Calculation of relative error for several measurements. Absolute and relative error of calculations

Many novice winemakers are faced with the problem of a bitter aftertaste appearing in self-prepared wine. Sometimes this even leads to the destruction of an entire batch of homemade drinks. However, there are ways to combat bitterness that will help you save your wines. We will also show you how to avoid repeating similar mistakes in the future.

First, let's look at the causes of bitterness. The most common of them are:

wrong preparation of raw materials ;
excessively long storage in oak barrel ;
activity of pathogenic microorganisms.

We will tell you about each reason and options for eliminating it in more detail.

Improper preparation of raw materials- it's too rough crushing And pressing berries or fruits. When using unprofessional equipment (for example, some sources advise using a meat grinder to obtain juice), too many crushed seeds may get into the wort, and with them tannins and tannins, which in small quantities help the wine become nobler, but in case of an “overdose” they give the drink bitter, tart taste and make it darker than necessary (especially white wines). To avoid this, it is necessary to carefully crush and press the raw materials. For this process, special crushers And press, which will help you prevent the appearance of bitterness in wine.

Overexposure of the wort on the pulp can also lead to similar consequences. Therefore, it is always necessary to strictly follow the recipe, since each plant behaves differently when infused.

If the drink is already ready, and you suddenly feel a bitter aftertaste, then the situation can still be saved. It is enough to “paint” the wine with a special substance, for example, bentonite or diatomaceous earth. This process will not only relieve you of bitterness, but will also clarify the alcohol and cleanse it of unwanted impurities. After fining, don’t forget to filter the drink!

Also, a bitter taste may appear if the wine stored in too long barrel . At correct use The cooperage product gives the drink the required amount of elements, giving the alcohol a unique bouquet and soft taste. However, if you over-age the wine in an oak barrel, it will become oversaturated with tannins and tannins and will become bitter. To prevent such a situation, you need to carefully read the recommendations of specialists before starting exposure. In addition, the taste of the drink is greatly influenced by the type of oak from which the container is made. Russian And Ukrainian barrels are made from wood unsuitable for refining and are intended mainly for storing alcohol. In addition, treating the inner surface with wax is important: it prevents the wood from quickly giving up all its tannins and other elements to the contents, thereby protecting the drink from bitterness in taste. Waxed only oak barrels of the Pro series, making them ideal containers for aging your homemade wine.

If the drink has already acquired bitterness, this will also help. bentonite. Preparing the mixture is not difficult: you need to soak the powder in water, leave it for 3-4 hours to swell, then drain the liquid and add the resulting mass to the wine.

The drink may also contain pathogens, whose activities will negatively affect the taste.
“Treating” wine in this case is very simple: just use it pasteurize. To do this, the drink is heated to 55-60 o C without air access and maintained for a short period of time given temperature. Pasteurization kills all microbes that can negatively affect the taste of your alcohol.

If the bitterness does not disappear even after pasteurization or pasteurization, there is still a way out! "Spoiled" wine can be distilled using moonshine still and get great alcoholic drink with wonderful taste and aroma. And after ennoblement You will become the owner of a real homemade cognac and will certainly surprise your loved ones with the noble bouquet of your masterpiece. Get creative and create original strong drinks from homemade wine!

Even though homemade wine you can almost always get rid of bitterness in simple ways, try to strictly follow the instructions for preparing drinks. Then your alcohol will become a decoration for any festive table And a great gift friends.

Many novice winemakers are faced with the problem of bitterness in wine. Because of it, it happens that all the work on making wine goes down the drain, and the wine is poured down the drain or sent for distillation. But, if you look in more detail at the causes of bitterness and their elimination, you can save more than one liter of finished wine.

Why is wine bitter?

Obtaining juice with damage to seeds and seeds. They often taste bitter.
Fruits and berries were difficult to pick. Leaves, sticks, scallops have a bitter taste.
The wine stood over the sediment.
Poor raw materials were used. For example, slightly rotten fruits or accidentally dropped leaves, stalks and other pieces that are not related to the fruit. Even a very small amount of them can radically spoil the taste.
Without filtering the wine for too long. If it for a long time stands with sediment at the bottom, it will very soon acquire a bitter taste, since wine yeast rots and decomposes, remaining in the nutrient medium.

All these reasons can be called simply - violation of cooking technology. Be careful and your homemade drinks will be second to none. Despite the fact that homemade wine can almost always be removed from bitterness using simple methods, try to strictly follow the instructions for preparing drinks. Then your alcohol will become a decoration for any holiday table and an excellent gift for friends.

Prevention and elimination of bitterness in homemade wine

Attention! It is impossible to remove strong bitterness from wine. The proposed methods work in the early stages, when it has just appeared.

Causes, prevention and methods of combating bitter taste:

Incorrect extraction of juice. The most common situation, causing the problem in 50-65% of cases, is typical for grape, cherry, and apple wines, but can also appear in others. Crushing fruits (berries) too much and then squeezing them through a press leads to damage to the seeds, which contain an excess of tannins and tannins. As a result, these substances end up in the juice, and after fermentation, homemade wine begins to taste bitter.

Prevention: if it is possible to crush raw materials without seeds and (or) using gentle methods that do not damage the seeds.

Remedy:“binding” of tannins with egg white. You need to break the eggs, separate the whites from the yolk, beat the whites with a whisk, and then add them to the wine at the rate of 100 milligrams per 1 liter of drink. Mix gently and leave for 2-3 weeks until complete loss draft. Then drain the wine from the sediment through a siphon (thin tube) into another clean container.

Rotten raw materials and overexposure of the wort to the pulp. Even a few rotten fruits getting into processing and untimely separation of the juice from the pulp leads to rotting of the entire pulp.

Prevention: use only fresh berries and fruits, strictly follow the recipes, removing the pulp on time.

Elimination: clarification of wine with bentonite at the rate of 3 grams of white clay per 1 liter of wine. Pour ten times the amount of bentonite cold water, mix and leave for 10-12 hours, the clay will turn into lime. Add water until the mixture becomes liquid. Pour the diluted bentonite into the wine in a thin stream, leave for 5-7 days, then remove the sediment from the drink.

Long infusion on sediment. Untimely filtration of wine during aging, too. common reason the appearance of bitterness; during decomposition, yeast waste products worsen the taste.

Prevention: timely removal of sediment.

Treatment: fining wine with egg white or bentonite (both methods can be used alternately) according to the methods described in the previous paragraphs.

Contamination of wine. Pathogenic microorganisms that cause vinegar souring, mold and some other diseases of wine make themselves felt in the early stages by the appearance of a slight bitterness.

Prevention: sterility and strict adherence to preparation technology.

Treatment: pasteurization of wine with bitterness, during which microbes are killed by heat treatment. Seal the bottles with the drink hermetically, place in a saucepan, fill up to the neck with water, heat to 60°C. Maintain temperature for 5 minutes, then turn off heat. Remove the bottles when the water has cooled to room temperature. After 5-6 days, drain the wine from the sediment.

Overaging in barrels. If the wine is kept in barrels for too long (on oak wood or wood chips), the wine becomes excessively saturated with tannins, which are very difficult to remove.

Prevention: During barrel aging, check the taste once every 5-7 days in order to catch the moment of bitterness appearing in time.

Treatment: In the early stages, clarification with bentonite helps. In advanced cases, the taste is stabilized by adding sugar and alcohol to the wine (up to 10-15% of the volume).

An excess of tannins, bitter and astringent substances, tannins, which are contained in the skin and seeds of grapes. Usually these substances are useful to us, they give the wine a tart taste and promote clarification, but their excess, as mentioned earlier, makes the product bitter and the color (of white wines) brown.

Treatment: If it has already happened that your wine is bitter, there is no need to be upset. To eliminate this negative effect, it is necessary to “bind” excess tannins. To do this, “binding agents” are used, which attach tannins to themselves and precipitate with them to the bottom of the container. The most accessible and effective two “agents” are egg whites and polyvinyl chloride-based preparations.

Protein is one of the oldest and most widely used "binding agents" in both home and commercial winemaking. It is usually added to red wines (or fruit and berry wines, which contain a lot of tannins) in a concentration of 50 to 250 milligrams per liter. Before use, the egg whites are lightly beaten with a whisk and added to the container with the wine with thorough but gentle stirring (so as not to unnecessarily aerate the wine). The container with wine is then left in a calm state for a period of several days to several weeks, until the sediment completely falls to the bottom. As soon as this happens, it is necessary to siphon the wine into another clean container where it will ripen.
Polyvinyl chloride is a synthetic polymer powder; preparations based on it are sold in stores for home winemakers. As a rule, it is added to wine in volumes from 120 to 400 milligrams per liter with thorough mixing. Then the wine is also allowed to sit for a while, and then it is poured into another clean container. In addition to softening the bitterness, in this way it will also be possible to remove brown tones in white wines.

For selection the best way and the amount of substance to be added, you must first make several tests on a small volume of wine to choose which method is best suited for your wine. And also select the required concentration of the reagent. After all, this is much more profitable than pouring out the entire batch.

What to do if it still tastes bitter?

Finally, you opened the desired drink and discovered that the wine was still bitter. Having figured out the reason, you can take some actions that will give the wine a chance for a second life.

If the wine has become slightly acidic and has just begun to turn into vinegar, it must be urgently strained to remove all excess and, adding 20–30 ml of alcohol per liter of drink, placed in a dark place for subsequent aging. So it should stand for about six months. If everything works out, the bitterness will go away and you will get a good wine. Keep in mind that it will already be quite strong.
The wine will have to be poured out if you missed the moment of ripening and the tremors still go rotten. Nothing can remove such bitterness and smell. At this stage you should be especially careful and attentive. However, if the bitterness comes from the seeds, you can remove it with whipped egg whites. The white of one egg is enough to clear 50 liters of wine. Beat the egg whites until foamy, add a little wine, stir and pour into the wine in a thin stream and stir. The resulting suspension should settle, after which a sediment will appear, from which the drink must be carefully drained. There will remain an excessively tart aftertaste.
Prepare a wine drink based on bitter wine. There are many options. If it’s red, what’s wrong with mulled wine? His recipe is simple and original, and you and your guests will be so hot from the fiery wine that they will not feel the bitterness behind the taste of spices. Mulled wine recipe: for 1 liter of red wine you need to take 3-4 tablespoons of sugar, 2-3 cinnamon sticks, 2-3 centimeters of ginger, 2-3 star anise, 2-3 cardamom seeds, 3-4 clove buds. Spice powders and fruits are not suitable. If some spice is missing, it doesn’t matter, and without one or two components everything will turn out great. The wine is heated in a wide bowl and all the ingredients are added. The wine with spices is brought to a boil. Removed from heat. Covered with a lid. Leave for 10 minutes. Serve hot.
White grape wine's bitterness can easily be corrected by preparing a fashionable drink - sangria. This is a drink with added fruit.

Ingredients:

Wine – 1 liter
sugar – 3-4 tablespoons
lemon – 1 piece
orange – 1 piece
mint – 4-5 sprigs.

In a free, beautiful glass container, the liquid is mixed with sugar until it is completely dissolved. Fresh, washed fruits are cut into beautiful slices and placed in a vessel with wine. The drink is left for 1 or 2 hours. You need to cover it with a woven napkin. Serve sangria with pieces of ice or simply chilled. Mint is placed in each glass before drinking. Any wine, not just grape, is suitable for making sangria.

You can cope with this problem using bentonite in the following proportional ratio: white clay (3 g) per 1 liter of wine. White clay is prepared for use with 10 times its volume of cold water. It should be poured in, stirred and allowed to sit for about half a day until it becomes lime. Then you can add water to it until you get a liquid consistency and pour it into the wine in a thin stream. It should be left in this state for about a week, after which it should be removed from the sediment.

The strong bitterness in homemade wine cannot be masked. If the wine is strong, distill it into moonshine. Its reserves are never superfluous.

If none of the above methods help, you can try to leave the bitter wine for a long period of aging (6 months) in an oak barrel with the addition of small quantity alcohol If you don’t have an oak barrel, you can do the following:

add 1 tsp. crushed oak bark for every 3 liters. guilt;
seal and store for six months in a dark, dry place;
drain from sediment, strain;
add 1 tsp. glucose.

You should be careful with this method, because if the oak barrel is not well treated and washed, staying in it can cause an even greater increase in the bitter taste of the drink. As a rule, it is used if all other methods have proven useless.

Delicious homemade wine is a masterpiece of its manufacturer. The pride with which you place just an uncorked bottle on the table is perhaps comparable to the birth of a beautiful and talented child. However, for various reasons, something may not work out for you, which will lead to excessive bitterness in the wine. Of course, a slightly tart taste will enhance the drink, but there should be moderation in everything. Below we will look at why such a nuisance can arise at different stages of the production of a noble drink.

What's wrong with the raw materials?

The first stage of preparing material for making wine is the selection and preparation of the material. Everything will depend on its quality and the correctness of your work. A labor-intensive and lengthy process requires care and attention.

Basically, the reason for the appearance of bitterness in home cooking is the seeds and skins. The fact is that they contain the very substances that will subsequently give an undesirable taste, and possibly color.

If you find too many bones in your raw materials, remove them or mash the berries without crushing the solid components. In the case of white wine, of course, you should remove the excess, otherwise it may change color.

It is important to understand that grapes cannot be washed, especially cold water, you should not leave it in the heat, especially for a long time. The ideal option for winemaking is to process the product immediately after removal from the bush.

Among other things, bitterness can also come from spoilage of the product itself. Under no circumstances should you use rotten or fermented berries as a base for wine. You also need to pay careful attention to insects that can penetrate there.

To prevent the wine from becoming bitter at the end, you need to:

remove or process skins and pits;
follow the rules for storing grapes;
hurry up with recycling;
exclude spoiled berries;
monitor the purity of raw materials.

By paying attention to these points, you will be able to avoid unwanted bitterness and proceed to the next stage with a clean workpiece.

Fermentation stages

If everything went well at the first stage, we proceed to the second. When the fermentation process has already begun, you don’t have to worry about the wine for some time. Here it is extremely important to drain the sediment promptly after fermentation is complete.

Here's the thing. When the drink overplays, the process of alcohol formation is completed, the yeast - living microorganisms that ensure this action - will die. Like any organic matter, they will begin processes of rotting and decomposition, which will not only add bitterness to the drink and completely ruin it, but will also retain a persistent sulfuric smell.

Excerpt

When the homemade wine is ready, it has already been tasted, and everyone liked it, the period of its storage or aging begins. This important stage, which requires strict adherence to its rules.

Wine should be stored in a sealed container so that air does not penetrate into the container, otherwise it will simply peroxidize and turn into vinegar. Also a useful thing, but limited quantities. Do not put wine in too cold or too warm place. Best option this is a cellar or a specialized refrigerator.

In addition to the above, if the drink is not rolled up in bottles, but is in bottles plugged with corks, it must be stored in a horizontal position. This prevents the cork from drying out and air getting inside.

There is special advice from professional winemakers regarding aging. The drink needs to be instilled. Dig a hole about a meter deep in the cellar, stack the bottles horizontally there and bury them. This will allow you to maintain the temperature, remove excess air flow and eliminate temptation.

What to do if it’s already bitter

Finally, you opened the desired drink and discovered that the wine was still bitter. Having figured out the reason, you can take some actions that will give the wine a chance for a second life.

If the wine has become slightly acidic and has just begun to turn into vinegar, it must be urgently strained to remove all excess and, adding 20–30 ml of alcohol per liter of drink, placed in a dark place for subsequent aging. So it should stand for about six months. If everything works out, the bitterness will go away and you will get a good wine. Keep in mind that it will already be quite strong.

The wine will have to be poured out if you missed the moment of ripening and the tremors still go rotten. Nothing can remove such bitterness and smell. At this stage you should be especially careful and attentive. However, if the bitterness comes from the seeds, you can remove it with whipped egg whites. The white of one egg is enough to clear 50 liters of wine. Beat the egg whites until foamy, add a little wine, stir and pour into the wine in a thin stream and stir. The resulting suspension should settle, after which a sediment will appear, from which the drink must be carefully drained. There will remain an excessively tart aftertaste.

Making wine is a delicate and capricious process. It requires attention and concentration. Be prepared for the fact that at first you will not succeed very well. However, this activity is creative and, if the basic conditions are met, it can create a delicious homemade product. Experiment and be extremely attentive to detail!

Many winemakers, especially beginners, have to deal with such an unpleasant problem as a noticeable taste of bitterness in the finished wine. Because of this, all the work spent on making natural wine goes down the drain. If homemade wine is bitter, it is usually thrown away or used to make moonshine.
But that's not always the case right decisions. Knowing the causes of bitterness, as well as methods for eliminating it, you can significantly improve the quality of the drink, that is, save the finished wine.

Causes of bitterness

Why does bitterness appear in wine and what can be done to eliminate it? One of the main reasons for the appearance of bitterness in home-made products is the increased content of tannins (tannins). They give the drink a bitter and astringent taste.
Tannins are found in the skins of grapes and their seeds. Tannins are useful; they give the wine a pleasant astringency and help clarify it. In white wines made from juice, grape seeds are sometimes added specifically during fermentation to increase the concentration of tannins in finished product and add a spicy bitterness to the flavor bouquet. But everything is good in moderation.

An excess of such substances not only worsens the taste of wine, but also gives drinks white grapes brown tint. Rancidity is characteristic of wines from dark varieties grapes that ferment on the pulp.

You can prevent a large portion of tannins from getting into the finished wine at the stage of its production. It is necessary to ensure accurate and soft extraction of juice, excluding crushing of seeds. It is better to avoid using a drill with a special attachment or a home harvester.

The juice, which is squeezed out using meat grinders, also contains large number crushed bitter grape seeds, which can cause excess tannins in the finished drink.

Important: the maximum amount of coarse and bitter substances is contained in grape seeds. They begin to release their bitterness into the liquid in case of mechanical damage. The longer the wine stock is infused on the pulp (maceration stage), the greater the likelihood of bitterness developing.

Rancid wine is obtained from low-quality material, when the drink is kept in wooden barrels, and also as a result of disease.

Bitterness can appear not only in grape wines, but also in intoxicating drinks made from apples, cherries, plums and other crops.

Methods for eliminating bitterness in wine

Let's consider a solution to this problem depending on why the wine is bitter.

Violation of juice production technology

The most common cause of bitterness (more than 50 percent of all cases). Intensive grinding of berries/fruits and hard squeezing of juice damage the seeds.

Poor quality material, overexposure of wort on pulp

Raw materials for wine must be carefully selected. Even a few rotten or moldy fruits can cause the pulp to rot. The same problem can arise if you miss the deadline for separating the juice from the pulp.

How to avoid: you should make the product only from fresh berries and fruits, and also strictly follow the recipe and complete all stages of preparing wine in a timely manner.
How to eliminate: in this situation, bitterness is removed by clarifying the wine with bentonite clay (per 1 liter - 3 g of clay). The required portion of white clay is poured with cold water in a ratio of 1:10. The mixture must be stirred well and left for a day so that the clay transforms into lime.
Dilute the lime mass with water. Add just enough water so that the resulting mixture can be poured into a container. Introduce the bentonite solution into the wine in a thin stream. After five to seven days, remove the sediment from the drink.

Overexposure on lees

If homemade wine is not filtered from the sediment in time during the aging period, bitterness may appear in it. The sediment contains waste products from yeast cultures, they decompose and deteriorate the taste, making the drink bitter.

How to avoid: remove wine from the sediment in a timely manner.
How to eliminate: pasting with fresh egg white or white clay will help get rid of bitterness (the technology is described above). For greater effect, you can use both methods alternately.

Diseases of wine

Wine contains microorganisms that, under favorable conditions, cause vinegar fermentation, the appearance of wine mold and other wine diseases. In the early stages of the disease, most wine diseases are treatable. But, as a rule, one of the consequences of such processes is a slight bitterness.

Overexposure in oak barrels

If wine is kept in oak containers at home, then as a result of long storage the drink becomes saturated with tannins. It is very difficult to remove them from wine.

How to avoid: check the taste of intoxicating drinks stored in barrels at least once a week. This will allow you not to miss the moment if the wine starts to taste bitter.
How to fix: if the problem is detected in a timely manner, the drink is corrected with bentonite. If time is missed, the taste is improved by adding sugar and fixing the wine with alcohol (10–15% of the wine volume).

If the proposed methods do not solve the problem, the wine, which is bitter, will have to be used for fruit moonshine.