Pitted Cherries In Syrup

[stevenstead]

Hi everyone,

My first ever wine (blackberry) is now racked and in the cellar so on to the next 'project'.

I found some pitted cherries in the supermarket and was wondering what's the best thing to do with them. I have checked the ingredients for preservatives and it's clear....cherries, water, syrup. I have 3 x 680g but could get more if required.

I searched everywhere for a recipe but it seems it's fresh cherries only for the most part.

I'm ideally after a sweet strong wine, anyone have a recipe I could follow or point me in the right direction?

Cheers.

Steve.


EDIT: I was going to follow your everyday cherry recipe but I'm not sure what to do with the syrup and cherries. Strain the syrup, or add the lot in to fermenting bin. Also not sure about starting OG for a high alcohol content and whether it's best to strain syrup and sweet the wine later with it. Maybe all that syrup will be too much for the yeast to start out with? Thought it best to ask the experts!

 

[Arne]

I think I would ferment the whole works and maybe purchase some more cherries. You can throw the extra cherries into the wime must and keep the juice to help flavor it after ferment. I also am not sure howmany cherries you are talking about. Excuse my ignorance, but do not know how many are in a g. I am old, grew up in pounds and probably not going to change. LOL. Anyway, a very strong flavor in the must, add sugar to get a specific gravity of around 1.085, will give you around 12% alcohol i think, and let it ferment. Use some pectic enzime when starting before fermenting to help it clear later, add some campden or k-meta 12 hours after the pectic, 24 hrs later add the yeast. Probably should add yeast nutrient and maybe some energizer at the same time. If you have a way of testing the acid it would be a good time just before pitching the yeast. Get it started, keep it warm, stir it once or twice a day, when it gets down to 1.010 you can rack it to a carboy or let it ferment to dry in the primary. If left int he primary you should air lock it then.Think I hit most things, somebody else will chime in to help too. Good luck with it, Arne.

 

[jswordy]

From Jack Keller's site at http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques38.asp

This is for ONE gallon.


TINNED CHERRY WINE

• 2 16-oz cans of pie cherries (NOT cherry pie filling)
• 1-3/4 lbs granulated sugar if in water; 2 lbs granulated sugar if in light syrup; 1-3/4 lbs granulated sugar if in heavy syrup
• 3-1/2 qts water
• 1 tsp acid blend
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• 1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
• Montrachet wine yeast

Heat water, but do not boil. Drain syrup from cherries and set syrup aside. Put cherries in nylon straining bag, tie end closed, set in primary. Add sugar to hot water and stir well to dissolve sugar. Add syrup (or water) from cherries. Pour the water/syrup over cherries in primary, cover with clean cloth and allow to cool to room temperature (about 4 hours). Add remaining ingredients except yeast and recover primary. Wait 12 hours, add yeast and recover. Ferment 5 days, punching bag down twice a day. Measure specific gravity. When S.G. reaches 1.020, drip drain (but don't squeeze) the bag of cherries. Discard cherries. Allow wine to settle overnight and rack into secondary. Top up and fit airlock. Rack every 2 months for total of 3 times. Stabilize wine, wait 10 days, rack into bottles or into clean secondary to be sweetened to taste before bottling. This wine may be tasted in 6 months, but ages well. [Author's own recipe]

 

[saramc]

You could opt to use frozen concentrate such as 100% apple-cherry or a white grape cherry if they make it, perhaps 2 cans, plus the canned cherries + juice, then top up with water to 1 gallon. Adjust S.G. if needed.
Do not forget that cherries have malic acid as their dominant acid. I always use Lalvin 71B-1122 when working with cherry as my primary fruit. It also has an alcohol toxicity of approximately 14% and a nice temperature range of 60-85F.

Let us know what you decide to do.

 

[stevenstead]

Thanks everyone.

We don't get much frozen concentrate around here so it will be entirely made from these cherries/syrup. Plus I'm curious as to how it will turn out. I was just going to use Youngs Super Yeast and nutrient because it's open and needs using, trying to keep costs down a little initially. Newbies hey

Straining the blackberries, and taking readings with all that fruit floating was a pain in the rear so I'm going to try the muslin/nylon bag method as per jswordy posted recipe above.

Much appreciated for your help and advice as I'm not sure I would be making wine without it!

Regards

Steve.