Melon wine: how to make, simple recipes

Content

1 Secrets and nuances of making melon wine
2 How to make wine from melon
3 Terms and conditions of storage
4 Conclusion

Melon wine is an aromatic, full-flavored alcoholic drink. The color is soft golden, almost amber. It is rarely produced on an industrial scale. Melon wine is especially popular in Turkey.

Secrets and nuances of making melon wine

Melons contain little acid, but plenty of sugar - about 16%. Melon is 91% water. In addition, melon pulp is fibrous, so squeezing the juice out of it so that it is clear is quite difficult. But if you filter the wort well and acidify it with lemon or apple juice or wine additives, you will get a tasty and beautiful wine.

The drink is fermented with pure wine yeast. If you can’t get them, use raisin and raspberry sourdough.

To prepare melon wine, only juicy, ripe and sweet fruits are used. Dessert and fortified wines. Due to the nature of the melon pulp, it is extremely difficult to obtain dry wine from it. Stronger drinks have a distinct taste and aroma.

Before cooking, suitable fruits are peeled and seeds removed. The pulp is cut into small pieces. The juice is squeezed out manually or using special devices. The resulting liquid is filtered through a sieve or cheesecloth.Place in a glass container and add the remaining ingredients according to the recipe, stir thoroughly. A glove is put on the throat and left to ferment at room temperature.

Important! As soon as the liquid turns light, the wine is ready.

The drink is filtered using a funnel in which filter paper is placed. Taste it; if the wine is not sweet enough, add sugar.

Basic rules to follow when making melon wine:

Before adding sugar, it is first diluted in a small amount of wort.
All utensils used must be clean.
The fermentation container is filled 80% to leave room for gases to escape.
Fermentation should not last longer than 1.5 months, otherwise the wine will lose its aroma and become bitter.

How to make wine from melon

Ingredients for the basic recipe:

11 kg melon;
2 kg of fine sugar;
20 g tannic acid;
60 g tartaric acid.

Or:

yeast and nutrition;
2 kg of sour apples or juice of five lemons.

Preparation:

Cut off the skin of the melon, leaving only the pulp. The seeds along with the fibers are thoroughly cleaned. The pulp is randomly chopped and the juice is squeezed out of it.
You should get approximately 8 liters of liquid. Yeast is dissolved in heated water. Sugar, apple or lemon juice are added to melon juice. Stir.
The resulting wort is poured into a fermenter or bottle, the yeast mixture and fertilizing are added. Install a water seal or put on a glove. Leave in a warm, dark place for 10 days. When the glove deflates, the wine becomes light and sediment appears at the bottom, drain the wine using a thin hose.
The young wine is poured into a smaller container, filling it three-quarters full.Place it in a dark but cool place and leave it for another 3 months. This is enough to lighten the drink. If sediment forms, the wine is decanted. This procedure is performed at least 3 times during secondary fermentation. The fully clarified wine is bottled and sent to the cellar for six months to mature.

A simple recipe for homemade melon wine

The right technology will allow you to get a strong, incredibly aromatic and sweet wine with a beautiful color. Adding acids is a must. These can be special tartaric acids or apple or lemon juices.

Ingredients:

200 g yeast;
10 g melon pulp;
3 kg fine sugar;
2 liters of filtered water.

Preparation:

First of all, prepare the starter: yeast is diluted in 300 ml of warm water.
The melon is washed and wiped with a napkin. The pulp is separated from the peel and cleared of seeds. Cut into pieces and squeeze out the juice using a press or a special device.
Pour the fruit liquid into a glass container, add water, dissolving sugar in it. Sourdough is also added here. Stir. A water seal is installed on the container.
Place it in a warm, dark place for a month to ferment. As soon as gas bubbles cease to be released, the wine is drained from the sediment using a thin hose. Add sugar if necessary. Pour the drink into bottles, seal it tightly and leave for another 2 months in a dark, cool room. During this time, the melon wine will ripen and settle.

Turkish melon wine

The recipe involves heat treatment, so you will need to do less juicing. Turkish melon wine is prepared exclusively with pure yeast culture. It is advisable to add fertilizer, but not necessary.

Ingredients:

according to the instructions for yeast and feeding;
5000 g melon;
1 l 500 ml filtered water;
2 lemons;
1750 g fine sugar.

Preparation:

Cut the skin off the melon. The pulp is cut into arbitrary cubes.
Boil water in a saucepan. Lemons are doused with boiling water, wiped, and rolled on the table with your palm. Cut in half. Lemon juice is poured into water. Add sugar. Boil until the sugar is completely dissolved, periodically removing the foam.
Place pieces of melon into the boiling mixture and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes, until the pulp releases all the juice and becomes soft.
The mixture is cooled to a barely warm state and poured along with the pulp into the fermenter. According to the recommendations on the package, yeast and fertilizer are added. A water seal is installed on the neck of the container.
After 10 days, the wine is drained from the pulp and placed in a smaller container, filling it almost to the brim. Leave in a cool, dark room until completely cleared.

With added raspberries

Raspberries go well with aromatic melon. To highlight the color, use a yellow berry.

Ingredients:

8 kg ripe melon;
2 kg 300 g fine sugar;
4 kg 500 g yellow raspberries.

Preparation:

Raspberries are sorted. They do not wash, but remove the skin and seeds from the melon. Cut the pulp into pieces. Berries and fruits are kneaded with your hands or a rolling pin until pureed. Place in a glass container with a wide neck and leave for a couple of days. A dense layer of foam will form on the surface. It is precipitated by stirring the wort so that it does not become moldy.
After 2 days, the pulp is thoroughly squeezed out using a press or gauze. You should get about 10 liters of juice. Pour it into a glass bottle. Pour 2/3 sugar into the liquid, stir and put a glove on your throat. Leave in a warm, dark place.If everything is done correctly, the glove should inflate within 24 hours.
Fermentation will continue for about a month. After a week, add another third of the sugar and stir. The remaining sweet sand is introduced after another 7 days. When the wine stops bubbling, it is drained from the sediment, poured into a smaller container and left in a cool room to ferment again.
During this time the wine will become clearer, forming a dense sediment at the bottom. It is drained through a straw at least 3 times. After 2 months, the drink is bottled and sealed with corks.

With raisins

Ingredients:

2 l 500 ml filtered water;
8 kg of prepared melon pulp;
300 g dry raisins;
2 kg yellow raspberries;
5 kg white sugar.

Preparation:

The washed melon is cut in half, the seeds are removed and the peel is cut off. The pulp is crushed into random pieces. The juice is squeezed out of it manually or using a special device.
The raspberries are sorted, but not washed. Knead slightly with your hands and combine with melon juice.
Sugar is poured into heated water and stirred until dissolved. The syrup is poured into the fruit and berry mixture. Stir. Place in a glass container for fermentation.
Add dry raisins and mix. A water seal is installed on the throat. The container is kept for at least a month in a dark, warm place.
At the end of fermentation, the wine is immediately drained and distributed into bottles. They are corked and left to ripen for six months.

Fortified wine

Fortified wines are high in alcohol and sugar.

Ingredients:

5 liters of melon juice;
100 g alcohol yeast;
2 kg of fine sugar.

Preparation:

A juicy, ripe melon is cut into 2 parts, the seeds and fibers are removed and the peel is cut off. The pulp is cut into arbitrary pieces and the juice is squeezed out of it.This can be done manually, using a juicer or a special press.
Yeast and sugar are dissolved in a small amount of warm boiled water. The resulting mixture is combined with melon juice. Stir and pour into a glass container.
Place the container in a warm, dark place, periodically monitoring the stages of fermentation. At the end of the process, the wine is filtered, bottled, corked and sent to ripen in a cool, dark room.

Terms and conditions of storage

The shelf life of melon wine is about 2 years. After about six months, the alcoholic drink will reveal all its taste qualities.

Store wine in a cool, dark place. A cellar or pantry is ideal for this.

Conclusion

Properly prepared melon wine will have a bright golden hue, rich taste and aroma. The drink is recommended to be consumed after aging for six months. It is during this time that all the taste qualities will be revealed in it. As an experiment, you can add berries, fruits or spices.