# Tart cherry wine recipe



## VitruvianMan

Im looking at getting a tart cherry wine batch going but havent found a recipe on here other than Choke Cherry one. Im not sure which type of cherry to use for the "tart" flavor so I thought Id ask some of you more knowledgeable people  I recently tried a local Meadery's tart cherry mead and it was amazing, so I thought Id make a wine version for now. Starting with a one gallon batch t get the flavor I want down then go up to bigger carboys, anyone wth any info or willing to help let me know! Thanks guys


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## Deezil

There's a lot of different ways to go about it, although theres a good chance it wont taste much like the one you tasted from the meadery.. Although if you were to use honey, there's procedures i can share that could get you close

'Tart' flavors usually come from the acidity level in the wine, but using tart cherries should give you a tart-cherry profile as opposed to the sweet-cherry profile that some equate to a cough syrup flavor... 

All i know is sweet cherries, as thats the primary type grown around where I'm from...

I'd shoot for at least 5lbs of cherries per gallon, although more would be better, up to probably 10-12lbs of cherries per gallon - then you're probably getting into the "pure juice" realm (which is my favorite place to be)

I wouldnt push the SG past 1.090
And if you're really going for tart, i wouldn't go above a .75 % TA

The tartness will shine, when you find the right balance between TA/pH, sweetness and alcohol levels.... 

Too much sugar, it'll balance out the acidity and still make a good wine but wont come across as 'tart', just 'cherry'..... Too much acidity without enough sugar, and it'll taste out of balance with a puckering sensation.. Too much alcohol, might get that cough syrup flavor and not enough, it wont keep

If you want it drier, leave the TA a little lower (.65 - .70 % TA).. Semi-sweet or sweet can handle a little more (.75 % TA)

I'm sure there will be some differing opinions..
Hope that helps, for a starting point..


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## VitruvianMan

Yeah helps a lot thanks, I know the honey in the mead gives it a different flavor than the sugar does I just like the overall taste and wanna try something new that I will like as much as the Dragon Blood recipe here. I really want to try the carmel apple mead but I dont want to make a 3 gallon batch right out the gates, so looking for something else to make for now, thanks again


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## REDBOATNY

http://kingorchards.com/store.htm?page=1&category=Cherry%20Juice%20Concentrate
I made it with concentrate from this place. I came out nice.


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## Arne

Here is what I used. The cherries were from and old pie cherry tree in our yard. Actually they are what started the winemaking around here, had a bumper crop and wanted something to do with them besides feeding the birds.

20+ lbs. pitted pie cherries
12 lb. sugar
5 tsp. nutrient (half now half after fermenting a couple of days)
2 1/2 tsp pectic enzime
2 1/2 tsp tannin
1 tsp acid blend
starting s.g. approx. 1.090
used Cotes de blanc yeast.

Pitting the cherries makes a big difference in the taste. The taste will mellow out, but no pits makes it happen much sooner. Ihave a small hand pitter, makes the job pretty fast. Doesn't get all the pits, but most of them. 
Ferment it down, rack, let it clear. let it sit in the carboy for 6 months or so, stabalize, sweeten and bottle. 
Arne.


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## Turock

An easy way to make tart cherry wine is getting sour cherries. We make it every year and the wine has that tart flavor you're looking for.

Ask around the orchards in your area--we have one here that orders cherries every year from Michigan. They come either frozen or unfrozen and are pitted. It's the easiest way to get a large amount of cherries without having to pit them yourself.

Figure about 10# per gallon, use NO water. You have to check the PH and adjust pre-ferment. Set your PH to about 3.4 using calcium carbonate. We use Montrachet for the culture. The whole secret to a good cherry wine that has that tartness is NO WATER additions.


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## UBB

I have a thread regarding this subject. Here is the link if you are interested. http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f45/cherry-wine-project-34948/ 

the wine is still aging but at last racking it was showing lot's of potential.

Good luck!
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f45/cherry-wine-project-34948/


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## BobF

I did a sour cherry wine a couple of years ago that came out really nice. If you like sour cherries 

I steam-juiced the cherries and measured the TA of the juice; 1.2%.

To get the acid down, I used 2/3 cherry juice to 1/3 water. TA = .8.

Made wine like normal from here. Backsweetened to 1010, but still sour.

Bottled when clear and waited a year.

Like I said, came out very nice. I still have some aging to see if I can predict what will happen. I'm -expecting- it to taste less sour/more sweet with time ...


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## VitruvianMan

Ok, a few different ways to do it, thanks guys!


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## Turock

We always sweeten this wine before bottling. It is not tart from too much acid---even the nose of this wine smells tart like a cherry. It took us a couple attempts to get this wine perfected, so if you do it according to the way we do, you should get the result you're looking for.

I agree with Bob--let it age one year before bottling.


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## VitruvianMan

Im in nebraska, I dont know of any orchards for cherries around but Ill start doing some looking, I wanna try you way Turock, sounds great


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## Turock

During cherry season in June, keep an eye on the newspaper classified section. Many orchards advertise there for cherries. You'll need at least 50 pounds to do a 5 gallon batch. I'm sure there are places that ship in Mich. cherries. If you have an wineries in your area, you might even check with them to see if they can ship them in for you.


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## Arne

I'll bet if you drive around Omaha and look for some cherry blossoms you will be able to spot some trees that nobody uses. Talk to the people and see, tell them you will give them a little money if you can pick the cherries when they are ripe. I am out in Kenesaw, but know of at least a couple of trees that nobody messes with. There will probably be 50 lbs on my tree that the birds get because they are too high for me to pick. Cherry season is just around the corner and it makes a great wine. Bet if you take a ride down to Nebr. City the orchards down there have cherries and they will be for sale. The trees ought to be blossomed out in the next couple of weeks. Should be worthwhile to go down and see that. Arne.


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## VitruvianMan

Thanks Arne! I forgot all about Nebraska City's orchards


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## Arne

While you are watching for the cherry trees, keep an eye out for crabapple too. They are easy to get as most people just have them for ornemental trees and let the fruit go. I pick them in the fall when they start falling on their own, use store bought apple juice instead of water and ferment the crabapples with them. After a couple of tries it is starting to be a pretty nice wine. Still has a pucker taste with it, but very drinkable. If you get out in the country pretty soon you can watch for the elderberries too. They will be ready towards fall, but are easy to spot when they are blooming. They won't be blooming til after things start greening up. Wild plums make a good wine also. Lots of choices. Arne.


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## fivebk

VitruvianMan, I live about 17 miles south of Nebraska City. It's nice to hear of someone else on here thats close to my area. Good luck with your winemaking projects. 

P.S. I know that Kimmel orchard in Nebr City has a cherry cider that is very good. It probably would make a good wine!!!!

BOB


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## Deezil

Arne said:


> While you are watching for the cherry trees, keep an eye out for crabapple too. They are easy to get as most people just have them for ornemental trees and let the fruit go. I pick them in the fall when they start falling on their own, use store bought apple juice instead of water and ferment the crabapples with them. After a couple of tries it is starting to be a pretty nice wine. Still has a pucker taste with it, but very drinkable.



Hey Arne, if you get a hankering to experiment, try running MLF on a batch of your crabapple... I took some apples from my aunt and uncles yard, added some apple juice from the store, and fermented it out.. It went through MLF on its own.. Still bulk aging, but wanna talk about 'very drinkable'


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## VitruvianMan

I just went to trader joes and got 100% tart cherry juice in a jar. 64 oz of it so I may mix in cranberry to keep it from being diluted and see what happens.


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## VitruvianMan

So is this a 5 gallon batch? Im gonna start with one gallon and perfect it then move up to bigger quantity this is in response to Arne's recipe I tried to reply to it directly but hit wrong button apparently lol


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## Arne

Yep, mine was 5 gal. Just divide everything but the yeast by 5. If it is 100% cherry juice it will probably be mity tart by itself. You mite have to dilute it down a bit, but maybe not. I don't know how much juice comes from the 20 lbs of cherries, but for me it is enough and the flavor is plenty strong. Anyway, give it a try and see what happens. Keep good notes so you know how to replicate it if you want to. You mite wine up tweaking it some to get it how you like it. Arne.


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## VitruvianMan

Of course, Id need two more bottles to make a full gallon of juice so I thought Id add some cranberry to top it up to a gallon, Ill see what happens thanks again


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## Arne

You betcha, keep us informed on how it goes. Arne.


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## VitruvianMan

Ok, so I got the trader joes 100% juice and a 64 oz of cranberry to complete the gallon gonna mix up a batch today and see what happens, thanks everyone. I will post details to let ya know how it turns out


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## VitruvianMan

ferment down to .990 or so? I figure it would end up around 1.000 or just below so time will tell


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## VitruvianMan

Ok now Im just rambling lol, but I started out way high on the SG I dont want to add water and dilute it so would it be safe or a good idea to add another packet of yeast to ensure it continues to ferment? After the first day I can see some slight bubbles in the primary but nothing like the foam and bubbling zIve gotten with other previous wines so Im hoping it doesnt get stuck in fermenting


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## Turock

You said the SG was 0.99---so all the sugar is used up. I'm not sure what you mean by adding more yeast or being concerned the ferment is stuck!. If your beginning SG was high, you'll have higher alcohol content. You've got what you got!!

Did you transfer it to a carboy?


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## fivebk

If you have slight signs of fermentation just give it some time and it will get going strong. Yes, let it ferment down to something below 1.000, check it for three days to make sure the reading is the same and then you are ready to rack ( SG 1.010 )

BOB


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## Downwards

I did a tart cherry with the dried cherries from King Orchards (someone linked to them earlier). These cherries come with oil on the skin, but the oil did come out mostly in the rehydration process, and the little that was left was left behind with rackings. It came out pretty good, but I used half a can of zinfandel concentrate in it too. I also used some raisins in the recipe. Mine is about 12% alcohol, but dry. No one has said it tastes cough syruppy, but I do get a whiff of sucrets, haha. It is pretty good over all. There is a slight brownish cast to the red color, but I'll bet this is from the dry fruit. I also backsweetened very lightly with some of the concentrate that King Orchards sent me for free with the order of the cherries. Overall, I probably wouldn't do it this way again. The dried cherries were more expensive than the concentrate, and I think it would have tasted better from juice like you are doing.


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## BernardSmith

VitruvianMan said:


> Ok now Im just rambling lol, but I started out way high on the SG I dont want to add water and dilute it so would it be safe or a good idea to add another packet of yeast to ensure it continues to ferment? After the first day I can see some slight bubbles in the primary but nothing like the foam and bubbling zIve gotten with other previous wines so Im hoping it doesnt get stuck in fermenting



If you think that the alcohol content is going to be too much for the yeast then simply adding more yeast is not going to solve any problem. You will simply be killing more yeast. What I would do is get another bottle of the cherry juice and "dilute" the wine with the juice (I am assuming that the sugar content of the juice was itself, not so high and that you added sugar to the must before pitching the yeast. - If you now add more juice without any additional sugar then you can calculate the nominal resulting SG of the wine by adding the two batches together and dividing by 2 eg if the SG of the wine when you started was 1.120 and you add a similar quantity of must with an SG of 1.040 then the total equivalent SG is 1.080 (1.160 divided by 2) At 1.080 even bread yeast will tolerate- so you will have diluted the alcohol (because you diluted the sugar concentration)- but you won't have diluted the juice. In fact you will have added more juice. 
I am assuming that you have room in the bucket to dump the same quantity again of juice. If you add a different quantity then you need to do a slightly more complex calculation (using the Pearson Square) which takes into account the quantities of liquid as well as their relative SGs. .


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## VitruvianMan

Yeah I got it going and fermenting just fine, I added too much sugar before taking a reading so I was nervous it would kill of the yeast before it got done fermenting, but I read some stuff and got it figured out, thanks guys


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## VitruvianMan

Ok I racked into a carboy today, Im not gnna backsweeten it all to see how it comes out. The taste now is tart yet sweet on the back side, so seems to be its gonna taste great


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## VitruvianMan

Bottled it up this past weekend, no backsweetening, just the Cherry juice and cranberry juice, turned out very good I must say


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## VitruvianMan

I want to know, as I havent been on here for sometime as work is so busy with so many new buildings going up, what If i switch to a faster working yeast so it takes less time to be done. Will it change the flavor any, or am I asking dumb ? lol


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## Turock

Any ferment takes about 5 days or so. Yeast choice is not made on quickness, but on the benefits of the culture matched to what you're fermenting.


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## VitruvianMan

Ok, I normally use the cote de blanc yeast for this recipe I have now made twice. I thought about using lavlin ec 1118 to make a batch as it seems those batches are done faster than the other ones I have made. Any suggestions?


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## Turock

Well, 1118 IS a strong fermenter but has neutral flavor. Always be sure to use good nutrient management with this yeast because it can produce high SO2 levels.

On sour cherry--and many of our other fruit wines--we like Montrachet because it gives complex aromas and flavors. It really seems to have a fruity profile that enhances flavor of fruits. This one is a good fermenter but is a big foamer. So you always have to have good headspace in the vat so the foam doesn't overflow. When stressed, it produces large amounts of H2S so always use good nutrient management with it.

Fast ferments can avoid many problems. But even a fast ferment is 5 days.


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## sour_grapes

Turock said:


> Well, 1118 IS a strong fermenter but has neutral flavor. Always be sure to use good nutrient management with this yeast because it can produce high SO2 levels.



Wait, I am now confused. Which yeast are you referring to? I thought ec-1118 had low nutrient requirements, low H2S production, and only modest SO2 production.


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## Turock

sour grapes--No, that's not the case. I have the Scott Labs book right here and looked it up again. Under low nutrient conditions, it can produce high levels of SO2--up to 50 PPM!!


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## sour_grapes

Huh, interesting.

Actually, what I said _is_ averred to be true by Lalvin:


> Low requirement in assimilable nitrogen
> Low O2 requirement (especially at low T°)
> Low to average production of volatile acidity
> Average SO2 production
> Low H2S production
> Low foam formation



However, what you said is ALSO averred to be true by Scott Labs.



> Under low nutrient conditions Lalvin EC1118 (TM) can produce high amounts of SO2 (up to 50 ppm) and, as a result, may inhibit malolactic fermentation



So I suppose the takeaway is that, while EC1118 has modest nutrient needs, if those needs are not met it can produce lots of SO2. Sound correct?


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## Deezil

sour_grapes said:


> EC1118 has modest nutrient needs, if those needs are not met it can produce lots of SO2. Sound correct?



That's how I've looked at it


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## VitruvianMan

I got it done, its definitely tart and potent, some like it and some dont. I do and thats what counts


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## spunk

@turock i'm hopefully of a good cherry harvest. Do you have a 
Recipe that you have done in past?


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## Arne

VitruvianMan said:


> I got it done, its definitely tart and potent, some like it and some dont. I do and thats what counts



Glad your wine came out where you like it. The cherry tree has some blossoms on it, hope it gets more. Crabapple is all bloomed out, should be a great crop of them as usual. Last batch of cherry I started I used honey instead of sugar, it is still young, but what a difference. Smoothed the cherry juice out and really brought the cherry flavor forward. Honey is expensive, but sure made a nice melenol out of it. Arne.


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## Turock

spunk---Well, as you probably know, we don't use recipes. What we do with our cherry is do the ferment with no water. To figure out the chemical additions, we consider 10 pounds per gallon, then trim that back a tad so you're not over-dosing on sulphite, etc. We like Montrachet yeast on the wine. We set the PH around 3.4


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## spunk

Wow i bet its good fruit only the sugar does being out the juice with cherries. Does the skin have much tannins? I made one gal of cherry wine. Very early not much notes so I dont remember what I did. tasted really good though. I may dry some cheeries try something like that too for a qintwr brew. Or maybe throw some rubarb in it to.


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## Turock

Tannin is always a good idea as it aides in clearing and helps stabilize color.


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## spunk

Ok thanks going get down in the 30's wed and rest of week.


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## spunk

Picked and pitted a little over a gal of cherries. Hope the rain stops soon I want to pic morethe rain


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## spunk

I now have a steam juicer has anyone made wine or mead with sour cherries with a steam juicer deciding if i want to steam them or just do in on the pulp. I have about 8 lbs of cherries


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## Arne

Havn't used a steam juicer, but if I did, think I would juice them, see how much juice you get and either make a gal. or 2 gal. out of it. Don't have my notes handy, but think I use 10 lb. per gal. usually. Made some mead with the pie cherries and that stuff is really good. Arne.


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## Turock

I tend to like the idea of fermenting on the whole cherry because the pulp adds flavor to the wine and the skins add color. But I suppose you could take the remaining skins from the steam juicer, bag them, and toss them into the vat.


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## spunk

Well I steamed half of it. Almost 2 quarts. Tasted good weaker than the other half that that is in a pan in frig.i did keep the steamed cherries tasted they still have flavor to them i couldnt just throw away. I was thinking of a mead sounds good. Care to share your recipe. Maybe add cinnamon and or almond extract. Call cherry pie mead.


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## Turock

Vanilla is really good on cherry. Tried with some vanilla extract that I had made--not adding beans to the carboy.


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## spunk

Vanilla extract sound good.i have that. You put that in primary or secondary. How much you think for a gallon.


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## spunk

Started the cherry mead i put all the cherries even the ones that were left over from steam juicing. Plus several cups apple juice Just didnt have enough apple juice. Sg was 1.86 ph 3.43. Also added two cinnamon sticks used montrachet yeast. Have high hopes for this i think it will be good.


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## spunk

I just read what I said so im correcting it. I didnt have enough cherry juice so i added apple juice to make up difference for a gallon.


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## Arne

Keep your nutrients up when using the montrachet yeast. It has a tendency to give you the rotten egg smell otherwise. Arne.


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## Tnuscan

Arne said:


> Here is what I used. The cherries were from and old pie cherry tree in our yard. Actually they are what started the winemaking around here, had a bumper crop and wanted something to do with them besides feeding the birds.
> 
> 20+ lbs. pitted pie cherries
> 12 lb. sugar
> 5 tsp. nutrient (half now half after fermenting a couple of days)
> 2 1/2 tsp pectic enzime
> 2 1/2 tsp tannin
> 1 tsp acid blend
> starting s.g. approx. 1.090
> used Cotes de blanc yeast.
> 
> Pitting the cherries makes a big difference in the taste. The taste will mellow out, but no pits makes it happen much sooner. Ihave a small hand pitter, makes the job pretty fast. Doesn't get all the pits, but most of them.
> Ferment it down, rack, let it clear. let it sit in the carboy for 6 months or so, stabalize, sweeten and bottle.
> Arne.



Found it!!

Knew I had seen it before, Has anything changed since this post??

Thanks!!


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## hounddawg

I have a question on your recipe Arne
i'm planning on using dehydrated pure honey no cane sugar in it. do I swap pound for pound or use the hydrometer to gain my objective on your recipe
Richard::















Arne said:


> Here is what I used. The cherries were from and old pie cherry tree in our yard. Actually they are what started the winemaking around here, had a bumper crop and wanted something to do with them besides feeding the birds.
> 
> 20+ lbs. pitted pie cherries
> 12 lb. sugar
> 5 tsp. nutrient (half now half after fermenting a couple of days)
> 2 1/2 tsp pectic enzime
> 2 1/2 tsp tannin
> 1 tsp acid blend
> starting s.g. approx. 1.090
> used Cotes de blanc yeast.
> 
> Pitting the cherries makes a big difference in the taste. The taste will mellow out, but no pits makes it happen much sooner. Ihave a small hand pitter, makes the job pretty fast. Doesn't get all the pits, but most of them.
> Ferment it down, rack, let it clear. let it sit in the carboy for 6 months or so, stabalize, sweeten and bottle.
> Arne.


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## the_rayway

Hey there,
Always use your hydrometer - sugars in both fruits and honeys changes from year to year, location to location.


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## hounddawg

I found this link to be a gold mine.
thank you so much for posting this link,
I'm deeply into all natural.
and addicted to cherries, plums, and blackberries,
this more then covers my cherry fix....
Richard::




I


REDBOATNY said:


> http://kingorchards.com/store.htm?page=1&category=Cherry%20Juice%20Concentrate
> I made it with concentrate from this place. I came out nice.


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## hounddawg

would fermenting consecrate and some dried cherries achieve the same thing more or less. my cherry trees are still 2 years from barring 
richard:: 







Turock said:


> I tend to like the idea of fermenting on the whole cherry because the pulp adds flavor to the wine and the skins add color. But I suppose you could take the remaining skins from the steam juicer, bag them, and toss them into the vat.


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## Arne

the_rayway said:


> Hey there,
> Always use your hydrometer - sugars in both fruits and honeys changes from year to year, location to location.



Thank you Ray. Same answer I was going to give. Arne.


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## Arne

hounddawg said:


> would fermenting consecrate and some dried cherries achieve the same thing more or less. my cherry trees are still 2 years from barring
> richard::



Bet we are going to find out, Richard. You might keep your eyes open when the fruit trees start flowering. There are more cherry trees out there than you might think. Find one flowering, go knock on their door and you might have fresh cherries this summer. 
Little story with our tree. First year it started to fruit. Kathy watched it like a hawk. We are going to have cherry pie. Slowly they started to ripen. Not too many berries but they look good. Day or so before we were ready to pick em, the robins came in and there were none left in one day. We got a net for the next year, had a decent crop. (couple of pies.) Now I usually put the net on the bottom of the tree and leave the high ones for the birds. Our dwarf tree is probably 30 ft. tall. Think somebody forgot to tell the tree it is supposed to stay small. Also probably 20 or more years old. Arne.


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## spunk

Robins love my cherry tree it was a dwarf the tag said but its is very tall must have been a standard. I had a nest in it a few years. We share though i get the bottom ones they get the top i cannot climb that high. They yell at me when i start picking seem to think its their tree.


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## Tnuscan

hounddawg said:


> I found this link to be a gold mine.
> thank you so much for posting this link,
> I'm deeply into all natural.
> and addicted to cherries, plums, and blackberries,
> this more then covers my cherry fix....
> Richard::
> 
> Hi Richard,
> 
> Are you using the cherries from this site? I just racked some Black Currant1 gallon of Vintners, from secondary to stabilize took a taste from the top and it blew me away.
> 
> I have dodged this one for years, Blk. currant just didn't strike me as good, but it my just turn out to be my favorite. I just bought it to blend with


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## Thatnewguy

H


Arne said:


> Here is what I used. The cherries were from and old pie cherry tree in our yard. Actually they are what started the winemaking around here, had a bumper crop and wanted something to do with them besides feeding the birds.
> 
> 20+ lbs. pitted pie cherries
> 12 lb. sugar
> 5 tsp. nutrient (half now half after fermenting a couple of days)
> 2 1/2 tsp pectic enzime
> 2 1/2 tsp tannin
> 1 tsp acid blend
> starting s.g. approx. 1.090
> used Cotes de blanc yeast.
> 
> Pitting the cherries makes a big difference in the taste. The taste will mellow out, but no pits makes it happen much sooner. Ihave a small hand pitter, makes the job pretty fast. Doesn't get all the pits, but most of them.
> Ferment it down, rack, let it clear. let it sit in the carboy for 6 months or so, stabalize, sweeten and bottle.
> Arne.


hey Arne I know this is a couple years back but did you add any hot water to this recipe like a lot of other recipes call for?


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## Arne

Pretty sure I added water to 5 gal. or so. Will have to check my notes, I have made it many ways over the years. Usually just use cold tapwater, tho. Arne.


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## Scooter68

While this is a old thread it appears to be active/monitored so I'm going to kick in some info on a batch I just started 14 hours ago.

1 Gallon *Bing Cherry Juice *(A Commercial product from concentrate with no preservatives)
3 x 16 oz bottles of *Tart Cherry Concentrate.* Each bottle is supposed to make 1 gallon of Tart Cherry Juice
Water to bring volume to 3 gallons (I used Purified water from Aldi's)
1/2 tsp Fermaid K
2 tsp Pectic Enzyme
8 Tblsp of Acid blend to reach pH of 3.42
Simple syrup (2-1 Concetrate) to bring SG to 1.096
Final Starting volume was 3 1/3 gallons

That SG should provide an ABV of 13.26% however I use water for topping off of my carboys so by the end of aging I am guestimating ABV will be closer to 12%

Starter for my Yeast ( EC-1118)
4 oz water (Same type as above) 2 oz water heated to about 120 then cooled with the juice and additional 2 oz water In the end the solution was warm to hold but not hot)
1 oz of the must
1/8 tsp Fermaid K
Added 2/3 package of EC-118 and stirred

Set aside while I did another stir and final pre-fermentation readings on the Must.
Yeast was bubbling lightly in about 10 minutes

Pitched yeast and covered bucket with a cloth and string to keep cover on.

This is May 31, 2018 and the yeast was pitched at about 7:30pm - I'll check in on it mid-morning tomorrow and update when I see or smell indications of fermentation. Room Temp 78 Degrees

UPDATE 9:30 AM June 1, 2018 (14 hours later) 1/8" foam on surface nice fermentation aroma. Moved to basement where temp is now 69 Degrees.

Hope this helps anyone looking for a Tart/Sour Cherry Wine Recipe
My first batch was done the same as this but with a target ABV of 15.5% as a dessert wine.


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## wildhair

What brand of concentrates are you using, Scooter? 

As for the trees - I put an owl decoy on a pole and put that in the middle of the cherry tree. It has a head that rotates in the wind. doesn't keep ALL the robins away - but enough that I got 20+# off 1 semi-dwarf tree.


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## Scooter68

My battle is with Cardinals. Just put up my blueberry netting and narrowly avoided them stripping the first of my bushes ripe berries. This is an annual contest between the birds and me. Sweet Cherries haven't done well for me and the couple of times they did, I lost to the cardinals. I do have now 6 tart cherry trees that the birds are much slower to notice and attack. Those I will defend. Only two are old enough produce and the freeze killed of a lot of their cherries.

As to the cherry concentrate...
I bought my tart cherry concentrate on Amazon
The first batch I also purchased the sweet cherry online, but; for the second a friend gifted me a gallon of sweet cherry juice from Colorado. He'll be getting a couple of bottle of wine for his contribution.

Tart Cherry - Montmorency Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate - 16oz Syrup, Extract, Supplement from Complete Natural Products

Sweet Cherry - Dynamic Health Concentrate, Black Cherry, 16-Ounce (Pack of 2)


ONE More note regarding birds and fruit trees bushes. I tried that Silver Holographic tape - Works just like putting ballons on the mailbox to tell people where the party is at. Birds LOVE it.


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## Johnd

Scooter68 said:


> My battle is with Cardinals. Just put up my blueberry netting and narrowly avoided them stripping the first of my bushes ripe berries. This is an annual contest between the birds and me. Sweet Cherries haven't done well for me and the couple of times they did, I lost to the cardinals. I do have now 6 tart cherry trees that the birds are much slower to notice and attack.



They taste like chicken..................


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## wildhair

Really, really small chickens............


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## Arne

wildhair said:


> Really, really small chickens............


chooks??


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## wildhair

LOL! Right you are, mate.


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## Scooter68

Our cats love to help when a bird finds it's way inside the netting, unfortunately the cats also think its their litter box. So for berry season the netting serves two purposes.

Like Chicken eh? Hmmm. What about Blue Jay's Chicken or Turkey? 


Yikes, Forgot to check on my newest batch of Tart Cherry, It was at 1.020 yesterday afternoon
31 May - SG 1.096 Starting
1 June - SG 1.086
2 June - SG 1.046
4 June - SG 1.020
5 June - Whoops - didn't take that yet.

Temp - 69 Degrees


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## JuiceMan

This is the place for Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate; https://goo.gl/Nqbzzm - Cold filled (not heat packed), richer, darker hue than any other on the market, 68 brix and best flavor profile out there.


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## Scooter68

Advertising for them? Just checked and EVERY post you've made that I can find is pushing this product. Wonder if that is in keeping with forum policy??


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## Scooter68

Tart Cherry Stalled??

1 May - SG 1.096 Starting
1 June - SG 1.086
2 June - SG 1.046
4 June - SG 1.020
6 June - SG 1.020
Racked to carboy hoping that would revive a little activity... not yet.



That would be an ABV of 9.84. A bit too low for my liking. I suppose if it stays there I could top off with Vodka after it clears. My last Tart Cherry was bottled after back-sweetening at an SG of 1.018 and you only get the sweetness in the finish of a taste. Being very tart helps balance out the sweetness.


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## Zwack

Arne said:


> Yep, mine was 5 gal. Just divide everything but the yeast by 5. If it is 100% cherry juice it will probably be mity tart by itself. You mite have to dilute it down a bit, but maybe not. I don't know how much juice comes from the 20 lbs of cherries, but for me it is enough and the flavor is plenty strong. Anyway, give it a try and see what happens. Keep good notes so you know how to replicate it if you want to. You mite wine up tweaking it some to get it how you like it. Arne.


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## Zwack

U mean multiply by 5?


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## Johnd

Zwack said:


> U mean multiply by 5?



You’ve responded to / corrected a post from 2013, but to answer your question, go back and read the post that @Arne is answering, here it is: 


VitruvianMan said:


> So is this a 5 gallon batch? Im gonna start with one gallon and perfect it then move up to bigger quantity this is in response to Arne's recipe I tried to reply to it directly but hit wrong button apparently lol


So, from the 5 gallon recipe give by Arne, to reduce it down to 1 gallon, requires division........


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