Chocolate Covered Cherry Wine

[cmason1957]

I started my chocolate covered cherry Wine right after Christmas, got the cherries for $0.33 per box . Added 48 boxes . This is what it is looking like now. Almost time to think about back sweetening.

 

[cmason1957]

Oh and that is candy cane Wine in the background. It has now cleared also.

 

[saramc]

Your candy cane wine is dark? My CCC wine is dark red. Weird.

 

[cmason1957]

Yeah, I wondered about that. I will probably be adding just a few drops of red food coloring to it. Oh, I bet it might be the white grape nice I added.

 

[cmason1957]

Dang auto correct on my phone. Grape juice.

 

[CoastalEmpireWine]

Do you have the recipe for this wine? I would really love to make this.

 

[saramc]

Do you have the recipe for this wine? I would really love to make this.

I would post a link to Winepress, where the recipe I used came from, but it was frowned upon last time I did that. So try this, I do believe it is the same recipe:
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/wineblog8.asp
Scroll down to Nov 11, 2006, but there is good reading as you scroll to it.

 

[cmason1957]

The Jack Keller site is where I got the recipe from. I don't think i changed much about it, except I used a mix of dark and normal chocolate covered cherries. The ferment was very different from any other. The Chocolate raised up and looked like very thick mud. It cleated almost better than any other wine, which surprised the heck out of me. I back sweetened a bunch. I don't have my notes with me right now. I'll post the recipe later.

 

[CoastalEmpireWine]

Sounds awesome! How do you get the thick mud out though? Did you try stirring it up and mixing it in for the flavor? What did you back sweeten with? Thank you for your help

 

[saramc]

Sounds awesome! How do you get the thick mud out though? Did you try stirring it up and mixing it in for the flavor? What did you back sweeten with? Thank you for your help

You allow the thick gross lees to drop and you rack. You do this just a few times, the wine drops clear like any other wine given enough time. Any fudgy foam can be scooped off if it does not drop. I also transfer lees to smallest glass jar with airlock and pop in refrig, or cold garage in winter and in a few days even more liquid is available for topping up. If you need to backsweeten after stabilizing, you could use simple syrup. I talked to another who used maraschino cherry liquid, another who tweaked ACV with maraschino liqueur, another added creme de cacoa, another Godiva liqueur.

 

[cmason1957]

Scoping the fudged stuff of the top is exactly what I did. Everything else was just like any other wine.

 

[wineforfun]

Did you have to add any sugar up front to get the 1.090 - 1.100 SG?
I may give this a go after Christmas and the candy goes on sale.

 

[cmason1957]

I don't have my notes here in front of me, but I vaguely remember that we had to add some.

 

[wineforfun]

Ok, thanks. Ready for Christmas to get here so I can get some of the "after Christmas" cherries and get it going.

 

[Tess]

I like to try this. Every choc wine Iv seen in the store looks like choc Milk its not clear. lol

 

[saramc]

I like to try this. Every choc wine Iv seen in the store looks like choc Milk its not clear. lol

Tess, like you I was appalled (and disgusted) by commercial chocolate wine but discovered when making it at home and when using unsweetened cocoa powder from Hershey's to high end dutch-processed unsweetened powders (to even using chocolate covered cherry cordial candies) the wine will clear if you have patience and rack properly. Didn't even use an end stage fining agent. No chocolate extracts or flavorings added, just good ingredients and patience. I have a chocolate raspberry chambourcin from 2011 that is still sitting in a carboy, does not even compare to the carboy of the same batch which was bottled last October. Crystal clear, fruit everywhere and kissed by smooth chocolate. Around seven months is when most of my chocolate wines, from cocoa powder, hit their clearing window.

For fun, and because you can, take a finished wine of your choice and easily turn it into a chocolate wine... by adding one cup of Hershey's Chocolate Syrup-Regular or Special Dark- to one gallon of clear, stabilized, ready to bottle wine. It will drop clear in a week or so and then simply rack and you are good to go. It is not as good as a few years of cocoa powder doing its magic, but it converts any wine into a chocolate wine, even mead. Chocolate JMAO, quite nice.

 

[wineforfun]

Choco Cherry Wine ?

I just bought 24 boxes of milk chocolate covered cherries and 24 boxes of milk chocolate covered blueberries. I noticed on Kellers recipe it calls for 8 - 1lb. boxes of C.C. Cherries. The boxes I bought are 5.6oz., with 10 cherries per box. That means it will take approx. 24 boxes to reach the "8 - 1lb. boxes". It seems like way too many cherries. It will be 240 for a 1 gal. batch.
I noticed cmason1957 used 48 boxes for what I assume is a 5/6 gal. batch, according to his pics.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[vernsgal]

before any back sweetening what was the finishing SG? I started Jack Keller's (1 gal)Chocolate Maraschino wine back on Nov 1 . He uses the cherries and cocoa with honey instead of the boxed chocolates.SG 1.028 today. Does the recipe with boxed chocolates ferment dry?

 

[cmason1957]

Yes, I did use 48 boxes for a 6 gallon batch. It has turned out okay, but not great. To me, it tastes just like eating a chocolate covered cherry from the box.

I don't know that I am making this again this year, but when I walk into Wal Mart and see the boxes at $0.33 again, I may change my mind. My wife might not be very happy with that idea, I haven't discussed it with her.

Also, I was absolutely amazed how clear this got all on it's own. I don't recall adding any clearing agents and it is clear as a bell.

I know it seems like a lot of cherries, but I used way more than that in the cherry wine I made.

 

[wineforfun]

Were the 48 boxes the smaller ones, like I am talking about? The ones that only have 10 pieces of candy in them?
I am looking at using 24 boxes for a 1 gallon batch, according to the recipe stating "8 - 1lb. boxes".
At that rate your batch would have been wayyyyy under the recommended number of boxes.
A 6 gallon batch with the size of boxes I bought would need 144 boxes to meet the recipe.

I am confused whether I am using too many boxes, although the recipe says "8 - 1lb. boxes".