squeeze the juice out of the apples.
- Mix juice, sugar and wine yeast in a five-liter bottle.
- Pull the washed rubber ball over the neck of the container and fix it with an elastic band.
- Place in a closet or other dark and cool place.
- Every other day, when the balloon is inflated, make a hole in it with a needle so that the gas can come out.
- Keep in this state until the ball deflates to its original size. This will take about six weeks.
- Strain through folded gauze.
- Pour into sterile glass bottles.
With raisins
In this case, you will need:
- 6 kg of apples;
- 2.5 kg of sugar;
- 3 tbsp. l. raisins.
Consider a step-by-step recipe:
- Divide the apples into four slices, remove the cores and chop.
- Stir in sugar (use 2 kilograms).
- Add raisins.
- Put everything in a bottle and pull a clean rubber glove over its neck.
- Keep in a dark place for three weeks.
- Strain through cheesecloth.
- Add remaining sugar and stir.
- Withstand another week.
- Strain again and distribute to bottles.
Fortified apple wine
The ingredients for making fortified homemade wine are:
- 10 kg of apples;
- 200 g of sugar for each liter of juice obtained;
- 300 ml of quality alcohol.
You need to cook it in the following sequence:
- Squeeze the juice, mix with half the sugar and leave for five days in a dark place at room temperature.
- Cover the container with gauze so that the contents breathe.
- After five days, when the mixture begins to emit carbon dioxide, close the neck of the bottle with a water seal.
- After a week from the beginning of the process, add all the remaining sugar and leave to ferment for two months.
- Strain and pour into another bottle.
- Add alcohol.
- Pour into small bottles and cork.
On honey
To make wine with a mild honey flavor, you must:
- 15 kg of apples;
- 400 g of natural honey for each liter of apple juice.
Beverage creation process:
- Squeeze the juice out of the fruit.
- Add honey and stir.
- Put the mass into a bottle.
- Put a water seal on the neck, lower the free end of the tube into a jar of water.
- Keep the container in a dry and dark place for two months.
- Strain and distribute the finished wine into bottles.
From dried apples
List of ingredients:
- 1 kg of dried apples;
- 3 kg of sugar;
- 8 liters of purified water;
- 2 tsp wine yeast.
It is required to perform actions in the following sequence:
- Grind dried fruits until a homogeneous mixture is obtained and transfer to a glass container.
- Pour half of the prepared granulated sugar into the mass.
- Boil water and pour over the apple-sugar mass.
- Wait until the water cools down to room temperature.
- Strain so that no cloudy sediment remains.
- Dissolve the remaining half of the sugar in a separate bowl, and then add the yeast to the syrup.
- Pour the dissolved yeast syrup into the bottle.
- Close it with a lid and make a small hole in it.
- Insert a thin rubber tube into the hole so that it does not come into contact with the liquid.
- Place the other end of the tube in a jar of water.
- The fermentation process will be over when bubbles stop forming in the jar.
- Pour the wine into bottles and leave to mature for several months - during this period the sour taste is neutralized.
Further storage of the drink
It is possible to remove homemade wine from apples for storage only when the fermentation process is completely completed.
A cellar or other cool room must meet certain requirements - it must be clean inside, and the air temperature must be +8 ° C throughout the year.
Bottles should be placed in a horizontal position, so that the cork is covered with wine, and a minimum amount of air remains in the container itself.