Wine yeast, indispensable for making wine or mead, can be made at home. Alcoholic drinks prepared with such yeast have a pleasant taste and aroma.
To make wine yeast at home, you need ripe small-fruited grapes (raspberries, honeysuckle, white currants, strawberries or gooseberries are also suitable), sugar and water.
How to cook
To prepare the sourdough, pick ripe berries ten days before making the wine. In order not to wash off the yeast from the surface, the berries do not need to be washed. Two cups of mashed ripe berries will require a glass of water and half a glass of sugar. Water must be poured into a glass bottle. Place berries and sugar in a container, mix well. After that, close the bottle with a cotton stopper and leave at room temperature for 3-4 days. During this time, the juice will ferment. All that remains is to strain it through a sieve, separating it from the pulp.
Brewer's yeast and bread yeast should not be used to make wine. If it is not possible to make wine yeast, you can propagate living organisms on flour, barley, bran.
Wine yeast made from raisins and figs
It so happens that the wine must be made in conditions when the berry season has already passed or has not yet begun. Then the wine starter can be made from raisins or figs. Raisins should be of high quality, bluish-purple, with tails. A good raisin, if thrown, makes the sound of falling stones when it falls on the table. Yeast will not work out of bad raisins, everything will become moldy.
In order to make wine yeast, a handful of raisins or figs must be dipped in 400 ml of slightly warmed sugar syrup. Then, in the same way as in the previous recipe, close the bottle with a cork that allows air to pass through (you can use a large piece of cloth or a piece of cotton wrapped with gauze or cloth), and leave the future wine leaven in a warm place for 3-4 days. The contents must be shaken throughout the day to prevent the raisins from becoming moldy. As soon as the fermentation process starts, drain the liquid and use it to make wine. In addition, in some cases, figs and raisins are also dipped whole in the wort.
Storage and use of wine yeast
Home-made yeast can withstand alcohol build-up up to 19 degrees in wine. Esters released by yeast during fermentation have a specific smell, which gives the wine a noble aroma.
Wine yeast can be stored for no more than 10 days. For the preparation of dessert wine, 300 g of yeast per 10 liters of wort will be enough. For dry, even less wine yeast is required - 200 g.
In order to make wine, you can use ready-made wine yeast, for example, Zemasil. The final yeast fermentation rate is high. The product is highly alcohol-resistant.
The wine will be much tastier if the fermentation period is extended for a couple of weeks. The room must be kept at a stable temperature. The room itself must be frequently ventilated. In general, wine production takes about two months.
