Cherry wine

[harleydmn]

I have never made any fruit wine yet, but I have a very big cherry tree in my yard. These are not a sweet cherry, can these be used to make wine and does anyone have a receipt?

 

[Rocky]

Harley, many people will tell you that the sour cherries make the best wine. Yes, you can use them for wine. We have made cherry wine for years from sour cherries. When we make the wine, we pick, de-stem, and crush the cherries into our fermenter (be careful not to crack the stone) and add simple syrup to an SG of 1.085. I use EC 1118 yeast and I am sure that those on the forum who try different yeast will have other recommendations. We ferment to dry, clear and stabilize with potassium sorbate and then back sweeten to taste. We like a little tartness so our final SG is about 1.005.

 

[Arne]

I do about the same as Rocky. Bout the only thing different is I freeze the cherries first. Makes it easier to get the juice out of them. Came up with an old fashioned cherry pitter this year. I am going to pit a batch and see if it makes any difference in the final taste. That is going to be quite a ways down the road before I can compare tho. Will let you know then. Arne.

 

[harleydmn]

Cool, I'm excite, now I need them to start ripping.
Rocky, you don't remove the pit? How many pounds per gallon? I got a very large tree. Thanks

 

[Rocky]

Harley, I just mash them a little at a time in a collender over a pot using a potato masher. I then dump the juice and the mashed cherries into the fermenter. My experience has been I end up with about 1/2 to 2/3 of whatever is in the fermenter. There are a lot of "pick your own" farms around and that is what I do. I usually get about three baskets (we call them "chip baskets" and they are about 20 by 9 by 8 inches). My rough calculation is that is about 6.25 gallons which would yield about 3 to 4 gallons of wine.

You asked about the pits. We do not pit them but you could if you wanted to. I just make sure not to crack the pit when mashing. Most of the pits eventually fall to the bottom of the fermenter as we punch down the cap (a few are left in the pulp, whch we squeeze out in cheese cloth as our "press").

 

[Julie]

As Rocky stated, some people say sour makes a better wine and I am one of those who says that. I have two Montmorency trees and they make the best cherry wine. I use Lavlin 1122 for my yeast and backsweeten to 1.008 - 1.010[FONT=&quot]
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[Turock]

We use one of those old cherry pitters too and they work very well. It's pretty fast,too. Don't use any water.Last year we had about 85 pounds of cherries and it made 9 gallons of wine. So from that poundage, with the resulting amount of gallons you can figure out the amount of chemistries to add when you go with no water. Be sure to check PH and adjust your acid before you begin the ferment. Sour cherry wine is one of the best fruit wines, but to get that good cherry flavor, you have to go with no water. We use Montrachet culture.

 

[Arne]

According to my notes from last year I used 20 plus pounds of cherries for 5 gal. It came out with a good cherry flavor, but if you used all juice it would surely have more cherry to it. Arne

 

[saramc]

I enjoy reading the adventures of this winemaker, so I thought I would share the link about his cherry winemaking adventure. Best of luck to you and I sure wish I had a big tree around. (Have a grafted 5:1 that a friend gifted me that is going on year 2)
http://www.washingtonwinemaker.com/blog/2007/06/30/cherry-wine-recipe/

 

[mmadmikes1]

The people who say sour cherries make the best wine don't get free Bings to make wine out of. O that is some good stuff after aging a year

 

[fivebk]

I steam juiced my (montmorency) pie cherries, used straight juice and made two different wines. The first one I called "cherries & cabernet" ( I added a cabernet grape pack to it) made it semi sweet. second was a cherry melomel ( it has been bottled but is still young )

 

[saramc]

I made a cherry galengal melomel...it is among the most requested by my friends. It was a spur of the moment throw together, which I am now trying my best to recreate and actually write down what I am doing. Have 3 bottles of originial batch left, and I could cry, it is that good. I now document everything!