How to Make a Cranberry Wine
There are many books where you will get the information on wine making. You will find array of wine making recipes for making wine from fruits such as grapes, apples, blackberries or strawberries. But why to consult books if you are getting the information right here…
Cranberry wine is among the easiest wines to make. With a strong balance of sweetness and tartness it also has a lot of taste appeal. You can drink this wine with almost any meal and it tastes best served at room temperature.
Making wine with concentrates can give you an effortless and the most consistent way to prepare remarkable cranberry wines with enhanced flavor. You can make the wine from concentrate in a very easy way. The most important thing one sould keep in mind while making wine at home is the usuage of correct equipments.
The major ingredients needed to prepare the cranberry wine are as under:
1 gallon glass jug, 12 ounce cans of frozen cranberry juice concentrate, 1 1/2cups sugar, 1/4tsp wine yeast, 3/4cup warm water and container of water.
There are few equipments you will require such as:
A rubber stopper or air lock device for the gallon jug, 12-18 inches of plastic tubing which will fit over the glass tube plus 1 funnel.
Make sure to clean the jugs along with other utensils to get rid of bacteria before you start the procedure of wine making. Otherwise the wine will be spoiled very soon as there would be chances of having bacteria in the wine.
Now we are going to start the actual procedure of making cranberry wine. You need to dissolve a tablespoon of sugar and the yeast in 3/4 cup of warm water. Stir the water till the sugar is dissolved. You can cover the container and keep aside for few hours for fermentation.
Pour juice with sugar dissolved in it into a jug. You can use the funnel for pouring the juice. Add warm water and yeast mixture. Put the stopper on the top of the jug. Attach the plastic tubing over end of glass tube. Keep the jug on a warm shelf in basement. Put the container of water next to jug and keep end of plastic tube in water. The level of water should be sufficient to keep end of tube under water. The tube will allow carbon dioxide gas to escape whilst the water will prevent air contaminated with bacteria from entering the jug with wine.
After some days, say around one month, you can observe that the air bubbles are not entering the container of water from the wine jug and the juice has become clear. You will also find the sediments at the bottom of the jug. At this time, you can get a two foot lenght of 1/2 to 3/4 inch clear plastic tubing, take out the stopper and siphon juice into another sterilized jug. Make sure not to disturb the sediments as they will be poured down the drain while the jug along with wine should be capped with a screw-on cap or cork stopper. Store the wine in a cool place for around 12 months or more than that and when it ages, you can serve it.
This process of wine making will result into a tart wine with the taste of cranberry. Instead of cranberry, you can use any fruits such as apple, strawberry or grapes. Thus, i feel making wine is an ideal pastime which brings its own rewards..