Sourdough for wine

Wine starter is prepared at home for the production of low-alcohol homemade liqueurs and wines. To obtain wine from grape juice, you need to activate its fermentation. To do this, yeast is added to the wort. When sugar is added, they multiply intensively, but as the alcohol concentration increases, they gradually die and precipitate. In home winemaking, two types of yeast are used - natural ( wild ) and produced ( cultivated ). Wild yeast is extracted from grape fruits; they live naturally on the surface of the fruit. Such yeast precipitates when the alcohol concentration in the drink reaches 8-12%, thus producing a weak, light, but slightly cloudy homemade wine. In the future, you can increase its strength by adding pure alcohol. Cultured wine yeasts are performed in the laboratory. In addition to fermentation, they help the drink acquire a rich taste and smell, as well as fully mature. Such yeast can withstand an alcohol concentration of up to 16%, which is why the wine comes out the strongest, as well as untainted and clarified. Almost all winemakers prefer to use only natural products and create their own starter for homemade wine. You can make it from grapes, raisins, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries.

"Attention! When making wine starter at home, there is no need to wash the berries.”

Raisin sourdough recipe

Raisin ferment for wine is often used by winemakers. Raisins ferment unsurpassedly and add richness to the taste of the wine.

200 g raisins
50 g sugar
400 ml water at room temperature

Place all ingredients in a bottle and fill with water. Create a cotton plug and close the bottle with it. You can close it with a lid, but then the process will be delayed. Place the container in a warm space for approximately 3-4 days. During this period of time, the fermentation process will become visible: bubbles and foam will appear on the surface - which means everything is ready. All that remains is to strain it and add it to the wort at the rate of 35 ml per 1 liter.

Sourdough for fermentation from raisins is suitable not only for the production of grape wine, but also for all fruit wines.

Grape starter for wine

Wine starter does not contain any artificial substances that can extend its shelf life, which is why it has a short shelf life.

1 kg grapes
100g sugar

It’s easy to prepare grape starter with wild yeast. To do this, you need to prepare pulp from the grapes. Add sugar and stir until completely dissolved. Place in a glass container, cover with a cloth (A collection of different and interacting tissues form organs) and put in a warm space for 2-3 days. After this time, squeeze well and strain. The grape starter for homemade wine is ready.

“Brewer's or bread yeast are not suitable for winemaking”

You see, making a wine base is easy. But, nevertheless, the process is not always smooth, and the results are not always as desired. Therefore, almost everyone in the winemaking process uses purchased yeast starter for wine. It is believed that special wine yeast ferments sugar more dynamically, and also contributes to the development of bouquet and aroma in the drink, thus making it of the highest quality. Therefore, a special wine yeast starter for wine is increasingly often used by winemakers, because the process requires the least effort and gives significantly better results. In any case, both methods have their pros and cons. And here everyone decides for himself which option suits him best.

Sourdough for wine: production

Sourdough for wine can simply be prepared on your own from wild yeast, which is found on raspberries, currants, etc.

Making a starter is necessary to start the fermentation process of the juice and transform it into wine. Fermentation is caused by microbes called “yeast”. Alcohol is a waste product of yeast.

When a lot of alcohol accumulates in fermenting wine, most of the yeast species die and only very strong ones can tolerate huge doses of alcohol up to 18%. Thus, it is impossible to make stronger wine at home.

To obtain high-quality and standard dessert wine, fermentation of fruit and berry juice must be carried out with pure wine yeast. Such yeast is produced in special laboratories.

How to propagate wild yeast

This is how wild yeast is propagated. 10 days before the start of wine production, ripe berries of early crops are collected - raspberries, snow-white currants, strawberries. The berries are not washed so as not to wash off the yeast on their surface. Place 2 cups of mashed berries into a bottle into which a glass of water is poured and half a glass of sweet sand is placed. The mixture is shaken, closed with a cotton plug and placed in a black, warm space.

When the juice ferments, and this happens through it, it is separated from the pulp through gauze and used instead of breeding yeast. To make dessert wine, you need 3% of such starter, dry or semi-sweet - 2%, in other words, when making 10 liters at the same time. For wine use 300 or 200 grams of starter.

Sourdough is usually prepared for one season. In the future, if you need to make wine from late ripening fruits and berries (gooseberries, apples, plums, etc.), instead of fermentation, use the sediment formed during the fermentation of the juice of the earliest crops. Less sediment is required than sourdough. For 10 l. The wort consumes 100 grams of sediment, in other words 1%.

Subtleties of making and storing sourdough

Sourdough cannot be stored for more than 10 days. At room temperature it simply turns sour and can introduce infection into the wort.

It is difficult to prepare a strong starter at home. After heavy rain, the yeast is washed off from the berries, the starter does not begin to ferment for a long time, and when used, the wort may become moldy. In this case, the starter needs to be prepared again.

There are also problems in dry weather. In areas where summer temperatures rise very high, unwanted forms of feral yeast (apicalathus) develop.

It can also be difficult to induce fermentation in winter when making starter for rowan wine. In the middle zone, under normal weather conditions, starter can always be prepared using the above method.

The juice fermentation process has begun

Sourdough recipes for wine from raisins, raspberries, strawberries and grapes

The juice is converted into wine by microbes we call yeast. To maintain normal fermentation, it is necessary from time to time to use a starter prepared in advance. I will tell you how to create a wine starter at home. The proposed recipes are universally suitable and suitable for making wine from apples, pears, grapes, raspberries, raisins and other wine materials.

Naturally, it is best to add ready-made wine yeast, which is sold in special stores, into the wort. But not everyone has such an opportunity, so we will prepare a starter based on wild yeast living on the surface of the fruit. For this we need grapes, raspberries, strawberries, snow-white currants (your choice) or ordinary raisins.

Attention! Most of the feral yeast dies at an alcohol concentration of 14 degrees and above, so it is impossible to get the strongest wine at home without adding pure alcohol (vodka). Bread yeast (dry or compressed) is not very viable, but it is unsuitable for winemaking.

Raisins don't have to have mold on them.

Raisin wine sourdough recipe

The starter is prepared as follows: pour 150-200 grams of raisins into a bottle, add 50 grams of sugar, add water at room temperature (300-400 ml). Then close the bottle with a loose cotton stopper and place it in a warm place for 3-4 days. The finished starter can be stored in the refrigerator for no longer than 10 days.

Foam and a pleasant smell of fermentation are the main signs of a successfully prepared sourdough

Raspberry (grape, strawberry) starter

To make 200 grams of unwashed grapes (raspberries, currants, strawberries), crush them, pour them into a bottle, then add 100 grams of sugar and 200 ml of water. Then close the bottle tightly and shake well a couple of times.

After 3-4 days of infusion in a dark place at room temperature, the starter for homemade wine is ready, all that remains is to filter through cheesecloth. The shelf life is up to 10 days; later it turns sour, which can spoil all the juice.

It is better that the berries are your own, that is, collected at the dacha or garden. The fact is that most of the fruits sold in hypermarkets are treated with special substances for long-term storage that kill yeast. In the latter case, I advise you to buy berries for fermentation at the market.

Making starter for homemade wine

Authorization on the website

The process of making sourdough for the production of homemade wine is described.

Warm greetings to all DIY lovers!

Nowadays, almost everyone is engaged in preparing various preparations from berries and fruits collected in their own gardens, or purchased in markets and stores.

Moreover, in addition to various jams, juices, compotes and other preparations, almost all people also make (or just decide to make) homemade wine from the juices of berries or fruits.

With all this, the topic of home winemaking is of interest to almost all people.

Therefore, in this article, I would like to share a recipe for making homemade wine starter.

I was also forced to write this article by the fact that, as I understand it, almost all, especially novice home winemakers, know virtually nothing about sourdough. But it significantly simplifies the process of making homemade wine and allows you to create it of the highest quality.

So, what is sourdough used for?

Let's start with the fact that wine is a product of alcoholic fermentation. At the same time, wine yeast is used to ferment wine, since ordinary grain yeast is not suitable for this.

Large winemaking companies use untainted cultures of wine yeast, specially grown in laboratories. But at home, you have to enjoy the wild yeast that is contained on the surface of the berries and fruits themselves.

In principle, there is nothing terrible about this, since even with wild yeast you can create good homemade wine with a strength of up to 15-16 degrees.

But here a problem arises for home winemakers. After all, berries or fruits must be washed before chopping and squeezing juice. But with all this, you can simply wash off all the yeast from their surface. A similar problem can also appear with the thermal method of obtaining juice (in other words, using a juicer). In this case, the juice may be pasteurized or even sterilized at the time it is obtained, which will also kill any feral yeast present in it.

That is why almost everyone simply does not wash berries or fruits before squeezing their juice. But this is completely unacceptable. After all, berries and fruits can be contaminated with soil, debris, and residues of drugs that were previously used to control pests and diseases. Therefore, they must be thoroughly washed before squeezing the juice.

But what about yeast?

This is where wine sourdough comes to the rescue. It is prepared in advance from juice squeezed from a small amount of unwashed but unsullied berries, mixed with a small amount of water and sugar. For a certain number of days, wild yeast in such a starter multiplies well, as a result, when adding the starter given to us to the wort (in other words, to a mixture of juice, water and sugar), rapid fermentation begins in it after some time. This ultimately allows you to get a good, high-quality wine that is not dirty in any way.

Wine starter is usually prepared once a season. If you are going to create a number of types of homemade wine, especially at different times, for example, put the wort of one wine for fermentation in the middle of summer, and another at the end of summer, then the starter is added only to the wort intended for making the first wine. To make the next wines, you can take a small amount of fermenting wort from the first wine as a starter.

So, let’s finally get down to the process of making wine sourdough.

For this we need the following accessories:

– A small number of early ripening berries.

Half-liter, also 350-450 gram jars.
The deepest plate.
Measuring cup (you can use an ordinary one).
A masher or other device that can be used to mash berries.
Tea spoon.
Gauze folded in several layers with an elastic band.

First, you need to pick one glass of early ripening, unsullied berries.

The most ideal berries for this type are currants, gooseberries, and raspberries, but others can also be used. Under no circumstances should these berries be washed, so as not to wash away wild yeast from their surface. Therefore, you should try to collect only very clean berries, preferably from the highest part of the bushes.