Cherry Wine

[Waldo]

That 10tsp of acid blend looks a bit high R.E.T. for a Cherry. I could be wrong though..I have been before

 

[pkcook]

R.E.T.


How much wine are you making?


I would think that steamed juice would be concentrated a bit in the process, so with 12 qt (3 gal) of juice I would not add more than 2 cans of concentrate if you are staying with 3 gallon. If you are going for 5 gallons of wine, the 5 cans will provide additional juice, but I would think it would change the flavor profile quite a bit. Concord grape juice has a very notable (foxy) flavor. With 5 cans of concentrate added you might make a great tasting wine, but it might not have a strongcherry nose and finish.


That is the nice thing about making your own wine, you can make it anyway you want and experiment with different mixes! Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[NorthernWinos]

I made a cherry wine, but just with store bought juices...it's coming along pretty nice.

I added WinExpert Red Grape Concentrate. I usually add red or white to my fruit wines.... it adds body, sweetness and color and doesn't change the flavors of fruit wines much at all....I use 2 500mil to a 5 gallon batch....it really brings up the S.G. and you would need much less sugar...

I agree with pkcook about the frozen Welch's or Old Orchard Concord concentrated juices...the Concord is really strong and I think you would over power your lovely cherry flavor that you worked so hard to get.

If you want to use frozen juice concentrate Niagara might be nice with the cherry juice that you have...but it too is grapey, but less so than the Concord...

There is frozen cherry juice concentrate....Old Orchard blends theirs with apple and Welch's is blended with Niagara....those would add some body to your juice too.

Any of the frozen juice concentrates also will add sweetness and less sugar will be needed in your recipe...keep track of your sugar additions with your hydrometer....add a few pounds at a time.

Let us know what you decide to use and give us your report on how it turns out...Photos along the way would be fun.

 

[R.E.T.]

WALDO- WILL TRY TO CHECK ACID. HAVE TWO ACID KITS , THEY DON"T
WANT TO COME UPWITH THE SAMENUMBERS.

10 WAS JUST A
STARTING POINT. TRYING FOUR 60% HOPE THAT CLOSE.

P K
WHEN YOU STEAM YOU GET QUITE BIT WATER IF YOU DON'T WATCH
IT CLOSE. THAT WHY I THOUGH MIGHT NEEDMORE CANS OF JUICE.
THINK I WILL CUT BACK TWO 3 CANS, ADDSOME AT THE END I NEED SOMES MORE.

NORTHERN WINOS
THIS WINEXPERT RED GRAPE CONCENTRATE IS IT LIKE OLD ORCHARD
GRAPE CONCENTRATE?
I HAVE NOTSEEN ANY NIAGARA IN ANY STORESHERE. THEY DON'T
CARRY MUCH FORZEN JUICE. I WILL KEEP CLOSE CHECK WITH
HYDROMETER WHAN ADDING SUGAR. TRY TO START NEXT WEEK.

THANK EVERBODY FOR YOUR REPLY




MAKING 5 GAL.

 

[NorthernWinos]

 
NORTHERN WINOS
THIS WINEXPERT RED GRAPE CONCENTRATE IS IT LIKE OLD ORCHARD
GRAPE CONCENTRATE?
I HAVE NOT SEEN ANY NIAGARA IN ANY STORES HERE. THEY DON'T  
CARRY MUCH FORZEN JUICE. I WILL KEEP CLOSE CHECK WITH
HYDROMETER WHAN ADDING SUGAR. TRY TO START NEXT WEEK.


THANK EVERBODY FOR YOUR REPLY
  

WinExpert Grape Concentrates come in white or red...they are made from WINE grapes...like the juice used in wine kits.They do not add the grapey flavor of the frozen concentrates.

Niagara and Concord grapes would be used in the Welch's frozen concentrats...think it's just called 100% grape juice...you choose purple [Concord] or white [Niagara]

http://www.welchs.com/products/frozenjuices.html

I think the ones you want to use have a yellow cap on the container...some of the others are 'juice cocktails'..not 100% juices....they are less expensive and maybe less popular...[not in all stores...in all the flavors]

Welch's also sells their juices in 64oz bottles...white or purple [plus other blends]....you could maybe use some of those in place of some of the water.

I know what you mean about steaming adding some water vapors to the juice...I often wonder how much of my juice is steam vapors.

Maybe for your first batch you could do a 3 gallon batch with your 12 quarts of juice and just try your juice alone...then this crop try a blend.

What kind of cherries did you have??? Do you know about how many pounds of fruit you used to get the 12 quarts of juice??

We have planted 3 cherry trees, one tree each of the past 3 years...just a real hardy tree from Canada...it's called Bali...a self pollinating tree...I am so anxious for them to flower and produce...think I have a long wait ahead.

We have 3 bushes of Nanking Cherries that produce every year...up to now I have always tasted the cherries and left them for the baby Robins...they are very sweet and produce a fair amount of fruit...this year I am going to pick them and see how they come out in a wine...

 

[R.E.T.]

NORTHERN WINOS - THANKS FOR THE INFO ABOUT THE CONCENTRATE. SOUNDS LIKE YOU COULD USE THEIRS IN LOTS OF DIFFERENT WINES.
I'M NEW AT THIS WINE MAKING, BUT SURE HAVE LEARNED ALOT ON THIS SITE. FOR SOME REASON, I CAN'T BRING UP THE WEB SITE YOU PUT IN. A GOOD FRIEND OF MINE HAS 7 ACRES CLOSE TO WHERE I LIVE AND THE CHERRIES WERE REAL SMALL AND NOT GOOD FOR THE MARKET. HE NEVER PICKED A CHERRY. THEY ARE CALLED SWEETHART. THEY USUALLY GET A VERY GOOD PRICE, IF THEY ARE LARGE ENOUGH. I SHOULD HAVE PICKED MORE, BUT WITH THE REST OF THE FRUIT IN THE FREEZER, IT WAS FULL. I THINK IT WAS ALMOST 3 GALS TO MAKE 12 QUARTS. I VACUUM PACKED THEM. SURE WAS A LOT OF BAGS. I THINK IT WAS ABOUT 3 LB PER BAG AND I HAD ABOUT 12 BAGS. I'LL TAKE SOME PICTURES WHEN I GET STARTED.


THANKS EVERYONE FOR YOUR COMMENTS.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Hope this works for the Welch's site...





http://www.welchs.com/products/frozenjuices.html

 

[R.E.T.]

IT WORKED JUST FINE
BOY NEVERNEW THEY THEY MADE SO MANEY

 

[grapeman]

The Cherry wine has been going for a week now and I racked it to the secondary yesterday. Man is it throwing a lot of lees, probably from the cherry puree. I don't have a picture yet, but will try to get one soon. It has a nice color to it. When I racked it, I had to give it sample and was really surprised by th flavor and aromas. Cindy didn't even know I had started a cherry wine and came in the room while I was racking it and said"What kind of wine are you doing now. It really has some cherry smell going on." The smell is VERY CHERRY and the taste is- well, Cherry. I didn't take this one real high with alcohol and used Cote de Blancs yeast to try to retain more of the delicate flavors. I think this one will be really good. Here's what I used in the end.


1 Can Vintner's Harvest Cherry(whole with pits)
1 Can Oregon Cherry Puree- not pits in can just a cherry puree
1 Bottle WE Red Grape Concentrate
10 pounds sugar
Water to 6 gallons
4 TBSP Acid Blend- yes Waldo 4 TBSP-12 tsp(took that much for just a little pucker- the whole cherries were pretty blah-not sweet and certainly not tart)
4 tsp Bentonite-added to primary
1 TBSP Yeast Nutrient
1/4 tsp K-Meta
3 tsp Pectic Enzyme
2 tsp Liquid Tannin


SG was 1.085
I put the Cherries in a straining bag and added to the primary and left there until transfered to secondary. I squeezed all the juice out at that point. SG on transfer 1.010
By next day after transfer 2 inches of lees on bottom with a ton of bubbles, but no foam.

 

[ScubaDon]

Sounds great Appleman, Waiting to see how this one turns out.

 

[R.E.T.]

FINALLY STARTED MY CHERRY WINE ON 3-19. SURE DID SMELL GOOD.

PITCHED YEAST ON 3-20. ON 3-21 IT LOOKED REALLY GOOD. THEN ON 3-22 SOMETIME DURING THE NIGHT SOMETHING HAPPENED, THOSE YEASTS MUST HAVE HAD QUITE A PARTY. THERE WAS FOAM ALL OVER IN THE MORNING.

WHEN I STARTED THERE WAS ABOUT 3" OF SPACE ON TOP. THEY MUST HAVE BEEN ROCKING AND ROLLING.

CLEANED UP THEIR MESS. NOW FOUR HOURS LATER NO FOAM, BUT THEY ARE WORKING LIKE CRAZY. HOPE THEY BEHAVE THEMSELVES.


SOMETHING I DON'T UNDERSTAND IS THAT I CHECKED IT IN THE BUCKET WITH HYDROMETER AND IT WAS 1.090 WITH NO FOAM. NOW AFTER THE "PARTY" IT IS 1.094. IT'S WORKING REALLY GOOD. WOULD THAT PUSH UP THE HYDROMETER? ANYONE HAVE ANY THOUGHTS?

 

[Bert]

I'm wondering if when you added sweetener to your must if maybe you didn't stir it enough and when the yeast started working it did a self stirring, bringing up the SG.

 

[jobe05]

I'm wondering if when you added sweetener to your must if maybe you didn't stir it enough and when the yeast started working it did a self stirring, bringing up the SG.

I've done that more than once........... Fortunately nothing dreadfull will happen, just loses track of the ABV, but I'm sure not by much.

 

[grapeman]

I tried posting earlier, but it dissapeared twice on me. I'll try again now. As the yeast got very active and started foaming, the temps probably got up to about 85 degrees. That would raise the SG up without temperature correction, and if it had just begun active fermentation, it would read high. Wait a couple days and check again to make sure the SG is going down so it isn't a stuck fermentation.

 

[R.E.T.]

BERT


WHEN I ADDED THE SUGAR WATER, I WAS MIXING WITH MY DRILL. SO I KNOW IT GOT MIXED WELL.
APPLEMAN
THETEMP IN MY "WINE" ROOM IS65 DEGREES. I CHECKED TODAY S G WAS 1.080 AND REALLY ACTIVE, SMELLS AND LOOKS REALLY GOOD. WILL HAVE SOME PICTURES LATER.
THANKS FOR COMMENTS.

 

[grapeman]

R.E.T.- I'm not talking about the temp of the room, but the temp of the must. As the yeast gets active, it generates it's own heat and can raise the overall temp of the wine 10-20 degrees. When you take the SG reading, you should also take the temperature of the wine with a floating thermometer or similar. I don't think it's anything to worry about as long as the ferment doesn't stall out.

 

[R.E.T.]

ANOTHER HELPFUL HINT
THANK YOU APPLEMAN, I DIDN'T KNOW THE MUST WOULD WARM UP LIKE THAT. I NEVER HAVE TAKEN TEMP OF MUST. I'LL HAVE TO GET A FLOATING THERMOMETER. I LEARN SOMETHING ALMOST EVERY DAY. PEOPLE LIKE YOU HELP US MAKE BETTER WINE. EVERYONE ON THIS SITE IS SO HELPFUL.

 

[OGrav]

More than likely with a very active and foamy fermentation there are a lot of air bubbles stuck to the side of the hydrometer when you are measuring the must, giving it an inaccurate high reading. Spin the hydrometer a few times fast on the way down and see if that changes your reading. I had the same thing happen to me and it was about a .005 degree difference. Also at this stage the yeast action may have kicked up some of the fruit solids in solution, also upping the sg. Also, keep in mind araise in the temp will have the sg reading lower, not higher, hence as the temp rises, the correction is to add to the readingto make it right, not subtract. When water/must is warmer, it is less dense,and the hydrometer will float lower;cool it,and it will float higher.
Enough with the science, for all practical purposes, as long as you're not comparingone reading with ice in it to another down the road over90 degreesit really doesn't matter much enough to worry about. If it was room temp when yeast was pitched,androom tempbefore you bottle, the difference is what you areconcerned with. Appleman was right, nothing to worry about. Bring on those pics.

 

[bj4271]

So if I read all this correctly, the Vintner's Harvest Cherry fruit base is pretty bland. Even combined with Oregon cherry puree it needs something (tart cherries, added acid, grape conc.) to give it a bit of a bite.


I had made one batch of cherry wine using the Oregon puree by itself - very little cherry flavor, even with most of one of the bottles of flavoring George sells.


If I use a can of VH & a can of Oregon puree what would be the best thing to give it a bite: I have several 15oz cans of tart cherries? Would that do it?

 

[Spencer]

Hi Appleman,
This is my first response on the forum. I made a cherry wine which was bottled in march 2007. Recipe: 2 gallons water, 3# sugar, 2 cans Oregan Red Tart cherries,. This brought SG to 1.070, If I was you I'd raise my SG to 1.080. Used 3 tsp. acid blend, The wine was good but I would increase this a little, the attack was not all that exciting. 2 tsp yeast nutrient, 1 pkg 71B-1122 yeast. SG fell to .996. I kept 1 gallon dry, very nice. I sweetened one gallon slightly with 2.5 oz of sugar water 3:1 ratio (sugar/water). added Potasium sorbate. Turned out nice. A good summer wine, make the few tweaks I suggested and yours will be better.
_Spencer