What to do with young wine is very sour. Sour homemade wine: causes of souring, options for eliminating the acidity of wine. Reasons for souring homemade wine
Each winemaker tries to make wine with a harmonious taste. This characteristic is said to correspond when the sourness does not interrupt the sweetness. But what to do if homemade wine turned out sour, is it possible to correct its taste? First you need to figure out what acidity of wine is considered the norm and for what reasons errors occur.
Acidity in winemaking
In the absence of experience in making a drink, it is difficult to predict what it will be like at the exit. Unpleasantly sour wine happens when hyperacidity berries during the grape harvest. The acidity of wine is expressed by pH. If its value falls within the range of 6 - 10 g / l, this is considered the norm. Higher values (between 12 and 15 g/l) will make the wine too acidic.
Causes of souring
Why wine turns sour, any winemaker who cares about the quality of his products wants to know. Depending on the causes of this trouble, you can choose a way to fix the sour drink. There are only two reasons:
- Insufficient amount of sugar was used in the preparation of the wort.
- During the fermentation of the wort, air entered the vessel. The incoming oxygen caused the activity of bacteria that provoke souring.
How to prevent spoilage of wine? If it's about sugar, then put it strictly according to the recipe. If the problem is in the interaction of the mash with oxygen, inspect the water seal or rubber glove for damage. Even the smallest holes in the device should not be, otherwise a meager portion of air will spoil the entire portion of the drink.
If the wine has become sour due to the increased acidity of the berries, the taste of the liquid can only be corrected after a new harvest. Next year, dilute the new wort at the rate of 1 liter of sour mash for 10 liters of fresh sweet wort. The finished wine will be dry.
Different ways to reduce the acidity of wine
If the taste house wine seems too sour for you, and you want to quickly improve the drink, combine it with a dessert sweet variety. you will succeed New Product with an amazing taste, which depends on the proportions of mixed liquids. There are no restrictions here. How to dilute sour wine, the owner decides based on taste preferences.
This method is called "blending". When using different additives, it allows you to remake an unsuccessful product into Sangria.
Pasteurization
Wine that is too sour in taste can be easily corrected by pasteurization, or heating. Yeast fungi that increase sourness will die, and then it will be possible to sweeten the liquid. Due to the addition of sugar, re-fermentation does not start.
What to do to pasteurize homemade wine that turned out sour:
Pasteurizing homemade wine helps correct acidity and preserves the flavor of the main ingredient.
Cryostabilization
If the acidity of your homemade wine is high, cryostabilization, i.e. cooling, will help to eliminate the disadvantage. Just put the bottles in the cold and let them be stored at a temperature of 2 - 5 degrees for 45 - 60 days. A thick sediment should fall to the bottom of the dish. Carefully remove the wine from the thick, pour into bottles and seal the necks tightly.
Sulfitation
Experienced winemakers know what to do with sour wine and don't worry about it. improve taste alcoholic product prepared in large volumes, they are helped by sulfitation (a method using sulfur). Sulfur dioxide has antioxidant, antiseptic and stabilizing properties, which allows it to be used in wine production.
It is advisable to carry out sulfitation at the beginning of the preparation of wine, fumigating the entire container with sulfur wicks - barrels, bottles, bottles. The number of wicks is determined by the volume of dishes. Experts recommend burning sulfur until it burns. The absence of fire indicates the absence of oxygen.
Sulfitation is carried out using sulfur powder in the proportion of 100 mg of the substance to 1 liter of must or finished wine. Potassium pyrosulfate is diluted with a small amount of wine or water, mixed and introduced into the main dish. Reacting with wine, pyrosulfate gives sulfur dioxide. The compound adjusts the amount of acid without distorting the aroma and taste of the drink.
Wine vinegar
Unsuccessful wine with a sour smell and taste can be converted into wine vinegar. It is prepared from sugar and peroxide liquid at the rate of 15 - 20 g per 1 liter of drink. The mass is periodically stirred, and after 2 weeks it is filtered and poured into a convenient container. vinegar essence tightly cork and take out to a cool place for storage.
Found an error? Select it and click Shift+Enter or
Making wine at home is not an easy task, because the process is prone to unexpected effects. The reason for a wine failure may lie in the inaccuracy of the recipe or non-compliance with its instructions. Often the grape variety is to blame: certain types can contain more acid, and sugar is highly weather- and year-dependent, especially in northern grapes. Then the wine turns out to be too sour or sweet, and winemakers puzzle over: how to save their offspring and adjust the taste? There are several ways to rehabilitate a long-awaited wine batch.
First thing
Make sure that the problem of homemade wine is only in taste. There is a possibility that the wine got sick under the influence of bacteria that penetrated into the vessel due to insufficient isolation from the external environment. Symptoms: the liquid is covered with a matte white film (flowering), emits an unpleasant odor, has a disgusting taste and darkens. It is often possible to overcome this obstacle with special treatment.
The taste characteristics of a wine failure can be corrected in many ways; consider cases of behavior if the drink fails.
What to do with sour wine
Reasons for the situation:
- Non-compliance with the proportions of sugar indicated by the recipe;
- Increased acidity of grapes (the main ingredient);
- Insufficient sealing of the vessel after the fermentation stage or during the corking of bottles.
To get the expected alcoholic drink, you will have to wait for the production of a new wine batch. Then fresh must from grapes should be mixed with a very acidic liquid (ratio - 10:1). If you do everything right, you will see good enough dry wine and the acid feeling will be gone forever.
It is also possible to sweeten the wine, but first you need it. Sugar should not be added directly to the wine, but it is worth preparing the syrup and pouring it already. The proportions will be too individual and are selected by tasting.
An unstabilized wine can only become sweeter "in the moment" because the fermentation process will continue and the sugar will be processed.
In this case, add syrup immediately before drinking.
If it doesn't help
An easier solution to using sour wine is to make a wine bite. To do this, you need sugar (sand) in an amount of 2-3% of the liquid volume. Pour it into a container that you leave open, stir regularly, and in three weeks your homemade wine, which seemed incredibly sour, will turn into a perfect vinegar with a pleasant aftertaste of grapes.
Too sweet?
A similar problem occurs when too much sugar is added, or if the bulk of the grapes impart more sweetness to the juice than expected in the recipe. To avoid such misunderstandings, the taste of the wine batch should be controlled before and after the fermentation process: these are the stages when excessive or lacking sweetness can be influenced. And turning it around is as easy as shelling pears: dilute the wort with water until it is moderately sweet to your taste. If you mix the finished drink with water before drinking, you can then experience unpleasant consequences, for example, in the form of a headache. The disadvantage of this option is that by trying to reduce the sweetness by adding water, you simultaneously reduce the acidity, therefore, homemade wine loses the colors of its flavor palette. Be vigilant: attempts to correct the situation in the absence of patience end in even greater failure.
The ancient Greeks, the founders of the wine culture, believed that diluted wine for the future only for mob or slaves.
As in the previous case, there is an option to wait next year: during the production of a new "wine" crop, mix the new must with the oversweetened predecessor. The amount of new liquid must exceed a very sweet wine, and you must control the taste of the drink more often at each stage of its preparation if you want everything to work out.
The third interesting way is suitable for those who are used to solving problems instantly. Buy dry wine, dilute it with your too sweet in equal proportions. For Warranty good taste make sure that the drink you buy is made from the same grape variety that you used.
Last Instructions
Only he who does nothing does not make mistakes; any deficiency can be corrected. The main thing is to approach with intelligence and patience, and not to destroy an unsuccessful batch of wine, in which so much effort and time has been invested. If you correctly perceive small defeats, you will win the outcome of the battle. Remember: the path of experiments is winding and thorny, but the experience gained in the process will make itself felt more than once.
Wine- a noble and refined drink, the refined taste of which harmoniously combines sweetish-sour "notes". The technology of its production requires experience and the necessary skills, however, even a winemaker with many years of experience cannot be sure that the final result will have the highest quality properties.
One of the most common problems for home wine makers is excessive acidity in the resulting product. But this situation can be remedied with the help of several methods known to the people.
To begin with, it is worth sorting out the reasons, and after that look for suitable options on how to fix sour homemade wine.
Factors affecting wine acidity
Experts say that in high-quality wine, the sour taste should not interrupt the sweetness. It is this parameter that corresponds to the ideal taste properties of the drink.
Winemakers measure the acidity of the resulting product using pH. The normal value of this indicator is considered to be from 6 to 10 g / l, a higher value - over 12 g / l - indicates an excessively sour taste of the drink.
Understanding the causes and factors that influenced acidity, you can easily find the right way to change sour wine to sweet. Among the possible reasons for this unpleasant situation There are only a few groups:
- excessively sour berries, which are used as the initial wine material;
- a small amount of sugar added during the manufacture of the wort;
- insufficient sealing during fermentation, which led to the entry of air and the activation of souring bacteria.
How can you change sour young wine to sweet
If the cause is established, then the question of how to fix sour young wine is solved instantly. In order for the problem with sugar and its insufficient amount not to arise in subsequent winemaking, it is worth acting according to the recipe without the slightest deviations and experiments. If the reason is still in the chemical reactions of mash and oxygen, then it is necessary to carefully examine the “apparatus” for holes and other damage. Only a small hole is enough for the taste of the entire portion of the drink to be completely spoiled.
If homemade wine turned out to be sour due to poor-quality wine material, then when asked how to remedy the situation, competent experts recommend waiting for a new harvest. The newly produced must in the correct proportion will give enough sweetness and transform the sour mash into an exquisite dry wine. And henceforth, before proceeding to production alcoholic drink, it is necessary to carefully select varieties of grapes or other berries, paying attention to the level of their ripeness. After all, the source material determines 80% of the quality of the final product.
How to fix homemade wine from a past vintage if it's sour
Experienced winemakers have in their arsenal many ways and tricks to fix sour homemade wine from grapes. It is worth paying special attention to the most effective methods:
- Heating or pasteurization- provides for bringing water with bottles of wine immersed in it to a temperature of 60-70 ° C. Such a thermal process allows you to destroy fungi and acidic bacteria, giving the desired taste and aroma to the drink. An important condition in this technique is the tight closure of the bottles.
- Blending, or as they say in the common people, "mixing"- the simplest way, based on a competent proportional combination of sour and sweet wines. It is a great recommendation for those who are wondering how to fix sour homemade cherry wine, as it allows you to combine drinks from different fruits and berries, with the exception of grapes.
- Stabilization of acidity with cold- long-term use, which requires placing bottles of wine in the refrigerator for 1-2 months at a temperature of 0 to -5 ° C. A thick precipitate appears in the drink, which should remain intact when pouring it into other containers.
- Product recycling- a great option for how to fix sour homemade wine from the last harvest. The technology of this process is extremely simple: last year's product is added to the must from the juice of fresh berries in a ratio of 10: 1 - 1 liter of the old drink per 10 liters of fresh.
- Making wine vinegar- an extreme measure, which is not aimed at how to fix homemade wine if it has become sour, but so that the product is not "translated". Excessively sour taste and the same smell indicate high acidity - over 15 g / l. The resulting wine vinegar has useful properties for the human body, so do not be upset.
- Sulfitation- a rather rarely used technique in practice, based on excellent knowledge and understanding of chemical reactions with sulfur. Experienced winemakers use sulfur dioxide to fumigate cellars, bottles, bottles even before the preparation of a wine drink. Received chemical compounds help to adjust the level of acidity, perform antiseptic and antioxidant functions.
According to experienced experts, wine made from grapes is elite and capricious, so the use of blending for it does not involve mixing with alcoholic beverages from other berries and fruits. A completely different situation is with cherry, apple or plum wines, which are perfectly combined with each other creating a pleasant taste of sangria.
Recommendations on how to fix very sour wine from plums, apples and other fruits
At home, wine products are often made using all kinds of gardening gifts. However, these drinks can upset their producers with excessive sourness.
The technology for the production of fruit wines is identical to the methods for making grape analogues. Therefore, the ways to "correct" such a marriage will be similar. Consider the main recommendations and advice from experts on how to fix wine from cherries and other fruits and berries if it turned out sour:
- In situations where the “bins” have a rich supply of various sweet varieties of wine fruit products, it is worth trying blending, focusing on your own taste and preferences.
- Experienced vintners find that for sour apple wine, when asked how to improve its taste, the most appropriate answer is to use refrigeration. Apple juice in the best possible way in cold temperature conditions, it separates the sediment, which, due to its consistency, is easy to remove from the “corrected” sweetish drink.
- Plum wine, taking into account the sweetness of the wine material, can in rare cases be spoiled. The only reason in this situation is the depressurization of the device and the ingress of air into the wort. According to experts, the best way to fix a very acidic wine from plums is to heat it up to 70°C and then cool it slowly.
- Some winemakers, when applying pasteurization, recommend adding sugar first and sealing the containers tightly, preventing air from entering.
- It is worth being careful with heating the drink, because when the temperature exceeds 75 ° C, alcohol begins to actively evaporate, which adversely affects the taste characteristics.
- Do not be upset if the resulting wine product tastes more like a vinegar mixture. Such a thing is indispensable in the house of any housewife, one has only to bring this "semi-finished product" to the final consumer consistency.
- The preparation of fruit and berry vinegar from a “failed” wine drink is quite simple. Sour wine should be mixed with a small amount of sugar (20 grams per 1 liter), without sealing, leave the resulting mixture to ripen for several weeks, then strain and pour into containers convenient for use.
Do not give up if, after the first samples of the preparation of the wine "masterpiece", the result upset you. There are always ways to correct mistakes, gain valuable experience and, after a while, surprise your household and friends with unsurpassed varieties of elite wine.
Any winemaker knows that one cannot do without missteps and accidents in this business. Usually, mistakes lead to undesirable changes, after which the wine must be immediately corrected. It may be too sweet or too sour.
It is necessary to be able to distinguish between serious diseases and small mistakes of the winemaker. After all, the latter are not so difficult to fix, but diseases will have to be fought hard. So, if an alcoholic drink does not turn out the way you would like it to be, due to an incorrect recipe or work, its shortcomings are easy to fix. If the liquid was attacked by fungi and bacteria, then it will need serious.
Too sour drink
It turns out similar in two cases. Either you didn't add enough sugar to the wort, or you didn't close the bottle properly after the fermentation process was over. The first way out of this situation is to make wine vinegar. To do this, pour 1-2% granulated sugar into the liquid and leave for several weeks in an open container. Stir the mass regularly, and after three weeks you will receive.
The second solution to this issue will be to leave the liquid until the next season. When you are about to prepare a new batch of alcoholic beverage, add the acidic liquid to the new wort in a ratio of 1:10. In this case, you will get a dry drink.
How to fix wine that is too sweet?
This homemade drink can turn out for the reason that too much sugar was added to the wort. Of course, there may be another option. Sometimes the raw material itself is too sweet, and the sand is added strictly according to the recipe. Then the berries or fruits give too much sugar to the juice, making the liquid not what it should have been. Therefore, you need to remember that all recipes are relative. Try the raw materials, if it is sour, add a little more sugar. And if the fruits are very sweet, reduce the amount of added sand.
You can fix the wine when it overplays, ferments. Do not forget that the drink should not come into contact with air during fermentation. To do this, a glove is put on the container, or a gas outlet tube is attached. Winemakers suggest getting rid of excess sugar by diluting it with water.
sour wine
The drink becomes sour under the influence of bacteria, that is, it is no longer a vice, but a disease. Peroxide wine cannot be cured. Grape wine is often subjected to this process. There is milk souring and acetic. The first occurs due to the fact that lactic acid bacteria turn granulated sugar into acid. Such a disease can be prevented by the pasteurization process. You can fix the wine, if the process has just begun, then you can try to smoke alcohol out of it. Vinegar souring occurs when special bacteria multiply and destroy the alcohol. It is very easy to recognize this process. Firstly, the wine loses its degree, and secondly, a white film forms on it. It is impossible to correct wine with acetic souring.
A quality wine drink cannot be too sweet or too sour: all indicators must be within the normal range!
But if the wine turned out to be sour, how to correct the situation and bring the drink to a normal state so that it can be drunk without wincing? Learn how to remove excess acid from wine drinks, choosing one of the many ways, and how to prevent their excessive acidity!
More recently, you were looking for the answer to the question “How to make wine from sour?”, And today you are wondering why wine is sour. In fact, any wine drinks cannot be completely without sourness, but ideally it does not prevail over sweetness, but is in harmony with it. This is how winemakers achieve the perfect aftertaste!
How wine turns sour
Experienced winemakers are able to predict the taste of future wines and correct shortcomings before fermenting raw materials. For example, if it is rainy and cool in summer, then the berries will not grow sweet enough.
Winemakers make up for the lack of sweetness with sugar by adding it to the must before sending it to ferment.
For beginners, these subtleties of winemaking are unknown, and therefore they always make sour drinks from unsweetened berries. If a normal rate The acidity of wines is 6–10 g per liter, then they will have it 12–15 g per liter, and they will have to think about how to remove the acid from the wine after fermentation!
Is it possible to deacidify wine? Of course! Let's find out what to do if homemade wine is sour.
What to do if homemade wine turned out sour
How to fix the taste of sour house wine? There are many ways: we will analyze them in order.
Pasteurization
What to do if the wine turned out sour? We can pasteurize it: twenty minutes pasteurization at 70 degrees kills yeast. After this procedure, we add sugar, which will prevent the drink from fermenting and becoming sour.
The main thing is to subsequently store the wine in hermetically sealed bottles!
Blending
If homemade wine is very sour, how to fix it? With the help of blending - mixing two wines: too sour and very sweet! As a result, we get a drink with an individual taste. This method does not require adherence to clear proportions - we dilute the wines to our liking.
By the way, sour wines make excellent sangria, just add your favorite fruits, spices and lemonade to sour wine to taste!
Cold stabilization
What to do if the wine has become sour? We withstand bottles with a drink for three weeks in a temperature regime from 0 to 5 degrees. After such a procedure, a precipitate forms, so you will have to pour the wine into other bottles without touching it.
Making dry wine
What to do if homemade wine is sour? If the wine is too sour, leave it until next year. After that, we add it to the must from the new harvest, spending a liter of sour wine per 10 liters of must, and we get a healthy dry wine!
Making wine vinegar
If the wine is sour, what to do? We add granulated sugar to it (about 2% of the total amount), stir it and, without closing the container, leave it for three weeks, not forgetting to mix regularly.
As a result, we get a natural wine vinegar, widely used for culinary purposes!
Is it possible to deacidify wine with baking soda? No, it is better not to use soda to deoxidize wine: it spoils the taste and changes color, making the drink darker.
How to make sweet wine sour
But what if the wine, on the contrary, turned out to be too sweet, cloying? If you need to reduce the sweetness of wine, we will use the following effective methods:
Mixing with sour wine
To reduce the sweetness of the drink, add sour wine, choosing the ratio empirically, first mixing small portions.
Wine acidification
To reduce the sweetness of wine, add lemon or tartaric acid using 1 g of substance per liter of drink.
It is better to test the effect of the acid in a small amount of wine first, and if everything works out, correct the drinks in the rest of the bottles!
Now you know what to do if the wine is sour, how to fix its taste, and also what to do if the drink turned out cloying! It is important not to rush and try different ways on a small amount of wine, so as not to spoil the drink due to inexperience.