Currant berries are an excellent material for making homemade wine. As wine material, you can use them whole with brushes or without them, as well as currant juice. In addition, currant wine of different varieties is perfect for blending, that is, mixing in order to give the drink a different taste, strength or aroma.
To make wine at home, you can take any
sort of currant. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the different taste properties of berries: from white varieties of this shrub table wine of a pleasant golden color is obtained, and the presence of brushes and twigs adds astringency to the drink. Black and
red berries contain a large amount of acid and have a strong smell, so wine from the currant of these varieties is usually diluted with water or drinks from less acidic fruits.
To make wine from currants, you will need berries of a certain variety, a container - usually a bottle or jar with a volume of several liters, as well as water, sugar. Depending on the recipe, additional devices and ingredients are used.
Blackcurrant wine can be prepared as follows. Harvested in good weather, thoroughly washed and dried berries should be kneaded. You need to do this with your hands, not missing a single berry. Then add sugar at the rate of 200-250 g per liter of fresh berries to the resulting pulp. Sugar will remove the acid of the berries and activate the fermentation process, since there is very little wine yeast in currants.
The next ingredient is water. You need to add 100 ml for every kilogram of fresh berries. For better fermentation, it is advisable to pour a handful of raisins.
Then mix all the ingredients, close the container and put in a cool place for about a week, do not forget to stir daily. Stirring will prevent mold.
After the set time, the pulp and juice will reach a deep scarlet color. Now you need to squeeze the pulp using a press or manually. To clear the juice from the seeds of currant, it must be filtered through a colander. Pour the squeezed juice into a container with a water lock - a gas outlet tube in the lid, while the end of the tube is lowered into a glass of water.
The squeezed pulp should be poured with cold water in the amount of half a liter, left to ferment for a week, then squeeze the juice obtained and add to the juice of the "first extraction". Leave the whole mixture to stand another week, strain. Separately, it is necessary to filter the juice and sediment at the bottom of the tank with their subsequent mixing. Shed and mix need to be weekly for two to three weeks. As soon as the sediment ceases to form - homemade wine from the currant is ready!
Similarly, you can make white currant wine . Many gourmets claim that the taste of such a drink resembles real grape wine. As a rule, wine from white grapes is dry, and some winemakers try to remove acidity by adding sugar. But this action almost completely “kills” the natural aroma of the fruit. Initially prepared wine has a maximum strength of 11%. If you wish, you can "reinforce" the currant wine by pouring vodka or alcohol at the final stage.