Cherry Wine (dry recipe used)

[Neviawen]

Hi again,
I was hoping for some opinions about this cherry wine that I have in the primary. I used this recipe that I found on your forum somewhere.

[FONT=&quot]Cherry Wine [Dry] (1)[/FONT]​

• [FONT=&quot]4-5 lbs fresh or frozen sweet cherries [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1-3/4 lbs finely granulated sugar [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]7-1/2 pts water [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]2 tsp acid blend [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1/4 tsp tannin [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1/2 tsp pectic enzyme [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1 tsp yeast nutrient [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Montrachet wine yeast [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Stir sugar into water and put on to boil. Meanwhile, sort, destem, and wash the cherries, rejecting any that are unsould or moldy. Put the cherries in a nylon straining bag, tie, and place in primary. Without breaking the stones, crush the cherries with your hands or other means. Pour the boilling water with dissolved sugar over the crushed cherries. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to cool to room temperature. Add all remaining ingredients except yeast. Stir well, recover, and set aside for 12 hours. Add activated yeast and recover. Stir daily. After two weeks, remove bag and drip drain (do not squeeze). Transfer to a dark secondary and fit airlock. After two weeks, rack, top up, and refit airlock. Rack again in two months and again two months later. When specific gravity registers dryness (0.990), rack into bottles and store in dark place for one year. Server slightly chilled. [Adapted from Terry Garey's The Joy of Home Winemaking][/FONT]



I doubled up this batch to make 2 gallons. I picked the cherries myself last weekend (on Sat. and started the wine Sunday the 17th). I'm just wondering what to do now.. The directions say after 2 weeks to remove the bag of cherries and rack. The SG reading is already 0.998 and has been that for 2 days now. Should I remove the cherries now and rack it since it's pretty much dry? What's the added benefit of leaving the cherries in the primary with the liquid for the whole 2 weeks?

 

[Sammyk]

Sounds good. WalMart has black sweet cherries for $2.98 a pound!

 

[saramc]

The cherries have been on board for 9 days now and your wine is dry, you can safely remove the cherries now. The reason the cherries stay intact for that long is because you want to extract as much flavor from the fruit during the active fermentation, but since you are dry you can remove the fruit, rack the wine and put it under airlock. The action of the active ferment helps prevent the fruit from oxidizing and starting to go "bad". But you are dry, so time for the fruit to come out for the best outcome.
Personally, when working with country wines (non-grape) I follow the SG, and when my SG has dropped by 2/3 I rack the wine,remove any fruit (or the maximum my fruit stays in the primary is 5-7 days depending on what fruit it is and and what looks like when I assess it twice a day) and put it under airlock.

Out of curiosity what the temperature of your ferment...if you were in the 70's that would explain a lot, plus Montrachet ferments like wildfire burning a forest during a drought. Next time consider a ferment in 65-68F range if using fresh fruit (even lower if the yeast tolerance indicates a lower temperature tolerance) as it will help with the fruit tones so very much.

Let us know how this turns out. I have been eyeballing cherries at the Farmer's Market, not to mention I have a few cans of Dark Cherry Puree and 2 quarts each of R.W. Knudsen's 100% Juice in Tart Cherry and Sweet Dark Cherry. Decisions, decisions. I played with a lot of cherry last year: Chocolate Cherry Cabernet Sauvignon, Cherry Mead, Cherry Vanilla Mead & Wine, Cherry Galengal Mead and Chocolate Covered Cherry Cordial wine (oh my goodness).

 

[KatyDinkle]

I would like to make a sweet cheery wine rather than dry. Could I use this recipe and then back sweeten?

 

[Julie]

I would like to make a sweet cheery wine rather than dry. Could I use this recipe and then back sweeten?

yes just remember to add k-meta and sorbate before adding sugar to backsweeten.