Apricot trees delight with early flowering, mainly residents of the southern latitudes. In the temperate zone, the varietal diversity of these fruits is sharply reduced due to intolerance of the cold northern winds by the delicate plant. Even in the warm southern regions of the country, their yield may tend to zero at the slightest blow of the cold wind during their flowering. But each owner of a summer cottage in the southern regions of the country seeks to plant an apricot tree, and when early spring does not bring unpleasant surprises in the form of frosts and burning icy wind, apricot trees are bombarded with cottage villages. Then the time comes for apricot harvesting. Already there is jam, and jam and jam, and dried apricots, and frozen berries, and there are still a lot of berries on the tree. Cottagers are a home-grown, economic people. Someone alone will recall that in the old days we made apricot vodka and, you see, the whole village is unitedly engaged in the manufacture of alcoholic drinks based on apricot.
In addition to apricot vodka, from apricots you can get a good wine. Dessert and liquor homemade apricot wines that have sufficient strength for aging are better suited. Of the features for those who like a subtle apricot aroma, it should be noted that it would be nice to add alcoholic extracts from the same fruits to wine recipes from apricots to enhance the effect, because the smell of apricots almost does not appear in wine. And Amaretto lovers will be interested to know that the famous liquor has an almond smell due to the kernels of apricot kernels, and that a small amount of them in liquor or in homemade apricot wine will become a decoration of taste without any harm to health.
Homemade apricot wine - basic technological principles
Any home winemaker will say that in the process of making wine, in essence, there is nothing complicated, and that every time the main steps are repeated. It:
- Preparation of collected wine material - fruits and berries, which must be picked in the morning, technically mature, sorted.
But washing wine materials is not recommended in order to preserve wild yeast colonies on their surface. Sometimes, for the preparation of dry and semi-dry domestic wines, wild yeast may well replace specially grown wine yeast, which is called cultured yeast.
- The next stage is the preparation of pulp or juice. Since we are talking about homemade wine from apricot, then with respect to these berries we can say the following:
From 10 kg of apricots after removing the seeds, you can get no more than 7 liters of juice, and from apricots of wild varieties, with denser pulp - not more than 6.4 liters. To reduce the loss of raw materials when preparing berries for wort, it is recommended to pre-ferment them. To do this, the pulp is crushed, sugar and a small amount of water are added. Water is added to make simple table wines. For dessert and liquor wines, the pulp is combined with sugar without adding water. Implantation improves juice removal. The resulting mass is squeezed and wort is prepared from the juice.
- Next, the composition of the juice is determined. It is important that the content of acid, including tannin, sugar is balanced in it, which matters both during the fermentation of the wort and affects the quality of the wine and its storage. The acidity rate is 0.7-0.8%. The permissible upper limit of the norm is 1.2%, and for strong, dessert and liquor wines - 1.5%. When preparing the wort, these figures should be slightly higher, since in the process of fermentation the acidity decreases. As for tannic acid (tannin), which can be purchased at the pharmacy, thanks to this component, the wine becomes transparent during clarification, and subsequently, during storage, it remains stable. Tannin also affects the taste of wine.
- Special attention in the preparation of wort should be given to sugar. A certain amount of it is necessary for the successful operation of yeast, which during its processing form alcohol and carbon dioxide. This is the essence of fermentation. Sugar is added to the wort, taking into account the natural sugar content of the fruit. To get the wine of the desired strength, more sugar is added. However, it must be remembered that with a total sugar content of more than 20% of the wort, the yeast significantly slows down the work, and with 50% sugar in the must, the fermentation stops and the yeast dies. With a sugar content of less than 10%, you can get good fruit vinegar with a strength of not more than 6%, since acetic bacteria settle much faster in sour wort, and yeast feels uncomfortable in such an environment. It is possible to increase the sugar content in the wort, but only gradually, adding it as the yeast processes it, which allows you to increase the strength of the wine, although it prolongs the fermentation process in time.
Further stages do not represent a great technological complexity in the preparation of homemade wine from apricot, but only require time and patience.
- After the end of fermentation the preparation of wine consists in removing it from the precipitate, clarifying and pasting (adding tannic acid or other components), pouring, sweetening and aging.
- The final phase - bottling of wine or its storage in large containers. Although homemade winemakers don’t have to worry too much about storage issues with small, experimental volumes, it should be said that wine should be looked after if there is a goal to create your own signature recipe for apricot wine. During storage, attention should be paid to the cleanliness of containers, humidity and acceptable room temperature. An acceptable temperature may be completely different values of the mercury column, depending on the type of wine. Be sure to periodically try the wine in storage, carry out a pouring.
1. A simple recipe for apricot wine
Composition:
Apricots 11 kg (net weight)
Water 2.6 L
Sugar 3.0 kg
Cooking:
For wine, it is better to use freshly ripened, but not overripe fruits, without visible contamination. Remove the seeds and mash the berries. Fill them with sugar and add warm water to the enameled container. Stir the mass and, covering it, set at 20-25 ° C before starting fermentation. Squeeze out the fermented juice using a press and pour into a bottle with a narrow neck. Install the water shutter. For further fermentation, the bottle should be at a temperature not exceeding 22 ° C, in the absence of drafts and direct sunlight.
After about two months, fermentation will completely stop. Ground will settle to the bottom and apricot wine should be freed from sediment. Remove it with a plastic flexible tube, transferring it to a clean bowl. Wash the bottle, dry it and pour the wine into it again for aging at 10-14 ° C. If sediment forms again at the bottom, then repeat the removal to achieve absolute transparency.
2. Strong house wine made from garden apricot
Composition:
Juice, apricot 8 l
Water 1.0 L
Sugar 1.8 kg + 0.9 kg (for stabilization)
Wine Yeast 3 g
Cooking Technology:
Combine juice with water to reduce acid content. Add the bulk of the sugar. And mix it until dissolved. The juice can be slightly warmed up. But you can add yeast only when the temperature of the finished wort becomes comfortable for them - not lower than +18 degrees and not higher than +22 degrees.
Keep track of the processes taking place in the wort. Foaming the surface of the wort is a signal of the beginning of fermentation and that everything is done correctly. Pour wine into a bottle, seal the neck with one of the convenient methods: a dowel, a water lock or a medical glove with a finger pierced in it.
After stopping the fermentation completely, remove the new wine from the precipitate and add the second part of sugar. Pour the wine again into a clean bottle and transfer it for aging to a cool place, with a constant temperature not exceeding +14 degrees. At this temperature, the yeast stops working. If live yeast remains in young wine, then they will settle to the bottom of the container along with the thick. Wine must be removed from the sediment. Sugar added after fermentation after aging will give the taste of wine and make it more stable, prevent the appearance of mold on the surface.
3. Recipe for wine from apricots of forest (wild) varieties
Composition:
Sugar 3.2 kg
Tannic acid (tannin) 15 g
Puree, apricot 5.6 kg
Water 2.7 L
Apricot tincture, homemade (40%) 0.7 L
Cooking:
Simultaneously with the preparation of the wort, we are preparing an apricot tincture. For tincture, it is better to take garden apricots with the most intense aroma.
A kilogram of berries must be separated from the seeds, chopped with a blender and add 0.5 l of vodka. Seal the jar with the mixture tightly and store it in the kitchen, in sight: while the wort is to ferment, the tincture should be shaken periodically to improve the quality of extraction.
To obtain apricot puree you will need at least 10 kg of wild apricots. Wild berries have a high density, which makes it difficult to obtain juice. They contain almost twice as much acid as garden apricots, but the increased content of essential oils in wild apricots allows you to get a more aromatic homemade wine from apricot.
Therefore, to prepare the wort, wild apricots are crushed in mashed potatoes, add water. The resulting mass is combined with half the right amount of sugar and fermented, leaving the cooked wort at 25 degrees until foam appears on the surface. Be sure to cover the container to prevent contamination. You must not keep the wort in a humid place, in order to avoid the appearance of mold, which is very susceptible to berries. After the start of fermentation, squeeze the juice and pour it into the bottle. Close with a water lock. Now the temperature should be 3-5 degrees lower until the end of fermentation. Try to maintain the same temperature conditions necessary for the productive work of wine yeast. After the rapid fermentation phase, add the rest of the sugar, set the lock again, now until the fermentation stops completely and precipitation forms at the bottom of the bottle. Gently pour the wine into a clean and dry container. At the same time, you can filter the apricot tincture and combine it with the wine removed from the lees. Stir the wine and pour it back into the bottle. Seal and take to the basement for aging (at least 3 months). Check the wine every two weeks. Re-sediment if necessary.
4. A simple recipe for wine from dessert apricots
Composition:
Apricots 13.5 kg
Sugar 3.3 kg
Tanning acid 12 g
Tartaric acid 7 g
Order of preparation:
The selected berries are sorted, removed with a brush of pollution (do not wash). By removing the seeds, the apricots are crushed. Several seeds (20-25 pieces) can be crushed and the extracted kernels added to the pulp to give the future wine an almond tone. In small quantities, they will not harm the body. Divide sugar into three parts. Add the first part to the pulp, mix. At the same time, you can add tartar. Put the wort for fermentation, first for 10-12 hours, so that the juice stands out, and when this happens, squeeze it under the press, removing the cake and pour into the bottle. Close the neck with a water lock.
The second part of sugar can also be divided into three parts and added to the fermenting wort in portions, as it is processed by yeast, after 7-10 days. This technique will keep the yeast in good shape, making them work more actively. A positive aspect of this separation of sugar is that the strength of the wine will be higher, and when aged, it will lighten faster and will not cloud during storage. The wort will wander longer, but winemaking does not put up with haste.
Do not forget to stir up the gradually formed precipitate with each addition of sugar, since it contains the most “lazy and weakest” yeast that can still work: let them participate in the formation of alcohol with fresh sugar feeding.
When the bubbling stops completely or it seems that it has stopped, remove the wine from the precipitate, add diluted tannin (for clarification and stabilization). Pour wine into a clean bottle again, but this time fill it to the top, leaving no more than 3-5 cm to the edge of the neck. From that moment, care for young home-made wine from apricot consists in pouring it and removing it from the sediment to perfect transparency.
Add a third of the sugar and keep the sweetened wine at room temperature, if you can not wait to taste it with friends. At room temperature, sugar will dissolve faster and create a full bouquet of an already ripe drink. Now you can pour into sterile bottles, seal with corks and put into storage in the basement.
5. A simple recipe for wine from apricots. Liquor wine
Composition:
Wild and garden apricots (1: 1) 11.0 kg
Tartar 24 g
Tannin 24 g
Sugar 6.3 kg
Vodka (40%) 0.7 L
Cooking:
The preparation of berries and the further technology for making liquor wine are described in the previous recipe. The main difference is that the squeezed pulp of the fruit, in which there is still much that is valuable, is poured with vodka, mixed and aged until the time comes to clarify the wine to add a third of sugar for sweetening. Tincture should be filtered through a dense cloth and squeezed well. Add it to the wine. Exposure should be carried out for 2-3 months at room temperature. At this time, care for liquor wine consists in overfilling to improve the bouquet. Then pour the wine into bottles and take it to a dark, cool place to store.
6. Apricot and raisin wine recipe
Composition:
Raisins, white 1.0 kg
Dried apricots 5.0 kg
Sugar 1.5 kg
Yeast, wine 3 g
Juice, grape (unclarified) 6.0 L
Nutmeg
Water 1.5 L
Citric acid 15 g
Cooking:
Extraordinary wine can be prepared even in the winter, if dried fruits and juice were prepared during the season. However, raisins and dried apricots can be bought, it just comes out a little expensive. And the drying of apricots and grapes (it is advisable to dry the sort of raisins) is a fairly simple matter. The selected berries should be spread out in a thin layer on a baking sheet and slightly dried in the oven, preheating it to 50 degrees, and then turning it off. After drying, grill in the shade. This can be done outdoors. Need a light draft, minimal humidity and a gauze frame to protect against insects.
Now about making delicious wine. Dried fruits need to be chopped and put in a bottle. Dilute sugar in grape juice, add water and citric acid. Warm the cooked wort lightly and dilute the yeast in it. Pour into a bottle and place in a specific place where a constant temperature will be maintained. Install the shutter and wait for the fermentation to cease no earlier than 2 months later. Remove the wine from the sediment, pour and put a whole small nutmeg into the bottle. In the process of subsequent exposure, conduct regular pouring of wine, laying each time in a bottle of fresh nutmeg. Six months later, the wine can be bottled.
Homemade Apricot Wine - Useful Tips and Tricks
Do not store homemade wine on the lees, which, in addition to small particles of fruit, are dead yeast after the completion of the fermentation process. They will give a bitter aftertaste to wine if left in the bottle.
Do not use plastic jars for fermentation and storage of wine. It is convenient, but harmful.Acids contained in wort and wine when interacting with plastic utensils partially dissolve harmful compounds. This not only affects the taste and bouquet of homemade wine, but also harms health.
Ready house wine should be kept tightly corked. Domestic wine does not have to be bottled, but when storing in glass bottles, make sure that moisture and foreign odors do not get into it when stored.
To get a stronger dessert wine, wine yeast can be added to the must, which must be prepared 4-5 days before the juice and the preparation of the wort. Yeast is bred in warm water (20-25 degrees). 250 ml add one drop of a solution of ammonium salts ½ teaspoon of sugar daily, to feed wine yeast. Then this mixture is poured into the finished wort and yeast continues to develop in it.
