Cherry wine

[geek]

My wife got 10 lbs of frozen pitted cherries and are getting thawed now.

Never made such a wine and looking for suggestions, 3gal batch maybe? A 6gal batch may be too diluted unless I get some frozen fruits from Costco to make a mix.

Yeast type, desired starting SG, etc.

 

[Scooter68]

Sweet or tart Cherries? For sweet I would use at about 6-7 lbs and a little water as possible for a 1 gallon batch. 3 Gallons would be too think I suspect unless they are really ripe, sweet and Loaded with flavor. You might stretch and get 2 gallons from 10lbs.

 

[geek]

Good question, never dealt with cherries before and the bag says "RTP Cherries", Googled that and it seems like Red Tart Pitted cherries.

I'm gonna open a bag on a side and taste one.

 

[geek]

yep, tart

 

[Tnuscan]

yep, tart

It's not a bad thing that they are tart, many feel they make the better wine.

 

[geek]

I put them back in the freezer until I make a decision.

 

[Arne]

According to my old notes, in 2012 used 20 lb. pitted cherries to 5 gal. water. 2013 used 28 lb. cherries to 8 gal. water, and 40 lb. cherries to 10 gal. water. All of them came out with decent flavor as I remember. Have a few bottles left and they still taste great. Arne.

 

[RaginCajun]

Tart cherries make excellent wine, it's the most raved about of the types of wine I make but I've only made 10 or so batches so I'm still a newbie. I use:
15 lb sour cherries, 5 gal water, 11 lb sugar, acid blend, pectin enzyme, nutrient and yeast. I still don't know how different yeast affects the wine so I used Red Star Montrachet yeast. Back sweetened with 3/4c per gallon. Yielded 28 bottles of yumminess!

Good luck!

 

[geek]

Thanks guys, that gives me an overall park idea on what to do.
So I'm thinking to add a couple lbs of frozen berry mix from Costco to increase the fruit a bit, then water to 5gal.

I only have QA23 and a lot of EC-1118 yeast as of now though.

 

[Scooter68]

You know when all you have is tart cherries - they seem to taste pretty 'sweet.' Over the years our sweet cherry trees have either not produced at all or the birds ate ALL the cherries before I got a chance at them. So I've been stuck with the cherries from our one Montmorecy Pie Cherry tree. When those get really ripe there is a lot of sweetness to them. In fact , just a personal thing here, I find the tartness of a good fresh pie cherry more enjoyable the taste of a red wine. But that's just me.

So go for it and be a purist - stick with just the cherry flavor for now. Buy some Tart Cherry Juice to add if you need it.

 

[dcbrown73]

I bought one of the Vinter's Best 128oz bottles that make 5 gallons. I bought 12lbs of cherries to get the last gallon for a six gallon batch.

I've got to say. It's got a lot more cherry punch than the three other cherry wines I've tasted. So much so that I'm looking at possibly making half of it into a Cherry Chocolate Port.

Good luck with it. Keep us updated on it.

 

[hounddawg]

To me tart only way to go, I like mine at least 5 to 6lbs to the gallon, with ten pounds I do a gallon bulk a year, back sweeten to below taste, bottles let age one more year, I got a few batches is sour cherry bbulk aging but plan this fall to do a batch with double the fruit. Or 10 to 12lbs to the gallon just for chits an grins, but I'm an odd one indeed but I love good country wines, never done real wines grapes or kits just country wines from scratch for a poor ole country boy,, whom has become unwantedly popular in my area, I used to strive for under 30 gallon a year now with not a bottle in months have 80 gallons aging 20 more fermenting and going for another 70 or 80 before the years out,
I think 200 is max in my area, but hech I only needed 28 for a bottle a day per year any a touch for company, where did I go wrong,
Dawg





QUOTE=geek;638644]My wife got 10 lbs of frozen pitted cherries and are getting thawed now.

Never made such a wine and looking for suggestions, 3gal batch maybe? A 6gal batch may be too diluted unless I get some frozen fruits from Costco to make a mix.

Yeast type, desired starting SG, etc.[/QUOTE]

 

[geek]

I bought one of the Vinter's Best 128oz bottles that make 5 gallons. I bought 12lbs of cherries to get the last gallon for a six gallon batch.

I've got to say. It's got a lot more cherry punch than the three other cherry wines I've tasted. So much so that I'm looking at possibly making half of it into a Cherry Chocolate Port.

Good luck with it. Keep us updated on it.

One of this?

http://labelpeelers.com/wine-making/fruit-purees/vintners-harvest-tart-cherry-puree-49-oz/

 

[geek]

I bought one of the Vinter's Best 128oz bottles that make 5 gallons. I bought 12lbs of cherries to get the last gallon for a six gallon batch.

I've got to say. It's got a lot more cherry punch than the three other cherry wines I've tasted. So much so that I'm looking at possibly making half of it into a Cherry Chocolate Port.

Good luck with it. Keep us updated on it.

I think this may be what you referenced:

http://labelpeelers.com/wine-making/fruit-wine-base/vintners-best-cherry-fruit-wine-base-128-oz/

.

 

[dcbrown73]

I think this may be what you referenced:

http://labelpeelers.com/wine-making/fruit-wine-base/vintners-best-cherry-fruit-wine-base-128-oz/

.

Yep, that's the one I used. I was told the cans are being phased out, but I talked to my local brew story and he said that they aren't. Only a few flavors are being phased out due to not selling well.

Right now I do not know what to believe hah. LP or local brew shop!

 

[geek]

Yep, that's the one I used. I was told the cans are being phased out, but I talked to my local brew story and he said that they aren't. Only a few flavors are being phased out due to not selling well.

Right now I do not know what to believe hah. LP or local brew shop!

How much did you back sweeten yours and age for how long?

 

[Scooter68]

Vintner's Best - A blend of juices

Vintners Harvest is 100% the fruit pictured on the label.

The Vintner's Best products contain other juices such as Apple, Grape and Pear. So you are not getting a 128 oz bottle of Cherry Juice, or BlueBerry, it is a blend. That's fine as long as you realize that. I haven't compared costs but I do know that Apple and Grape juices are less expensive than a number of the other juices like Cherry and Blueberry. Again as long as folks know that it fine.


This is from the Vintner's Best Cherry 128oz bottle: Ingredient List : High Fructose Corn Syrup; Apple, Pear, Cherry & Grape Juice Concentrates; Water;
Citric Acid; Natural Flavors.

 

[dcbrown73]

How much did you back sweeten yours and age for how long?

As of right now, I've added about I believe (2) 32oz bottles of Welches Black Cherry Concord Grape Juice to top up the cherry wine. That is the only sweetening I've done.

Early on, I was sure I was going to have to, but the bitterness and roughness has already started dropping. It was starting to taste as if it wouldn't require much more if any. I'm hoping anyhow. It's probably been a bit over a month since I last tasted. I planned on trying it again once I'm ready to rack again in about two months.

As for aging. I just started late Nov, early Dec. If I split it (half wine and half port) I was hoping end of year festivities would be a good time to open them.

 

[dcbrown73]

Vintner's Best - A blend of juices

Vintners Harvest is 100% the fruit pictured on the label.

The Vintner's Best products contain other juices such as Apple, Grape and Pear. So you are not getting a 128 oz bottle of Cherry Juice, or BlueBerry, it is a blend. That's fine as long as you realize that. I haven't compared costs but I do know that Apple and Grape juices are less expensive than a number of the other juices like Cherry and Blueberry. Again as long as folks know that it fine.


This is from the Vintner's Best Cherry 128oz bottle: Ingredient List : High Fructose Corn Syrup; Apple, Pear, Cherry & Grape Juice Concentrates; Water;
Citric Acid; Natural Flavors.

My intent was to get the Harvest, but I was told they were eliminating that one and the Best was it's replacement. Clearly that was not true from what I hear now.

 

[Scooter68]

Sad that someone had to mislead you on that. I've been looking at buying enough Tart Cherry Concentrate to make a 2-3 gallon batch. The Vintner's Harvest (VH) and Vintner's Best (VB) are both Sweet Cherry Juices and after making my batch of Black Currant Wine last year (VH) I love that tartness. The VH Black Currant juice was of course sweet but the tartness was still quite strong.

Still looking into the Tart Cherry Concentrates trying to figure out the best prices and most concentrated, Some list 1 oz as having 70-80 calories (All from the natural sugar of course) and some state that 1 oz has 110-120 calories. All are from Tart Cherries not Sweet Cherry varieties.