Chokeberry is a very specific berry whose taste is distinguished by bitterness and astringency. This is a treat for the amateur, but it has a lot of useful substances, among which are vitamin B, minerals, ascorbic acid and metals, necessary for the human body.
Jam and compotes would be made from it, but they turn out to be tasteless. But the wine comes out great! Therefore, now it is worth telling his recipe. Chokeberry is an unusual berry, so there are some nuances in the process.
Ingredients and Preparation
Here's what you need:
- Ripe aronia, 5 kg.
- Unwashed raisins, 50 g.
- Water, 1 l.
- Sugar, 1 kg.
- Patience.
The last "ingredient" can even be called the main one. Patience will take a lot.
First you have to carefully sort through all the berries. Damaged, unripe, moldy and rotten must be disposed of. How quality berries are used determines the taste of wine.
You will also need to sterilize the containers that will be used in the process with boiling water, and also dry them. Otherwise, there is a risk of infection and further damage to the wine.
Work with berries
So, according to the most popular recipe, chokeberry must be thoroughly kneading with hands, which must first be washed and dried. They approach the process responsibly - there should not be a single whole berry.
By the way, you can’t wash the mountain ash. This is because its peel contains wild yeast - the component due to which the juice will ferment. There is no need to worry about the presence of dirt. It will settle at the bottom and then be removed by filtration.
Component Mixing
This is the next recipe item. Chokeberry, carefully crushed, should be poured into a large container. It is important that it is not made of metal. Enameled, glass, plastic container is suitable. As for the volume, 10 liters is enough.
Then you will need to add a pound of sugar to the berries. It is required, even if you want to make dry wine. It will turn out, you can not worry about it, just these berries have very low sugar content, not even reaching 9%. Therefore, wine without added sugar is extremely weak (up to 5.4% strength) and, as a result, is not very well stored.
For the same reason, a handful of raisins are added to the container. It will enhance the quality of aronia. The recipe says that it is not necessary, but they recommend that you heed the advice strongly. On the taste of the drink, the addition of raisins does not affect.
After all the ingredients are in the container, they must be thoroughly mixed. A homogeneous mass should be obtained.
Tie the container on top with gauze so that insects do not get inside, and remove for 7 days in a place with a temperature of 18-25 ° C. Each day, mix the mass 4 times, dipping pulp into the juice (floating pulp and peel).
Juice Spin
It will be necessary to start it after 7 days, when the berry-sugar mixture is infused - as the recipe says. Chokeberry will swell and rise up by then. And if you immerse your hand in the container, you can see how the foam is formed. If so, then it's time to squeeze the juice.
Gather the pulp with your hands and try to squeeze out of it everything that is possible. Permissible use of the press. The main thing is not to resort to a juicer. It will almost immediately clog and cause only more problems.
Squeezing the juice, the pulp should not be thrown away. She will come in handy.
The resulting juice must be filtered. For this, gauze or a colander are suitable. If some small particles get into the juice during filtration, you do not need to focus on this. They will be deleted later.
The filtered juice is poured into a clean fermentation tank. It is necessary to correctly select a vessel so that it is filled by more than 40%. It will require more free space for another portion of juice, as well as foam and carbon dioxide (released during fermentation).
Installation of a hydrolock and work with a pulp
This is the next thing to start. According to the recipe for chokeberry wine, a water seal must be installed on the jar. Any design is allowed. The most common choice is a sterile medical glove with a needle-made hole in one finger.
Having established this simple construction, the container must be removed to a place where it is dark, and the temperature varies from 18 to 27 ° C.
And then you need to continue working with the pulp. This is what the home recipe says. From chokeberry, which has already passed the spin, still get a little juice.
Pour the remaining sugar (0.5 kg) into the pulp and pour a liter of warm water, which should not be hotter than 25-30 ° C. Mix everything - the formed "nectar" should rise above the berry mass.
Then the container is covered with a lid and sent to a dark place for 5 days. The temperature there should be room temperature.
The mass must be mixed daily, each time sinking berries into a liquid.
Juice Mixing
This stage is only in the case of cooking wine from aronia. At home, the recipe recommends insisting berry nectar from previously squeezed pulp for a week. Then the container must be removed and filtered. A colander will help here.
It is not necessary to press the mass. After all, you need to get clean, transparent, high-quality juice. If you press, you get a cloudy liquid. And yes, after completing the process, the pulp can be thrown away. It will not be required anymore.
After that, remove the glove from the vessel with the first portion of highly concentrated juice and carefully remove the foam. Then you can add new juice. Mix lightly and replace the water seal.
Fermentation
The penultimate stage in the preparation of homemade wine from aronia. The recipe states that fermentation takes 25 to 50 days. However, you do not need to guess how much is left. It is possible to determine that the process is completed by a deflated glove. By the way, a precipitate forms at the bottom, and an almost finished drink will become much lighter.
So, at the end of fermentation, the young wine will need to be drained through a tube into another clean vessel, without affecting the sediment.
By the way, you can slightly sweeten the drink if desired. This action is not prohibited by this not very simple recipe. Chokeberry, as mentioned earlier, is very bitter. And the drink obtained at this stage has a sharp taste. So it does not hurt the improvement of organoleptic properties.
Sugar is added to taste. Its level can be adjusted in the process. It is better to pour it in portions, mix, taste, and then decide whether it was possible to achieve the desired level of sweetness.
By the way, some pour from 2 to 15% of vodka to fix the wine. This will help to preserve it for a longer period, but will make the taste tough. You need to think about whether to add strong alcohol, is it not superfluous, given the astringency of the wine.
Maturation
The final touch in a not-so-simple recipe. Chokeberry is unique, and the wine from it is unique, but its taste can only be appreciated after ripening.
Clean containers should be filled with filtered young wine and covered tightly. You can hold it for another ten days under the glove if sugar has been added.
Store in a cool, dark place with a temperature regime of 8-16 ° C. The next six months, drinking wine is not recommended. But in addition it will have to be filtered. Once a month will be enough. With each re-filtration, a decrease in sediment will be noticeable.
After six months, the drink can be consumed. It is bottled and closed. It can be stored for three to five years in suitable conditions (in the refrigerator, for example, or in the cellar). If there was no artificial fixation with vodka, then the strength of the wine will be approximately 10-12%.
It can hardly be said that this is a simple recipe. From chokeberry at home, you can actually make an excellent wine. And not so complicated as it seems at first glance. Just in this process there are a lot of nuances that must be observed in the necessary order, if you want to make a good, high-quality drink. They say that this tart, sour taste with a light sweetness is unrealistic to forget.
Serve it is recommended for something special. Light sweet desserts or cheese would be ideal.