Cranberry wine

Content

1 Classic cranberry wine
2 Cranberry wine without starter
3 Dried cranberry wine
4 Fortified cranberry wine
5 Conclusion

Thanks to the high content of vitamins, organic acids, and microelements, cranberry wine is not only tasty, but also beneficial for human health. It will be difficult for beginners to prepare the drink. This wild berry is finicky and requires certain skills. But if you strictly follow the steps for preparing cranberry wine, after a while you can enjoy a delicious drink.

It will not be possible to make wine using pure juice from fresh berries - you will have to dilute it with water and add sugar, because cranberries have a high level of acidity and a minimum of glucose. Additional ingredients will help the wort ferment faster.

Classic cranberry wine

This cranberry wine recipe is considered the simplest and most delicious. The following components will be required:

7 liters of water;
3 kg sugar;
1 kg cranberries.

Steps for making cranberry wine:

Initially, you need to prepare a wine starter. To do this, carefully sort the berries, selecting spoiled ones. It is the crushed and stained fruits that are covered with 2 tbsp. sugar, leave for 10 days at room temperature.
Now it's time to make dessert wine. The sorted cranberries are poured into a spacious container and pressed.
Next, add the rest of the granulated sugar and add water.
For the first 4 hours after combining the ingredients, the product is stirred periodically to ensure that the sugar is completely dissolved.
Pour the resulting mixture into the finished starter, put a glove on the neck, after making several holes. Place in a dark, warm place and leave for 30–60 days.
After gas formation ends, pour the wine through a rubber tube into bottles, close tightly, and leave for 3-4 months.

After this, the cranberry wine is considered fully ripe and can be drunk.

Cranberry wine without starter

To make delicious wine, the berries are harvested after the first frost. It is at this time that the sugar content is highest. All fruits are carefully sorted; even the slightest stain can lead to the appearance of mold on the surface of the wine. Containers for preparing the drink must be perfectly washed and wiped dry (sterilization can be carried out).

Products:

5 kg cranberries;
5 liters of water;
5 kg of sugar.

Steps for preparing the drink according to this recipe:

The washed and dried berries are thoroughly ground to obtain a homogeneous paste. Wild yeast lives on the surface of the fruit, helping the drink to ferment quickly. If they are washed off, the required process will not occur.
Pour the resulting mass into a spacious container, add part of the sugar (0.5 kg), pour in water, and mix.
Bandage the neck of the container with gauze and leave for 5 days. The ideal temperature for fermentation is 18–25 °C.
For the first three days, the wort must be stirred regularly with a wooden spatula. After 5 days, cranberry pulp will appear - it must be carefully removed.
Strain the wort and pour into a fermentation container. A container with a narrow neck is suitable, the kind our ancestors used to make wine. Fill it 2/3 full.
Squeeze out the pulp removed from the surface of the drink, pour the liquid into a container with the future wine, and the pulp will no longer be needed.
Add another portion of sugar - 2 kg.
Cover the neck with a rubber medical glove, after making a hole, you can use a water seal. All connections must be properly sealed.
Leave the drink to ferment in a dark place, ambient temperature 18–25 °C.
After 4 days, add another portion of granulated sugar - 1.5 kg. Open the container, pour out part of the drink, dilute the sugar and return everything to the container. Install the glove.
After another 3 days, repeat the manipulation, adding the remaining sugar. Leave the wine to ferment - this can take from 25 to 60 days. The duration of the procedure is determined by the air temperature in the room used for preparation.
Advice! If fermentation continues for more than 50 days from the moment the glove is installed, then part of the wort should be poured into another container. Then you need to let the wine mature further. If the drink infuses for a long time, bitterness will appear.
You can determine the end of fermentation by the sediment, the light color of the wine, or the deflated glove. When finished, pour the contents through the tube into another container, being careful not to disturb the sediment.
Afterwards the drink is tasted and sugar is added. If you wish, you can fix it with vodka or alcohol. Fortified wine lasts longer, but the taste is not as mild.
The drink should be stored in containers with a tightly closed lid for 3–6 months at a temperature of 5–16 °C. Filter every 20 days when sediment appears. You can drink the drink after sediment no longer appears.

Dried cranberry wine

If you can’t find fresh or frozen cranberries, you can make wine from dried fruits without any problems.

To prepare the drink you will need the following components:

0.5 kg of dry cranberries;
4 tbsp. granulated sugar;
4 liters of water;
wine yeast - 1 package;
1 tsp.pectin enzyme;
1 tsp. yeast feeding;
1 Campden tablet.

Advice! When purchasing dry berries, it is important to find out whether they have been processed in any way. If only sulfur was used, which is typical for any dried fruit, then this berry can be used to make wine without adding a Campden tablet. In other cases, this ingredient cannot be avoided.

This amount of ingredients is enough to prepare 24 liters of cranberry wine. Stages:

Grind the cranberries using a meat grinder, transfer to a container and pour 2 tbsp. water. Add crushed tablets and leave for 12 hours.
After introducing pectin enzyme, leave for 10 hours.
Prepare sugar syrup, cool. Next, add cranberries to the berries and add the remaining ingredients. Cover the container with gauze and leave for a week, stirring several times daily.
After vigorous fermentation is completed, carefully pour the wine into a bottle with a narrow neck, so as not to disturb the sediment, and install a glove or water seal.
The wine should ferment in a dark place for 30–60 days. And then pour into bottles and store in a cool place for up to 6 months.

Fortified cranberry wine

The fastest way to get homemade cranberry wine is to use vodka together with wild berries. Although some housewives call this drink a tincture, and its taste will be astringent. To make quick fortified wine, you will need the following ingredients:

1.5 kg cranberries;
6 tbsp. 96% alcohol;
5 tbsp. granulated sugar;
6 tbsp. water.

Step-by-step preparation of homemade wine:

Sort the cranberries, rinse under running water, and grind in a blender. Transfer the homogeneous mass into a glass container and leave for 7 days in a dark place. Wait until fermentation begins.
After 7 days, you need to add alcohol to the berry mass and leave it to steep again for a week.
Advice! The container with the berry mixture must be tightly closed with a lid.
After two weeks, heat the water, dilute granulated sugar, cool, pour the syrup into the berries, stir.
The resulting mass must be put on fire, heated, but not allowed to boil, otherwise all the alcohol will evaporate. Then cool.
Strain through several layers of gauze.
Healthy cranberry wine is ready. Now you need to bottle it and put it in the refrigerator. After 24 hours you can drink.

How to properly prepare cranberry wine is shown in the video:

Conclusion

Cranberry wine is made from freshly picked or frozen berries. If you let it sit for six months after preparation, you can please your loved ones with a richer, aromatic drink. Wine is an excellent remedy that helps normalize digestion processes, improves body tone, and activates the immune system.