The wine has become sour, what should I do? Reducing the acidity of the wine. What to do if homemade wine is sour? Determining if a wine has gone sour

Every winemaker tries to prepare wine with a harmonious taste. Compliance with this characteristic is said when the sourness does not interrupt the sweetness. But what if Home wine It turned out sour, is it possible to correct its taste? First, you need to understand what acidity of wine is considered normal 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 end. Wine becomes unpleasantly sour when the berries are too acidic during the grape harvest. Experts express the acidity of wine using the pH value. If its value falls within the range of 6 – 10 g/l, this is considered normal. At higher values (from 12 to 15 g/l) the wine will be too sour.

Reasons for souring

Any winemaker who cares about the quality of his products wants to know why wine turns sour. Depending on the causes of this problem, you can choose a way to fix a peroxided drink. There are only two reasons:

An insufficient amount of sugar was used during the preparation of the wort.
As the wort fermented, air entered the vessel. The incoming oxygen caused the activity of bacteria, causing souring.

How to prevent wine spoilage? If the problem is sugar, then add it strictly according to the recipe. If the problem is the interaction of the mash with oxygen, inspect the water seal or rubber glove for damage. There should not be even the smallest holes in the device, otherwise a tiny 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 per 10 liters of fresh sweet wort. The finished wine will be dry.

Different ways to reduce the acidity of wine

If the taste of homemade wine seems too sour to you and you want to quickly improve the drink, combine it with a sweet dessert variety. You will get a new product with an amazing taste, which depends on the proportions of the mixed liquids. There are no restrictions here. The owner decides how to dilute sour wine based on taste preferences.

This method is called "blending". When using different additives, it allows you to transform an unsuccessful product into “Sangria”.

Pasteurization

Wine that tastes too sour can be easily corrected by pasteurization or heating. The yeast that enhances the sourness will die, and then the liquid can be sweetened. Due to the addition of sugar, re-fermentation does not begin.

What to do to pasteurize homemade wine that turns 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 eliminate the deficiency. Just put the bottles in the cold and let them store at a temperature of 2 - 5 degrees for 45 - 60 days. A thick sediment should form at the bottom of the dish. Carefully remove the wine from the grounds, pour into bottles and seal the necks tightly.

Sulfitation

Experienced winemakers know what to do with sour wine and do not worry about it. Sulfitation (a method using sulfur) helps them improve the taste of an alcoholic product prepared in large volumes. Sulfur dioxide has antioxidant, antiseptic and stabilizing properties, which makes it possible to use it in wine production.

It is advisable to carry out sulfation at the beginning of wine preparation, fumigating all containers with sulfur wicks - barrels, carboys, bottles. The number of wicks is determined by the volume of the dish. Experts recommend burning sulfur as long as it burns. The absence of fire indicates the absence of oxygen.

Sulfation is carried out using sulfur powder in a 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 added to the main container. When reacting with wine, pyrosulfate produces sulfur dioxide. The compound adjusts the amount of acid without distorting the aroma and taste of the drink.

Vinegar

Unsuccessful wine with a sour smell and taste can be converted into wine vinegar. It is prepared from sugar and peroxided liquid at the rate of 15 - 20 g per 1 liter of drink. The mass is stirred periodically, and after 2 weeks it is filtered and poured into a convenient container. The vinegar essence is tightly sealed and taken to a cool place for storage.

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Even the best wine becomes sour and unsuitable for drinking a few days after the cork is uncorked. This means that it has turned sour, in other words, turned into vinegar. The problem of souring is well known to home winemakers, as it can ruin any wine (apple, grape, cherry, etc.). We will look at the reasons why wine goes sour and preventive measures to preserve the drink.

Wine turns into vinegar when there is free access of air into the container. Acetic bacteria, millions of which live in fermented wine material, are activated with sufficient oxygen and a temperature of 6-45°C, converting wine alcohol into water and acetic acid. Depending on the temperature, oxygen concentration and characteristics of the wine, the souring process lasts from 3-4 days to several weeks. Bacterial activity stops when there is almost no alcohol left (at wine vinegar it is less than 0.2% of the volume).

You can determine souring by smell and taste. At first, the wine develops a specific pungent odor and sour taste. After a few days, the acidity increases and the strength drops. Therefore, opened wine cannot be stored for a long time, a maximum of 2-3 days in the refrigerator, tightly closed with a cork.

During production and storage, both store-bought and homemade wines can turn sour. To prevent this, wineries add preservatives to their drinks that block the development of acetic bacteria. The most popular preservative is sulfites (salts of sulfuric acid). Sulfur in wine prevents the formation acetic acid, but at high concentrations it is hazardous to health.

A water seal helps to protect homemade wine from air during fermentation - a special device that hermetically closes the container, but allows it to be vented outside. carbon dioxide, which is released during the fermentation process. The finished wine is bottled, hermetically sealed with corks and stored at low temperatures.

Vinegar souring refers to “wine diseases” that “cannot be cured.” This means that once the wine has turned into vinegar, it is no longer possible to correct it. On initial stages After souring (in the first few days), some winemakers try to stop acetic fermentation by pasteurizing homemade wine.

To do this, they heat the drink in glass bottles to 60-65°C and boil it for 20 minutes. But not even a large number of Vinegar in wine spoils the taste, and there is no guarantee that pasteurization will help stop souring. In most cases, sour wine is simply poured out or homemade wine vinegar is made from it.

Any red or white wine is suitable for making vinegar; you can use homemade wine. It is enough to leave a glass (very important) bottle of wine open at room temperature for 2-3 weeks.

It is difficult for even an experienced winemaker to be 100% sure that he will receive a wine of the highest quality. It is much more difficult for a beginner, and at the beginning creative path errors are possible. If your homemade wine turns out sour, don’t be upset. There are several ways to remove excess acidity from the taste.

Blending or mixing

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This is the easiest way. An experienced winemaker has a collection of drinks different types and production time. You can mix sour wine with sweet wine, depending only on your own taste. It must be borne in mind that homemade wine made from grapes can only be mixed with grape wine, while wines made from fruits and berries are blended with excellent results in a variety of combinations. Sangria is very popular - this is wine with any additives. Juices, lemonade, herbs, fruits are suitable. Anything would be delicious.

Heating

When heated, the bacteria and fungi that live in the wine will die, and adding sugar will not change the acidity of the drink. Bottles of wine are placed in a tank or pan on a stand - they should not touch the bottom when heated, and are poured cold water up to the necks. The water in the container is heated to 60 or 70 degrees over low heat. The bottles are not removed from the liquid until completely cooled. This process is in many ways similar to pasteurization - it is prolonged heating at a temperature of 50 to 70 degrees. It allows you to preserve the taste and aroma of products, in our case, wine.

Bottles must be sealed tightly.

Cooling

Cooling corrects many deficiencies, including high acidity. The bottles are exposed to the cold at a temperature of -2.5 degrees and left for 1.5 or 2 months. A dense sediment forms in the wine. The drink is drained from the sediment, bottled and tightly sealed.

Read also: What to do if the wine stops fermenting

Sulfitation

Most of The population, which had cellars and basements, treated them from fungus and mold using sulfur bombs. Everyone who has carried out this kind of treatment will remember this contact with sulfur for the rest of their lives, and, of course, will not want to add its salts and oxides to wine. Whatever result you are promised, limit yourself to fumigating the cellar along with the wine container.

Preparing vinegar

The homemade wine turned out to be too sour and even smells sour, like vinegar, which means that you are okay
There is no choice but to turn it into vinegar essence. The product is necessary on the farm and is stored for a long time. Vinegar can be wine, apple, or fruit vinegar. It is much healthier than store-bought. It's easy to prepare. Pour soured wine into an enamel or glass container and dissolve sugar in it, 15 or 20 g. per liter of wine. The wine no longer needs hermetically sealed; don’t forget to stir it. After a couple of weeks, the vinegar will finally ripen and will need to be filtered and bottled. Seal the bottles tightly and place in a cool place. Natural vinegar essence is stored for a long time.

Recycling

Soured grape wine can be left until the new harvest. When preparing wort from the juice of a new harvest, you can add last year's drink to it in a ratio of 1:10 - 1 part old wine and 10 parts fresh juice. This will give you dry wine.

Reasons for souring

A novice winemaker will not want to repeat his mistakes and, of course, will be interested in why the wine is sour and what to do to prevent this from happening again. The reasons may be as follows.

Those who are involved in winemaking know that this is not an easy task. Growing grapes and learning how to make wine is only part of what is needed. It is very important to be able to recognize wine diseases, for example when alcohol has gone sour. What kind of disease is this, what are the causes and what can be done if the wine has gone sour?

Acetic souring, or souring, is a common and dangerous wine disease that affects both young and aged wines. Noble alcohol turns into vinegar in a short time and becomes unfit for consumption. The container in which such a product was located also becomes unsuitable for subsequent use.

To begin with, you should pay attention to what amount of acetic acid is considered normal for wine, and what indicates that it has become sour. A small amount of acetic acid is integral part wine, as it is formed at the fermentation stage of the wort. White wine varieties, for example, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling, release 0.5-0.8 g/l of volatile acids after fermentation, and red wines - 0.6-1 g/l. Wines with a volatile substance content of up to 1 g/l are considered healthy.

In aged wines, the normal amount of acetic acid is slightly higher due to the fact that the volume of essential substances increases over time. For example, aged alcohol with indicators up to 1.5 g/l is the norm, while in young alcohol indicators more than 1 g/l will indicate that the fermentation conditions were violated, which resulted in the alcohol becoming sour. However, such standards are relative, since even a laboratory determination establishes only the approximate amount of acids in wine, without taking into account the content in esters.

You can tell whether alcohol has gone sour by the characteristic smell of acetic esters and the taste of acetic acid. When tasting such alcohol, a burning sensation is felt in the mouth, and a stabbing and scratching sensation remains in the throat.

If the process of acetic fermentation in alcohol has already begun, then it becomes impossible to save it. It can be restored only at the very beginning of the process, before it gets stuck.

One of the characteristic signs of the appearance of this disease is a grayish film that forms on the surface of the drink. At first, such a film is thin and transparent, but as acidification progresses, it becomes denser, may have a pink tint, and also form folds near the walls of the container. When disintegrating, parts of the film sink to the bottom and form mucous masses called a vinegar nest.

In what cases does oxidation occur?

Acetic acid bacteria are part of fermented wine must, but they do not always lead to sourness of the drink. There are several types of such bacteria: acetobacter aceti, acetobacter xylinum, acetobacter kutzingia, acetobacter pasteurianum. Acetobacter aceti usually plays the main role in acetic souring. Acetic bacteria, which cause wine to become sour, develop for several reasons.

High temperatures, above 36°, and a constant flow of oxygen have a beneficial effect on the development of these harmful bacteria. They actively multiply and break down molecules of wine alcohol into ordinary water and acetic acid.
The vinegar midge, which actively reproduces during the winemaking period, is a carrier of acetic acid bacterial spores. The fly carries germs of bacteria, leaving large clutches of eggs in the cracks of vats, tongues, barrels and rubble. The best remedy Fumigation of premises with sulfur is considered to be an insect attack.

The bacteria are found on the grapes and from there they get into the must. Sick and damaged berries, grape pulp and pomace that remain in the press, slowing down fermentation - all this creates a favorable environment for souring to develop.
A high degree of contamination is created in vats with an open floating cap.
Free space in barrels that are not filled to the top is great for the development of bacteria and increases the risk that the wine will go sour.
Violation of sanitary and hygienic conditions and the use of dirty containers are common cause souring of alcohol.

Souring occurs quite quickly, within three to five days. When the alcohol content is less than 2%, bacteria cease to function. Such processes can occur both during the production of homemade wines and during industrial production.

What to do if the wine goes sour

When preparing at home, you should strictly follow the wine production technology. Acidification is a disease that is much easier to prevent than to try to treat it. To do this, preventive measures should be taken at the stage of preparation of ingredients and directly during the fermentation process.

Prevention

It is good to sort the components - remove rotting and damaged berries.
Maintain sterile cleanliness in the room, keep all instruments and utensils that will come into contact with the wine material clean.
Several times a day, the floating wine cap should be immersed in the wort to prevent the wine from becoming sour.
To prevent air from entering the wort, high-quality seals should be used. You can either buy them or make them yourself. A properly selected and installed water seal perfectly removes carbon dioxide from the container and is considered a reliable barrier to oxygen.

Wine should be bottled in standard bottles and then hermetically sealed.
Homemade wine should be stored in a cool cellar or refrigerator.
To prevent wine from becoming sour, it should be fixed with alcohol or vodka.

Adding preservatives

The use of chemical preservatives by wineries is considered to prevent the development of harmful bacteria. Special substances are added to wines in minimal doses, as they are dangerous to human health. The most common preservatives are sulfites. At wineries, sulfitation is done three times - during fermentation of the wort, at the end of fermentation and before bottling.

It is not recommended to use such substances at home. If there is still a need for such a procedure, then this should be done very carefully, strictly observing the proportions.

Sulfur was used in winemaking as an excellent preservative by the ancient Greeks. It prevented the wine from becoming sour, and the sulfitation process itself gave the drink a fresh and lasting aroma. Unprocessed gray alcohol quickly loses its original odor. Sulfur preserves the rich hue of the drink and makes it more transparent.

How to fix homemade wine if it's soggy

You have found out why homemade wine turns into vinegar, and now you will find out what to do to correct the situation, if it is not too late. Optimal time for rescue – this is the first 24-48 hours. The sooner it is discovered that souring has already begun, the greater the chance of saving the drink.

Pasteurization is considered the best way to save. The procedure is carried out as follows:

You should first carefully remove the resulting grayish film;
then pour the alcohol into sterilized bottles until they are completely filled. This is done so that the drink does not come into contact with air;
place such bottles in one large vat, at the bottom of which there is a wooden stand. The vat is filled with water, but so that the plugs rise above the surface;
the vat is placed on the stove, heated to 60-65 degrees and kept for 15-20 minutes;
The last step is to place the bottles in a cool place where the temperature is kept at about 9°.

How to remove vinegar from homemade berry wine

Dessert wines from different berries(raspberries, strawberries, blackberries) with impaired temperature conditions they turn sour very quickly. In such conditions, bacteria stop the fermentation of yeast and, accordingly, spoil the drink itself. Spoiled berry alcohol has a light transparent film and tastes like vinegar.

As soon as you notice changes in fermentation homemade drink, it should be pasteurized and provided with a yeast starter. Then leave it to ferment again. You can also mix spoiled wine with fresh marc and leave this mixture to ferment.

How to use spoiled wine

If time has passed and the wine has already become sour, it is used to make something that will be useful in the household - vinegar. This culinary ingredient is pleasantly refreshing and adds flavor to some dishes. The spoiled drink is uncorked and left in this form for a couple of weeks. The temperature in the room where the wine is located should be 20-22 °C. Then it is poured into a new container and used for its intended purpose.

Many novice winemakers very often encounter this characteristic problem. Most often, this happens due to violations of the drink production technique, non-compliance with proportions and sanitary conditions. Even wine made from high-quality raw materials can turn into vinegar if the process is not taken seriously. Have you encountered such a problem? Be sure to share your experience in the comments.

The process of making homemade wine contains many nuances that require mandatory implementation. One of the most important points is the choice of raw materials for making the drink, since its final taste and aroma largely depend on the quality, sugar content and degree of ripeness of the grapes used. However, sometimes even with strict adherence to technology, upon completion of the fermentation process, the winemaker ends up with sour wine. There are several ways to solve this problem, but you need to do it correctly, otherwise the drink cannot be saved.

Optimal wine characteristics and acidity determination

The parameters of the future wine must be determined at the stage of preparing the raw materials for fermentation, since it is at this moment that we can still influence the future taste characteristics by adding sugar or other components. The optimal parameters for homemade wine are considered to be 9–15% alcohol content, 18–45 grams/liter sugar and 7–8% acidity. They guarantee an excellent balanced taste of homemade wine.

Most fruits used to make wine are low in sugar and contain high amounts of acid. Grapes growing in most regions of Russia are no exception to this rule.

Thus, without stabilizing the initial parameters at home, you end up with sour wine of insufficient strength. Only some grape varieties, in which the sugar content reaches 20–23%, are suitable for making a tasty drink that does not require correction. All other fruit juices require correction of their characteristics and equalization of the balance between acidity and sugar content.

You can determine the acidity of wine using a special pH meter by comparing the obtained values with reference data. However, most people find increased content acid when fruit or grape wine is completely ready. In such conditions, a completely logical question arises: how to fix sour wine, the answer to which is quite simple.

The most effective techniques

There are several ways to reduce the acidity of wine at home. However, some of them must be used at the initial stages of working with wort, while others make it possible to reduce the acid content in the finished drink. We can use:

dilution with water;
blending;
use of low temperatures;
boiling.

Dilution with water is the most effective and simple method used by many winemakers. It must be remembered that reducing acidity with water affects the taste characteristics of the drink, making it less rich and aromatic. You need to add liquid at the fermentation stage after adding sugar or directly with it. Thus, we reduce the acidity more gently, only slightly adjusting the basic parameters of the finished drink.

Blending also helps reduce the acidity of homemade wine. The meaning of the technique is to mix two juices with different acid and sugar contents. By mixing one juice with another less acidic one, the overall parameters of the wort are balanced. The same fruits go best together different varieties. Blending has virtually no effect on the taste characteristics of the finished drink and its richness, which makes this technique one of the best for reducing acidity. However, it can only be used at the stage of creating the wort, and it is not suitable for finished wine.

Exposure to low temperatures makes it possible to improve the taste of young wine. When exposed to temperatures between 2 and 4 degrees Celsius, the acids crystallize, forming a layer of small sediment. This method shows good results both when working with ready-made drink, and in relation to the wort. However, its effectiveness is not too high, since it makes it possible to only slightly reduce the acid content in the range of 1–1.5 grams/liter.

Impact high temperatures belongs to the category of extreme methods, since with its help not only the acidity is reduced, but also a number of other organoleptic properties characteristic of wine are lost. As a result heat treatment the drink becomes less rich and aromatic, which is why this method is extremely rarely used when making wine.