First Time Cherry Wine

[ChuckD]

A one gallon ice cream bucket of tart cherry/ pitted/ solid no air/ SG 1.084 (this is a high sugar variety) ,,, weighs in at 3,887 grams. This bucket is currently frozen therefore what was a gallon fresh off the pitter has expanded enough th make it hard to push the lid on.

As a comparison a two gallon peach flesh/ stone and skin removed/solid no air/ contender variety/ SG was about 1.055 weighs in at 17lb / 7.7 Kg
If I didn’t know anything other than juice’s gravity, I would multiply the weight of water by the density. ,,, If I am pressing juice I can get about 83% yield by weight.

Thanks.

Now that I think about it my brother probably had 40lbs picked… before destemming and pitting. I’ll just have to weigh them when I get there and adjust as necessary. I’ll shoot for no less than 6 lbs for every gallon of water added.

 

[ChuckD]

So with an 83% yield I could expect about 20lbs of juice from 25 lbs of cherries. Assuming the density of the juice is the same as water that would be about 2.4 gallons of juice from the cherries. I’ll have my brother weigh the bags when he pulls them for defrosting and I can report back on the yield.

 

[ChuckD]

I meant 6 lbs of pitted sour cherries to 1 Imperial gallon of water or 5 lbs of pitted sour cherries to 1 US gallon of water.

. I said 6lbs/US gallon because I’m typically a more-is-better kinda guy when it comes to fruit volume.

And thanks. I might try a gallon or so as a port. My SIL wants mostly wine… really sweet wine but not so much the high alcohol.

I’m going to supply the equipment and additives and walk them through the process. They only live about 30 min away so I can assist as needed.

 

[Rice_Guy]

As a finished volume goal I would target either two five gallon carboys, or a six and a three, or a five and a three. Basically I make the volume fit the carboys I own and I add water at the racking off primary to top off and to create the finished volume.

Montmercy and northStar and Supermont are sour cherries AKA pie cherry. ex. Supermont pH 3.64/ 3.33/ 3.07/ 3.47; SG 1.058/ 1.066/ 1.050/ 1.063; TA 1.63/ 1.76/ 1.97/ 2.06. ex NorthStar pH 3.31/ 3.24/ 3.32/ SG 1.048/ 1.80 TA. Sour cherry has primarily malic acid therefore a sharper taste. (NOTE I have been fighting pH rise with apple which is also malic)
Sweet cherry is primarily citric acid. It is a totally different crop. ex. Ranier pH 4.45 / SG 1.109/ TA 0.16; Bing pH 4.38/ 3.92/ SG 1.086/ 1.094 TA .70/ .97. My feeling is that Bing cherry makes a thin wine. What we normally expect as sharp front notes are missing.
Age? You should have it reasonably clear in four months. I would encourage you to rack to clean carboys which creates some void volume and only bottle that one. At four months I would add KSorbate. I would consider adding Bactiless to both carboys again because it is mainly malic acid.
Tannin? as picked a pie cherry does not have tannin. However as cherry ages some polyphenols polymerize and become tasteable, rough/ low bitter notes. The age developed flavor is reminiscent of choke cherry. At four pounds per gallon this shouldn’t be too bad though.

Did I cover everything so far?

 

[ChuckD]

Did I cover everything so far?

Very helpful. I hadn’t thought of bactiless to prevent spontaneous MLF.

would there be any reason not to shoot for 6lbs/gal?

 

[Rice_Guy]

I like more, 3.7 Kg per gallon is juice plus melted sugar.
Wines are frequently said to target a TA between 0.50 and 0.70% as tartaric acid. If I use this as a guideline one part water with one part fruit. With my quantity I get a finished TA of 1.15 to 1.2% and back sweeten the finished to 1.015 +/-.

Running at one part to two parts water I would add acid to build the TA back to target range.

TA can vary quite a bit. There is quite a drop between picking the red ones before vacation and after vacation having the rest of the tree ripe/ dark red.

 

[Hazelemere]

Thanks.

Now that I think about it my brother probably had 40lbs picked… before destemming and pitting. I’ll just have to weigh them when I get there and adjust as necessary. I’ll shoot for no less than 6 lbs for every gallon of water added.

you should get 30 lbs pitted i.e. 5 Imperial gallons of water plus 15 lbs cane sugar and then your 71B yeast. You should get 7-8 gallons of must so if you want to have a deep dive do 5 Imperial gallons of table wine un-oaked and 2.5 Imperial gallons of oaked port. HYou can put the sugar on top of the frozen pitted sour cherries until they thaw before adding water and pectic enzyme.

 

[ChuckD]

So my brother took the cherries out of the freezer to thaw (not un-thaw… that would be pointless) and he has 30 lbs of pitted tart cherries. I figure if we get 80% yield at press that would be 2.8 gallons of juice. So I will add 5 gallons of water for fermentation. That gives me 6lbs of fruit per gallon. If the final volume is close enough I’ll top up to 8 gallons ( a 5 and a 3), otherwise I’ll use smaller containers as needed.

 

[ChuckD]

@Rice_Guy I remember you said in the past that k-meta will strip all the color from fresh cherries. Can I add it immediately after fermentation's is complete?

 

[Rice_Guy]

I remember you said in the past that k-meta will strip all the color from fresh cherries.

In a dilute solution as six lb per gallon the color loss isn’t too bad. The effect is dramatic if you sprinkle dry meta on the cherry. Cherry color is less stable over time, as an industry person looking at shelf life I like to put 100 grams of aronia in a five gallon or 500 grams of black raspberry. (or get the bottle of red cabbage extract from a “natural foods” supplier ~ 10 ml)

 

[hounddawg]

I like more, 3.7 Kg per gallon is juice plus melted sugar.
Wines are frequently said to target a TA between 0.50 and 0.70% as tartaric acid. If I use this as a guideline one part water with one part fruit. With my quantity I get a finished TA of 1.15 to 1.2% and back sweeten the finished to 1.015 +/-.

Running at one part to two parts water I would add acid to build the TA back to target range.

TA can vary quite a bit. There is quite a drop between picking the red ones before vacation and after vacation having the rest of the tree ripe/ dark red.

jeeze man, i know you're good, but being a poor dumb country boy, i need a translator,
DAWG