Sparkling wine from grapes at home. Champagne and "fruit water" at home

Any solemn event is associated with a sparkling frothy drink bubbling in a tall glass. Unfortunately, buying high-quality champagne is sometimes quite expensive, but you still don’t want to buy a too cheap option. So why not pluck up the courage and try making your own champagne?

I propose to talk about how to make delicious, sparkling champagne at home according to a proven, unpretentious recipe, as well as find out how many years homemade sparkling wine is stored and how to do it correctly in order to preserve its original taste.

You can use any house wine to make champagne. The drink most similar to the original is obtained from wine made on the basis of Chardonnay grapes. No less tasty and fragrant versions of champagne are prepared from berry or fruit wines, for example, “raspberry”, “strawberry”, and so on.

Cooking process

1. In the standard way, we prepare light wine by fermenting raw materials with wild yeast.
2. When the water seal practically stops gurgling, we filter the young wine and mix it with sugar, focusing on our own taste preferences. Do not forget that the more sugar, the stronger the drink will be, which, in my opinion, is not very relevant for champagne.
3. Pour the sweetened liquid into pre-prepared dark glass bottles with thick walls. I recommend using champagne bottles.
4. We seal the bottles tightly with corks.
5. We transfer the containers to the cellar or any other cold place and lay them in a horizontal position so that the contents are in contact with the cork.
6. We insist the product for 2.5-3 months.
7. After this period, we put the bottles in a vertical position so that the sediment from the walls of the container sinks to the bottom. By shaking the bottles slightly daily and tapping them lightly with a rubber or silicone spatula, the sediment will settle faster and there will be no need to disgorge.
8. We leave the drink in an upright position for another month.
9. Before direct tasting, we cool the alcohol to 9-14 degrees and pour it into glasses, trying not to stir up the sediment too much.

How to make champagne from grapes

The presented recipe will allow you to prepare a fairly strong, but at the same time gentle sparkling wine. According to some tasters, it is this version of champagne that is most similar to the original, especially if you use light grape varieties.

List of components

Cooking process

How to make champagne from blackcurrant leaves

The presented cooking method resembles the preparation of kvass with yeast or.

List of components

Cooking process

How to make gooseberry champagne

Ready sparkling wine has a pleasant, refreshing taste and a wonderful light aroma.

List of components

Cooking process

How to make champagne from birch sap

Sparkling wine can be made in other ways. This recipe slightly reduces the exposure time and at the same time does not spoil the quality of the product. The presented champagne is popularly called "Generous Russia".

List of components

Cooking process

How to store champagne at home

In order for sparkling wine to retain its original tasting characteristics without changes, four basic rules must be observed:

• Temperature. The room in which champagne will be stored must have a stable, not subject to sudden temperature changes from 5 to 13 degrees.
• Light. Sparkling drink really does not like sunlight, so the basement, refrigerator or any other dark cool place will be the best place to store it. If the alcohol has lain in the light for a long time, then the taste of sulfur will be clearly felt in its taste.

• Humidity. This is an equally important factor to keep in mind. It should not be lower than 75%, otherwise the cork will dry out.
• bottle position. It is best to store alcohol in a horizontal position, so the cork will remain elastic, resilient and will not crumble in your hands when you open it.

Important! The maximum shelf life of homemade champagne does not exceed three years. Further, alcohol loses its taste advantages and turns into ordinary wine without gas, with almost no strength.

Video: how to make champagne at home

I also want to invite you to watch a video that comprehensively covers how to make sparkling champagne at home without special equipment and vast experience behind you.

After watching this video, you will learn how to make champagne from homemade pear wine at home.

After watching this video, you will learn how to make strawberry champagne at home.

Helpful information

• I think many will be interested to know which one is usually served according to the rules of good taste and etiquette. I also advise you to find out - with what they drink champagne -.
• Undoubtedly, it will be interesting to learn useful tips on how not to lose a single drop.
• On the road, I offer interesting facts and reflections on what are the "harm and benefits of champagne".

Of course, making sparkling wine at home is quite a risky act - alcohol can turn out cloudy, too sweet or dry, and the most annoying thing is when a bottle of champagne explodes at the last stage of aging. However, according to experienced winemakers, the risk in this situation is a noble cause. The most important thing in making homemade champagne is to follow the recommendations exactly, not to break the sequence and to follow the production technology to the smallest detail. Good luck and have fun!

Modern private garden winemakers and farmers are able to make their own sparkling wine using recipes. This process can be carried out in the classical way, that is, to make wine from any grape variety by fermenting the prepared batch mixtures in bottles. To get a wine with an ideal rich taste, in order to prevent injuries during its preparation, you should carefully follow the calculations, recipes and modes that are described below.

Making wine from any grape variety requires special materials on hand:

• Special dry wine materials - berries and fruits;
• All sweet materials with exactly the right amount of sugar;
• Bottles for making wine at home should be new or already used, but well washed;
• Cork or polyethylene corks - new and used ones are also suitable;
• Special wire bridles and devices that are designed to effectively secure corks to the neck rim itself.

Making wine from any grape variety at home consists of several basic processes. First of all, a blend of the main wine materials is compiled, it is processed, all the necessary sweet components are prepared, that is, circulation and expedition liquor. In addition, a 10% bentoic suspension is prepared.

After that, wine is made from any grape variety with pure yeast distillation, a lottery mixture is compiled and bottled. The containers, as the recipe says, are stacked for fermentation. Periodic transfer of bottles with simultaneous shaking is carried out. After that, the sediment is reduced to a cork and it is completely discharged from the tank, that is, disgorgement.

Dosage of the main sweet components of the expedition liquor used. Bottles after complete discharge of sediment to the desired level and amount of sugar in ready-made form. Not only is it important to make wine from any grape variety, the finished wine must be aged in order to determine the overall level of stability.

How to make a bath

Making wine from any grape variety involves the use of different types of wine materials. They can be pear, apple and grape. Before making a blend, wine materials must be treated with bentonite. Approximately two weeks after the treatment, the wine materials are completely removed from the sediment and then used to make a blend.

As sweet ingredients in a process such as making sparkling wine from any grape variety, the recipe allows the use of syrups, simple and alcoholized juices, liqueurs. For example, to get a liqueur with a 60% sugar content, it will be enough just to take two parts of sugar and one of the wine itself.

Features of the preparation of yeast wiring

It is the breeding of yeast that is an important point in such a matter as making wine from any variety of sparkling grapes. This composition usually has special requirements. First of all, it should be as active as possible, resistant to high alcohol content, which is slightly higher than 11%. To obtain high-quality sparkling wine, you will need to carry out, based on the recipe, the following steps:

1. The juice is boiled, then it is cooled to a calmer room temperature. After that, a stick of one of the purest yeast cultures made on a wort basis is introduced into it.
2. A blend is made from pre-prepared wine materials, as well as sterile juice. The ratio of these components will be strictly 1:1. Then, the actively roaming primary stage wiring will be added to the resulting composition.
3. Sugar is added to the prepared wine material, preferably at the rate of approximately 70-100 grams per liter of the composition. A special active roaming wiring is added to the resulting composition, but already in the second stage.

Proper preparation of the draw mix

Every winemaker knows that the basis of the future high-quality sparkling wine is precisely the circulation mixture, which is why it is so important to make it very correctly. It is prepared by mixing the main elements. Wine material is added to the prepared blend. The amount should be 20 ml per liter of bentonite slurry used. The recipe calls for 30 ml of yeast and the sweet ingredients used.

The basis of high-quality sparkling wine is a circulation mixture

In the process of making sparkling wine with the most common classical method, it is important to carry out the most accurate dosage. If the total amount of sugar in the total draw mixture is slightly lower than 22 grams per liter, as indicated in the recipe, the sparkling qualities of the drink will be quite bright. As soon as the dose of sugar in the prepared circulation mixture is increased more than in the recipe, the danger of a serious bottle explosion during natural fermentation will automatically increase. This, in turn, can lead to serious physical damage, which is usually accompanied by the preparation of wine from any grape variety.

Pouring circulation

The circulation mixture, if it is constantly stirred, is bottled in special bottles, the volume of which is 0.75 and 0.8 liters. They are known for being able to withstand a pressure of 12 atmospheres. The containers are filled to a level of approximately 60 mm, that is, slightly below the upper edge of the bottle neck.

Carefully corked bottles are securely sealed with special expeditionary or circulation polyethylene stoppers. For optimal results, the corks must be attached to the lip of the bottle. Strong fastening can be done with metal brackets or bridles.

How to properly stack fermentation bottles

Mandatory secondary fermentation should be carried out strictly at a low temperature. It is best to carry out this process in basements, where the temperature ranges from about 10 to 12 degrees above zero. Bottles must be stacked strictly horizontally, in special stacks where stacking boards were used. It is desirable that their thickness is from 5 to 8 mm. Such boards will separate the stacked layers from each other. Such stacking of wine containers makes the stacks as resistant to possible destruction as possible, even when a large number of bottles break in one stack.

Reducing the sediment of wine on the cork

Immediately after the end of the fermentation of the secondary plan, sediment appears in the wine containers. It consists of such elements that were previously weighed in the drink before its direct bottling, it also includes substances that occur during the fermentation process.

Important! To transfer the sediment to the cork, it is imperative to make sure that the sugar, which is capable of decomposing into alcohol, as well as into carbon dioxide, has been completely used by the yeast.

To carry out the remuage, the wine drink from the built stacks is transferred to special machines, which are known to winemakers as music stands. In the construction of such a design, the bottles are simply inserted into the holes of the music stands or into special sockets and strictly down the neck. It does not matter the overall degree of insertion, since the bottles can take on a variety of tilt positions. It can be horizontal as well as vertical. Such an important process as remuage should be carried out at a temperature of about 13 degrees. In this mode, the process takes about 25 days.

It is possible to reduce the sediment on the cork by a simpler method. To do this, you will need to do the following:

1. Bottles of wine that has already fermented are vigorously shaken.
2. Then all the containers with already fermented wine are shaken very well and placed in special boxes with their necks down.

All boxes of wine should be stacked on special devices. They should provide the opportunity to shake the boxes from time to time and thereby improve the quality of the wine.

Important! In the process of reducing the sediment on the cork, it is necessary to ensure that there are no smears of sediment left on the walls of the bottles..

An important process is disgorgement

Disgorgement is carried out in order to eject the pre-collected sediment from the tank onto the cork. This process is carried out simultaneously with the cork, since the pressure of carbon dioxide is quite strong, and, as you know, it is collected in the gas chamber of the bottle itself.

Before disgorgement, bottles filled with wine must be cooled to a temperature range of plus 5 to two degrees above zero.

In the process of collecting the sediment, a normal loss of wine is observed, it is 40 ml. A different amount of possible losses can be associated with the general qualification of a standard working or temperature wine. In addition, the level of carbon dioxide that is present in the bottle, the absorption capacity of the wine to gas and the level of smoothness, as well as the optimal cleanliness of the bottles, matter.

As a result of disgorgement, sparkling quality wines can be obtained. With sugar it will be a sweet sparkling wine, without it, you can get brut. To get wine with different levels of sweetness, liqueurs of the expedition category are added to sparkling wine of the brut category. This process is carried out almost immediately after disgorgement. There are also a few more basic rules for the implementation of this process:

1. Such liqueurs must contain at least 600 grams of sugar per liter of composition.
2. In the process of dosing liquor into wine, its general temperature regime must be exactly the same or slightly lower than in the same brut.
3. If expedition liqueurs are used, rectified alcohol should be added to them, and cognac is also suitable.
4. Alcohol must be added to the liquor to the level found in brut sparkling wine. This makes it possible in the process of adding liquor not to change the amount of alcohol contained in ready-made wine with different conditions in terms of the level and amount of sugar.

In the process of making sparkling wine, bottles must be stacked in special stacks. The exposure time should be 20 days, and the temperature should be approximately 20 degrees.

How to make homemade champagne and how difficult is it? At home, making a sparkling drink is quite simple. There are many recipes of varying complexity. The article describes in detail those that even an inexperienced winemaker can easily handle. The main thing in the preparation of champagne is to strictly follow the technology and not violate the recipe. And then a wonderful drink will decorate any holiday table.

What is champagne

Champagne is an integral part of most banquets. The drink is a white sparkling wine made using the secondary fermentation method. Since the end of the 19th century, champagne has been called wine made exclusively in the French province of Champagne. But some countries allow their producers to call a certain type of sparkling wine "champagne".

What do you need to make champagne

Homemade sparkling wine can be made by saturating the product with carbon dioxide. This method is quite fast, since it does not require waiting for the drink to ferment, but real champagne is made only using natural bottle fermentation.

For this method, different raw materials are used: ready-made purchased or homemade wine, berries or currant and grape leaves. There are many recipes for making champagne at home, each of which involves its own proportions of ingredients and aging periods. But the general technology is unchanged and includes the following main steps:

1. Preparation of raw materials, containers and corks.Number of traffic jamsshould be twice as many as the bottles, they will be needed later. If the wine from which champagne is made is purchased, you need to stock up on wine yeast.
2. Pouring future champagne into bottles for storage. Depending on the recipe, young wine should ferment at room temperature from two weeks to three months. Bottles are placed in an inclined or horizontal position in a dark place to exclude daylight and sunlight.
3. The most difficult stage is the removal of sediment (or disgorgement). If prepared using this process, the containers of future champagne are initially placed horizontally or neck down so that the sediment accumulates at the cork. It is necessary to carefully tilt the bottle parallel to the floor, carefully pull out the cork (loosen a little - the cork will fly out) and drain the fermentation products. Then close the neck with your finger, return the vessel to a vertical position, add young wine or expedition liquor and cork the neck with a prepared cork.

Important! With the help of disgorgement, champagne is prepared, similar to the original drink. However, due to the complexity of the process, it is simplified: from time to time, the bottle is lightly shaken or tapped with a rubber mallet. Fermentation products settle on the bottom and do not spoil the drink, but the color becomes cloudy.

1. The last stage of preparation is keeping the bottles at a temperature of 7 - 9 O From one to three months. The longer the exposure, the better the product.

How to prepare a bottle

The choice of containers for fermentation and subsequent storage of champagne is very important. It is advisable to use bottles from under champagne or others from dark glass and with thick walls. The brown or green color of the glass container reduces the effect of light during the fermentation of the drink.

Bottle glass is strong enough to withstand gas pressure, so glass bottles are a better fit than plastic bottles. Moreover, plastic spoils the taste of wine.

Before preparing champagne, the container should be thoroughly washed and sterilized. Do the same procedure with plugs. Prepare material for tightly corking bottles: muzzle or twine, wax or sealing wax.

How to make your own champagne

Homemade champagne recipes are no more complicated than wine recipes, but they have their own characteristics. Any raw material for the drink is taken: purchased or homemade wine, tinctures, berries, grape or currant leaves.Proper preparationchampagne is based on the secondary fermentation of raw materials. There are many ways to get results.

Regardless of the recipe chosen, there are a number of useful tips that will work for any method of making a sparkling drink.

• at the first stage, each bottle should be lined with soft material or sawdust so that the walls of the container do not touch;
• so that the corks are clogged as tightly as possible, they must be wrapped with wire, twine and poured with wax or sealing wax;
• new plastic long champagne corks are best for corking bottles. Used corks can also be used, but they often cannot withstand pressure;
• when disgorging, it is worth adding expeditionary liquor to the bottles. The liqueur is prepared by dissolving sugar in warm wine. One bottle will take from 50 to 100 milliliters of this supplement. You can add 50 milliliters of quality cognac.

The proportions of the expedition liqueur for the preparation of different types of champagne:

1. Sweet - 700 grams of sugar and 500 milliliters of wine.
2. Semi-sweet - 600 grams of sugar and 550 milliliters of wine.
3. Semi-dry - 500 grams of sugar and 650 milliliters of wine.

Simplified technology

First way Making champagne is fairly simple and does not require a disgorging process. Preparation comes from berry must: the proportions of the ingredients are chosen according to taste, and the volume must correspond to the desired amount of the final product. The technology is:

1. Pour raw materials that have not completed fermentation into pre-prepared bottles and tightly cork with corks. Place the container in a dark, cool place: a temperature of about 10 degrees.
2. The wine material ferments for 2-4 months. When the walls of the bottles are covered with sediment from the inside, cool the sparkling wine to 0 degrees. Disgorge or gently tap on each container, settling the sediment on the bottom.
3. Let the champagne brew for 2 - 3 days and you can serve it on the table.

From house wine

Champagne is made from any house wine . But the drink most similar to the original comes from Chardonnay grapes. First, light wine is prepared by fermenting raw materials. Sugar is added to taste. The recipe is not much different from the previous one.

1. Pour the young wine, which has almost finished fermenting, into prepared bottles with thick walls and close the corks very tightly. Be sure to lay in an inclined position so that the drink comes into contact with the cork. Leave in a dark cool place for 2-3 months.
2. After the time has elapsed, place the bottles vertically so that the fermentation products settle to the bottom. If you shake the bottles a little every day, the sediment will come off faster (replaces disgorging). Leave the drink to infuse for another month.
3. The drink is ready to be served.

From purchased wine

Another easy way to make a sparkling drink: from store-bought wine. To do this, you need special wine yeast and sugar. Yeast is bought in specialized stores.Cooking champagneyou need from high-quality wine not lower than the average price category: the drink must be without preservatives.

Required Ingredients:

• 1 bottle of dry wine (ideally white). Fortress up to 10 degrees;
• 0.3 grams of wine yeast;
• 12 - 15 grams of sugar.

Technology:

1. Preparation of the circulation liquor: pre-dilute the yeast, add sugar and a little wine, mix.
2. Pour the wine into champagne bottles and add the resulting liqueur. Put the open container in a warm place, cover with gauze and leave for a couple of days.
3. When foam and a “fermented” smell appear, cork the bottle. Lay in an inclined position in a cool dark place and leave for 2 to 3 months.
4. Put the bottles upright, shake slightly or tap lightly to knock down the sediment (replaces disgorging). Leave in this position for another month.
5. Cool the finished drink and serve.

From grapes

The next method of making champagne is a little more complicated than the previous ones, but the champagne is more similar to the original.

Required Ingredients:

• 10 kilograms of light grapes;
• 2 liters of drinking water.

Technology:

1. Prepare raw materials. Manually transfer the berries without removing them from the brushes. Put the juice for 3-4 days in a warm place for fermentation.
2. Strain the fermented juice through a filter. Heat water and add to the future drink. Pour the product into champagne bottles and close with a water seal. wine fermentation should last 2 - 4 weeks (no longer than a month).
3. Disgorgement process: pour out the sediment, add expedition liquor, wine or liquor, cork the neck. Leave the sparkling drink for another month.
4. Ready champagne served chilled.

From blackcurrant leaves

The recipe for sparkling wine from blackcurrant leaves resembles the preparation of kvass with yeast.

Much more economical and profitable from the point of view of the family budget to do champagne at home, on your own, besides, you will avoid the risk of paying a lot of money for a low-quality drink. Meanwhile, homemade champagne, made in strict accordance with the recipe, but it will turn out no worse than a regular store, and you will be sure of the quality of the products used for the drink and are spared the risk of getting an undesirable result, which, unfortunately, is not so rare.

Make homemade champagne(sparkling wine) is not that difficult. In addition, you may do apple or currant, cherry or strawberry, sparkling or any other. It is likely that then you will always prefer homemade champagne.

The strong foaming of any champagne (effervescence) is due to the fact that in wine prepared not in the usual way, but in a special way, the content of carbon dioxide is very high, which, when the wine is opened, is quickly released from it and thereby produces hiss and forms foam.

Prepare homemade champagne in two different ways, each of which has its pros and cons. The first way (it can be called natural): young wine is forced to ferment in corked bottles. In the second (conditionally called artificial) carbon dioxide is produced artificially, and then pumped in some way into bottles of wine.

The difference between them is enormous. Wines prepared naturally have a delicate and fresh taste, they foam much longer (as they say, “exaggerate”), since carbon dioxide is not released immediately, but gradually, in small bubbles. This champagne is very aromatic and pleasant to the taste. Well, champagne prepared with the artificial addition of carbon dioxide does not have such a pleasant and refreshing taste, it is not so aromatic, it foams very quickly and, therefore, quickly exhales, since the gas is released much more intensively.

Therefore, the first the natural way to make champagne can be considered the most suitable if you want to get high-quality, tasty wine. If the most important thing for you is saving time and effort, you can pour ready-made homemade wine into a siphon, use purchased cans of gas (carbon dioxide) - and homemade champagne is ready to drink.

Any homemade champagne (pop) can be made using the following system: - making young wine; - fermentation of young wine in a bottle; - sediment removal (wine disgorgement); - topping up and flavoring; - clogging of bottles; - aging wine.

So, first of all, you must prepare young wine.

For any "pop" it is necessary from ripe, clean berries or fruit to extract the juice, therefore, first chop the fruit (apples, pears) or remove the seeds (cherries), stalks (raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, currants, blueberries). Berries or fruits should be clean, sorted, preferably not wormy.

Make sure that neither the utensils nor the juicer are made of iron (or with iron parts), as oxidation of the juice is unacceptable: the wine will taste bad or it will go bad. The best option is wooden utensils.

Grind apples or pears preferably with steel knives.

Place crushed or sorted fruits or berries in a clean tub and crush with wooden pestles. Leave this mass for a day at a temperature of about 15-20 ° C. The mass will go into fermentation. This juice is much better for wine.

If the mass is too thick (this applies to apple or pear wine), before it ferments for a day in an open vessel, add a little water to it, but do not forget to take this water into account later when you make the must.

After a day, squeeze the juice. One of the simplest and most convenient ways is to squeeze juice from a mass in a bag of a simple, not very thick and thick white canvas.

Rinse the bag well in warm water. It doesn't have to be big. Lightly moisten it, fill it a third with apple mass and twist it together, squeezing the juice.

After that, add sugar and water depending on the amount of juice.

The water should be soft (not lime), preferably from a well or spring, this affects the quality of future champagne, granulated sugar or pure refined sugar.

Dissolve sugar in water, mix well and pour into juice.

Stir the resulting wort and strain through a thin hair sieve, then pour into a fermentation vessel.

The liquid should ferment in a glass or wooden bowl.(glass is better for beginners, but wooden containers are more suitable for the quality of the wine). The simplest fermentation apparatus is a glass or metal tube bent in an arcuate manner.

The wort should not completely fill the fermenter, you should leave some free space. Close the hole with a clean cloth, cork and leave in this form for a day in a room with a temperature of 18-25 ° C. If fermentation does not develop (after a day there is no slight noise, no gas), you can add 120 g of pure raisins for each bucket of apple must.

After that, securely close the hole with a cork with a tube threaded into it, the second tip of which is inserted into a vessel (small jar) with water. Place this jar nearby on the floor. Fill the cork of a vessel with wine with sealing wax, wax or paraffin so that air does not penetrate into it. It is preferable to use sealing wax.

By the way air passes through the tube into the vessel of water, you will know if the stopper is hermetically sealed. If fermentation processes occur in the wort, and air does not escape through the tube, check the tightness and seal the cracks.

Wort should ferment at a temperature of 18-25 °C in a dry and clean room. At first, the fermentation will be stormy, the contents will come into strong excitement, it will seem that it is, as it were, boiling from the emerging bubbles. Then it slows down.

There will be much less gas bubbles, your young wine will become lighter, a thick sediment will appear at the bottom of the container. Eventually the fermentation starts to stop completely.

Rapid fermentation at 18-25 °C usually lasts about 3-4 weeks. After 4-5 days it will slow down a bit. And in the following 2-3 weeks, slow fermentation continues. The time it takes for fermentation - rapid or slow, individually and depends on the temperature in the room, as well as on what the wine is made from, what is its strength.

If you see that the release of gas bubbles has decreased, slowed down, the young wine brightened and the sediment gathered at the bottom, you can consider that the first stage of fermentation, and therefore the first stage of making homemade champagne, is over.

Second phase - second period of young wine fermentation. When the first period ends (you can even do it a little earlier), pour the wine into bottles as full as possible, pour into each 1 tsp. granulated sugar. In some wines (I will talk about this later), it is useful to put two or three grapes or even raisins - this will serve to initiate fermentation. Cork the bottles with good thick corks and tie each cork and neck of the bottle with twine so that due to fermentation it will not pop out and the wine will not run out. It is advisable to bottle the fizz in a cool room and as soon as possible to protect the wine from a large release of carbon dioxide.

Those bottles that previously contained champagne are best suited, as they are strong enough, durable, which reduces the risk of their rupture due to an increase in internal pressure, the pressure of the resulting gases.

Put all prepared and tightly closed bottles in a warm room. They must certainly lie, not stand.

Keep the wine in this position for at least 2-3 months so that it ferments well. If the bottles do not hold up and start to burst, cool the room where they are located. This will slow down the fermentation somewhat and therefore reduce the pressure, but in this case, you should increase the time of the brows in this way for another 1-2 weeks. After this time, put them with their necks down on a specially designed machine in the form of a ladder. They should be rotated daily so that the yeast gradually lags behind the walls and accumulates at the neck. If all these conditions are met, within 1-2 weeks the yeast will gather on the inner surface of the cork in the form of a dense mass, while the wine will become light.

Next operation - wine disgorging- removal of sediment left after fermentation. This procedure is quite complicated, it requires experience and speed of execution. If you do it right homemade champagne will be successful. It is on the results of disgorging that the effervescence, as well as the purity of the future wine, depends.

Carry out the procedure without fail in the same room where the wine previously fermented and where the bottles are located, but the temperature must be lowered to 8-10 ° C. This is very important, because the cooler it is in the room, the less will be the loss of carbon dioxide from the wine (at low temperatures, the ability of wine to dissolve carbon dioxide increases).

Prepare the required quantity in advance bottle caps and twine(wire frame) for fixing traffic jams. Also keep a liquor or wine nearby, that is, what you will use to top up the bottles.

Remove yeast follows over a clean vessel, so that later the wine that spilled out when the bottle was opened could be separated from the yeast. Do this by straining the resulting yeast mass.

Proceed to disgorging in this way: first, carefully, without shaking and trying not to shake, take the bottle with the “pop” from the shelf and, without changing its original position, that is, without turning it over, carefully cut the twine that holds the cork and neck together, easily, in a smooth motion pull out the cork if it immediately yields to hand pressure (if not, pull it out with a corkscrew, but again gently, trying not to shake or shake the bottle). You should know that the cork always flies out of the neck, and with it the yeast, that is, the very sediment that should be removed. This operation requires special attention, speed and dexterity. Only in this case, the sediment (yeast) is not shaken, and therefore, the wine is quite clean. Speed ​​is necessary so that too much wine does not spill out (small losses are inevitable). After removing all the yeast, immediately close the opening of the bottle with your finger.

The next stage includes topping up and flavoring homemade champagne. This procedure is best done together.

If the first person removes the yeast and immediately closes the bottle with his finger, the second immediately takes it from the hands of the first, turns it over and quickly pours wine or liquor into it, open and standing nearby. It is better to pour wine or liquor through a tube, funnel, from a vessel with a narrow and long spout. Seal as soon as possible. This procedure requires special attention and speed, since it is at this point that most carbon dioxide leaks occur. After blocking, the cork must be carefully and securely tied to the neck with twine so that it does not fly out from the gas pressure.

After that, be sure seal the cork and neck of the bottle with sealing wax or other similar compound.

The next stage implies that the wine will be aged for a certain time. Fold the bottles treated as described above in the same cool room (t 810 ° C) for further aging. The length of the aging period will also affect the quality of your wine.

Homemade champagne will be ready in at least 3 months. This is the minimum period. It is desirable to withstand it for at least five months: the longer the aging period, the better the wine.

Too strong homemade champagne loses quality, taste, aroma. In a word, the amount of alcohol in it should not be more than 9%. Therefore, when preparing wine, you should be guided by the recipes below, choosing the ratio of sugar and water.

A special condition in the preparation of champagne is raw materials.

I think the most delicious, fragrant and refreshing "pops" of white currant, strawberries and Siberian ("paradise") apples. But, of course, this is a matter of taste.

APPLE CHAMPAGNE

apple champagne It turns out very tasty, invigorating, beautiful golden hue. Choose the right variety of apples. The “pop” reaches its highest quality if ripe Siberian apples go to it (they are usually called “paradise” apples). But in general, choose according to this principle: varieties of apples with a sour taste give champagne with a pleasant bouquet. Always take only ripe apples. You will get a golden hue and a good, high-quality taste if the apples are yellow, not green. Summer varieties are not suitable for apple "pop" - they contain little acid. You can make champagne from 1/3 summer, sweet apples and 2/3 autumn, sour.

For apple wine, grind clean, ripe, sorted fruit, removing wormy or spoiled places. The rest is similar to making any other homemade wine, but when adding water and sugar to juice (for must), be guided by the following recommendations.

For every 10 liters of pure apple juice, add 3 liters of water (but be sure to take into account how much water you added to the apple mass before squeezing, and reduce its amount by this volume). The amount of sugar for every 10 kg of pure juice should range from 1.1 kg to 1.60 kg. The more sugar, the stronger the champagne (from 7 to 9°). Do not abuse sugar, as the champagne will turn out to be too strong, and this will negatively affect its quality.

In addition, when removing excess yeast from the bottles, it will be necessary to add to each wine or liquor in order to compensate for the loss of wine.

Since you already diluted the juice with water, which caused the taste and bouquet of champagne to suffer somewhat.

After 2-3 months when bottled wine fermentation will not be so noticeable, put them in an inclined position in a room where the temperature should be maintained at about 13-15 ° C, and wine, preferably topped up with a specially prepared liquor that will improve the taste and bouquet of your champagne. If you add some other factory-made wine or liquor, homemade champagne may acquire an unusual aftertaste or, due to inappropriate ingredients, even a not very pleasant smell and taste.

The optimal output is homemade liquor, if possible, close to the taste of champagne, but only in a concentrated form.

For apple champagne, make a liqueur consisting of 12 g of orange peel, 1 bottle of good cognac, 800 g of sugar. This amount of ingredients is designed for topping up 25-30 bottles of "pop".

Grind the orange zest (you can use a grater for this). Put the zest in a glass vessel, add sugar and fill everything with cognac. Seal the vessel tightly. In this form, keep the infusion in a warm room for about 2-3 weeks. When the sugar is completely dissolved and the drink acquires the aromatic and gustatory qualities of orange peel, the liqueur is ready. Do not forget to shake it from time to time.

After 2-3 weeks, strain the drink through filter paper or a clean towel and store in a tightly stoppered bottle until needed for refilling.

PEAR CHAMPAGNE

Pear "pop" slightly inferior in quality and aroma to apple. It is less sour, less thirst quenching. From pure pear juice, the wine is not so tasty and is not stored for so long, so it is advisable to add a certain amount of apple juice to it, in which case the wine turns out to be very tasty, aromatic and of high quality. Fruits for "pop" fit yellowish, ripe, but firm. Soft and overripe pears are undesirable. The optimal combination of pear and apple juices is 1/3 pear and 2/3 apple.

Like apples, chop clean and ripe pears. When making wort, add 1.20 kg of sugar for every 10 liters of juice and 1 liter of water.

Liquor to add to sparkling wine, prepare from 5 g of orange peel, 1 lemon, 1 bottle of good cognac and 700 g of sugar. Remove the zest from the lemon and chop it up. Mix with orange zest, add the juice of 1 lemon and sprinkle with sugar.

Top it all with cognac, stir well and cork. Keep in a warm room for two and a half weeks, shaking occasionally. After that, strain the liquor and, tightly corked, store in a cool room until topping up in champagne is required.

CURRANT CHAMPAGNE

Can cook a "pop" of currants- red, black or white. Sort the ripe currants, removing the green stalks, as they give the wine a tart and unpleasant aftertaste. When preparing the wort, keep in mind that for white and black currants, for every 10 liters of pure juice, 20 liters of water and 4 to 6 kg of sugar are needed.

Liquor and topping up are made from 800 g of white currant berries, 1 bottle of cognac, 800 g of sugar per 20-25 bottles of sparkling wine.

Mature sorted berries crush into pulp, put in a glass vessel, sprinkle with sugar and pour cognac.

Steep for 2 weeks, shaking every 2-3 days, then strain.

Blackcurrant liqueur is prepared in the same way, i.e., 800 g of sugar and the same amount of blackcurrant are used, 1 bottle of cognac per 30 bottles.

Red currant wine has a particularly delicate, slightly sour taste and amazing aroma. When preparing wort, remember that for every 10 liters of juice, 15 liters of water and 5 to 6 kg of sugar are required. The rest is similar to the preparation of other wines, but the topping liqueur is made from 300 g of black currant and 300 g of red currant, 1 bottle of cognac, 700 g of sugar.

GOSEBERRY CHAMPAGNE

The best variety for high-quality homemade champagne is the so-called hairy gooseberry. Ripe but not overripe berries are needed. In pure gooseberry juice (per 10 liters), you need to add 13 liters of water, 3 kg of sugar.

Liquor to add to the "pop" consists of 800 g of red gooseberries, 1 bottle of cognac, 700 g of sugar.

STRAWBERRY OR STRAWBERRY CHAMPAGNE

This "pop" is distinguished by a delicate, mild taste, wonderful aroma, as well as high quality. Berries for wine should be ripe and as clean as possible, because if they are washed, strawberries or strawberries become less fragrant, watery. For the must, add 5 liters of water, 2 kg of sugar to the berry juice (per 10 liters).

Liqueur for strawberry or strawberry wine: 600 g strawberries, 200 g strawberries, 1 bottle of cognac, 600 g sugar. It is done in the same way as described above.

RASPBERRY OR BLACKBERRY CHAMPAGNE

As well as from strawberries or wild strawberries, this is an original, very tasty, fragrant champagne with a rich bouquet. It is only advisable not to make a "pop" of white raspberries, since in quality it is much inferior to homemade champagne from red raspberries or blackberries. For the wort, take 4 liters of water for every 5 liters of pure juice (it is better to add the juice of two medium-sized lemons to blackberries instead of water), 2 kg of sugar (for blackberries, you can use 1.5 kg).

Liquor: 700 g of berries (blackberries or raspberries, respectively), 500 g of sugar, 1 bottle of cognac. Cook in the same way, but you should shake it more often, and you only need to insist the berries for one and a half to two weeks.