In the manufacture of any alcoholic drink at home, there are subtleties. Those who regard winemaking as a kind of art receive as a result of their efforts a noble product. One of the most important points during wine maturation is to prevent air from entering the vessel with the must. It is for this purpose that the bottle seal is used.
What kind of device is this?
The device that prevents contact of the liquid in the bottle with air uses water. There are several types of such a device for use in different cases:
- for the chemical industry;
- for plumbing;
- for winemaking.
How it works? Due to the liquid layer, the gases released during the interaction can move exclusively in a given direction without the ability to penetrate back and interfere with the normal course of fermentation or other reaction.
Is it possible to do without it?
If water locks were not used in plumbing devices (sinks and toilets), all unpleasant odors would penetrate the room. The siphons are arranged in such a way that the drain water freely flows into the sewer, and the foul-smelling air does not return.
At specialized industrial enterprises, used devices equipped with exhaust valves exclude the mixing of air and hydrogen, preventing fire.
Only using a water trap for mash can you get wine, not vinegar, at home making merry drinks. Without oxygen, bacteria that convert alcohol to acid are not viable.
How does air affect getting the right drink?
Fermentation is the process during which the yeast, "eating sucrose," secrete alcohol and carbon dioxide. At this time, the ingress of air into the vessel is unacceptable. The wort container must be closed so that the gas emitted does not come back. Access to oxygen is blocked by a lid with a water lock on the neck of the bottle. It would seem that the simplest thing is to close the neck tightly with a stopper. However, the pressure created in the container by the emitted gases will inevitably lead to the explosion of the vessel.
If the goal of the whole process is to obtain wine vinegar, you must let the wort sour. Leaving the vessel open in the first few days from the start of fermentation, it is possible to obtain acid. When there is enough sugar, and there is still little alcohol, it is impossible to get high-quality drinking alcohol. It turns out a completely different useful product - excellent wine vinegar.
Mash, poured into a container with a water seal, stands for a long time without distillation and oxidation. The alcohol produced in it remains unchanged for a long time.
The simplest water trap for wine
Do the following with your own hands:
- the wort is placed in a prepared glass or plastic bottle;
- a hole of a certain diameter is made in a suitable lid;
- a flexible plastic or rubber thin hose is tightly inserted into the slot;
- the vessel is sealed with a prepared design;
- put a jar of water on one level with the main vessel.
For the exit of gases, it is important that one of the ends of the tube does not touch the mash poured into the bottle. The second tip should be lowered into a jar of water and secured. The task that the lid with a water lock performs will be achieved if the gases are released only through the end of the hose, passed through the water in the jar. Visual verification of the quality of the completed construction will be bubbles popping up from a hose in a can of water. If the wort roams well and the bubbles do not appear, check the tightness of the lid. The place of entry of the tube into the hole should also be qualitatively isolated.
Another way that you can make a water trap for wine with your own hands, is that a metal tube is tightly inserted into the hole made in the lid. From the outside, a meter-long hose is inserted, which can be lowered into a jar or a bottle of water.
How to determine product readiness?
Using the classic set of lids, tubes and cans described above, you can pretty accurately find out the readiness of mash or wine. The cessation of the release of bubbles suggests that the mash can be distilled, and the wine can be drained from the sediment.
After this, the young playful drink should stand for a couple of weeks to finally settle the dregs. Only after this can the “life-giving moisture” be bottled and stored in a cool, dark room.
Jam and raisin wine recipe
Stir 1 liter of fermented, soured jam and about 100 grams of unwashed raisins in one liter of water. Pour this mixture into the dishes, taking 2/3 of the volume. Close the neck with a simple cotton stopper and put the "shell" in a warm place for a week. When the thick floats to the surface, the mixture must be filtered through several layers of gauze. The semi-finished wine product should be poured into a bottle, closed with a water lock and put back in a warm and dark place. After one and a half to two months of fermentation, the finished drink is poured (via a tube) into another container and again put on a sludge for a short time. Then everything is bottled, tightly corked and put into storage in a cool room.
Are ready-made appliances available?
Some wine masters say that you can do without any devices at all. They recommend the following:
- a cotton sponge (disk) or a fragment from a respirator is placed under the cork with an opening;
- the outer tip of the tube placed in the hole in the lid is simply filled with a piece of cotton.
These options have one important drawback: at the very beginning of fermentation in a bottle with wort there is still a very small pressure of carbon dioxide, which prevents the penetration of air into the vessel. The result is one - sour vinegar instead of a tasty drink.
You do not always need to make a water lock for wine with your own hands. There are some simple store options for plastic and glass. Their minus is that they have certain sizes and may not always be suitable for the containers used in each particular case. In addition, the design is almost impossible to clear from the plaque that appeared during use.
The devices tightly close the wort bottles and can last for several years with careful handling.
Some tried and tested ways to make a water seal
Wine from ancient times was considered a symbol of fertility, celebration and fun, a symbol of life's joys. Craftsmen who enjoy the process of preparing this drink have invented several designs that completely replace standard water locks. Among them are the following:
1. The famous "hello Gorbachev." The option is suitable for use on wide-neck fermentation tanks (cans, jugs, bottles). A thin rubber glove is put on a vessel with must. When it inflates and takes the form of a large hand, in one of the fingers you need to pierce a hole with a needle for automatic carbon dioxide removal. Gas will escape, preventing oxygen from entering. As soon as the glove falls off, stops inflating - the mash is ready.
The disadvantage of this method can be called the complexity or impossibility of tight fastening on vessels with a capacity of more than 20 liters. To prevent gloves from breaking off, the gases released during fermentation are tightly tied around the neck with an elastic band or twine. It is difficult to call this model a water seal, despite the fact that it completely replaces the standard design.
2. Do-it-yourself water locks for wine are often made from two disposable syringes of different volumes. Fittings are removed and discarded. The small syringe is inserted into the large and fastened with an elastic band. This design is installed in the hole on the lid of the vessel and sealed. Water is poured into a large cylinder, and gas will exit through a small cylinder.
3. Some craftsmen know how to make a water seal for large plastic bottles. A disposable dropper needle is inserted into a tightly twisted bottle cap. The second end of the tube is placed in a jar of water, as in the first method. Clamping the hose allows you to control the carbon dioxide output from the fermentation tank.
Some non-standard options
When enumerating the following methods, the proverb involuntarily comes to mind that "the goal is fiction." What only especially inventive master winemakers do not go to!
- use a regular valve with a ball from under the vodka bottle;
- fit nipples from bicycle cameras complete with soft thin capillary hoses;
- put on a bottle with a must a children's inflatable ball and poke a hole in it;
- cocktail tubes and straws from juices are inserted into the opening of the lid.
To make the joints airtight, you can drip them with wax, paraffin, use pieces of plasticine or silicone glue.
Whatever the water trap is used in the distillation of home-made drinks, one must remember the importance of a tight-fitting lid, the pressure of gases in a container with fermenting wort, and the aging time of the finished wine.