To much fruit?

[ahkew]

I used a chokecherry receip that called for two and one half #s of fruit for gallon. Instead of using 2 1/2#s, I used 5#,s with all other ingeidents remaining in line with the orginal receip hoping to increase the cherry flavor. Ia,m using method 1 from H.E. Bravery,s book which call's for the sugar to be added in stages and I'am now on stage 2 (3 stages). The way this thing is bubbling, I should be able to break into the ethanol business. But seriously, how do they determine how much fruit should be used in a receip? Thanks, Ron

 

[Wade E]

It is usually judged by the amount of sugar, acids, and mainly flavor when figuring out how much fuit should be used per gallon. I dont have access to chokecherries but have heard they can be very tart and possibly tannic. That beind said there are so many recipes (mainly old) that areway to low on the amount of fruit per gallon and most fruits should be between 6-8 lbs per gallon but there are those that wilbe lower.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Wade is right - my experience with chokecherries is they are very tannic. I made the mistake of adding more tannin in - so it will be a while before it is drinkable. I used about 5-6#'s per gallon for mine.

I would not use any tannin addition with chokecherries and i would use about half of what i used - about 2-3#'s per gallon.

I also add a vanilla bean in - it added a nice aroma to it.