Cherry Wine

[Roncito]

10 days ago I stated making my cherry wine in the primary fermenter. the OG was 1.120 and after the 10 days I put it in to secondary fermentation and the SG was 1.020. since I pulled the cherries out which were in two bags I noticed that needed to top off the 1 gallon carboy with about 4 cups of cherry juice and I added 1/4 teaspoon of yeast to it. I did notice some what looks like cherry remains rising to the top of the carboy. Is that normal?
thank you
R

 

[FlamingoEmporium]

Probably was in the cherry juice. why Did you add more yeast ? Probably not necessary. it may have still been fermenting. Any way you can suck up the floating stuff ?

 

[BigDaveK]

Normal. They'll probably sink. Going by your SG #'s you're around 13% ABV. They won't rot.

I'm curious - 3 lbs sugar, cherries, 4 cups liquid to top up (that's a lot) - instead of asking a bunch of questions I'll ask just one: What was your recipe?

 

[Roncito]

Hello
6lbs fresh cherries
4 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of black tea
1/4 of lemon
1/4 teaspoon of wine yeast (redstar)

 

[BigDaveK]

4 cups of sugar in a gallon of water would get an SG around 1.080. You said your OG was 1.120 so I'm guessing your cherries were in a container and you added water to get to 1 gallon. Am I correct? That would also explain why you needed 4 cups of juice to top up.

Many of us plan our batches using a little more than 1 gallon of water, that way the secondary will be full and there may be enough to top up after the next racking.

No big deal. Mother Nature is going to make wine for you.
Couple points -
Cherry juice to top up was a good idea.
1/4 lemon is probably not enough acid.
Cherries do have some pectin so without pectic enzyme your wine will never become crystal clear.

How long have you been making wine?

 

[vinny]

4 cups of sugar in a gallon of water would get an SG around 1.080. You said your OG was 1.120 so I'm guessing your cherries were in a container and you added water to get to 1 gallon. Am I correct? That would also explain why you needed 4 cups of juice to top up.

Many of us plan our batches using a little more than 1 gallon of water, that way the secondary will be full and there may be enough to top up after the next racking.

No big deal. Mother Nature is going to make wine for you.
Couple points -
Cherry juice to top up was a good idea.
1/4 lemon is probably not enough acid.
Cherries do have some pectin so without pectic enzyme your wine will never become crystal clear.

How long have you been making wine?

Nice, you learned me something. Obviously enzymes help with break down and extraction, but I've never correlated it to final clarity. Makes sense, but I never considered to add it for that reason.

 

[BigDaveK]

Nice, you learned me something. Obviously enzymes help with break down and extraction, but I've never correlated it to final clarity. Makes sense, but I never considered to add it for that reason.

In some old books they refer to it as "depectinizer". I love that - sounds like a device from Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers.

 

[Raptor99]

"Stand back or I'll blast you with my depectinizer!" (Effective against all evil fruit overlords.)

 

[Roncito]

Nice, you learned me something. Obviously enzymes help with break down and extraction, but I've never correlated it to final clarity. Makes sense, but I never considered to add it for that reason.

I’ve been trying to make wine for about 8 months now. Work in progress for sure. BTW I did add some pectin enzyme in about 8 hours before I started the fermentation process. Let’s see how clear it gets.

 

[BigDaveK]

How have your other wines turned out?

WMT is a fantastic resource. A lot of knowledge and experience to take advantage of! If you're ever unsure about something, please ask! Someone will help!

I consider myself a novice wine maker and I'll probably use that label for a few years....or more. What a great hobby!

 

[Scooter68]

Key point to remember with any recipe is to start high. Far easier to deal with a 1 gallon batch the is actually 12 - 20 oz more than a gallon when the fruit bag is pulled than have to top off. Topping off like that pretty much makes all your calculations null and void until you re-calculate. Different fruits will need different starting points to avoid the shortfall you experienced. With peach wine I mash my peaches and often don't use a bag. So for a 3 gallon batch I start out with 4.5 gallons at least. It's one of those things you learn by doing. I used to add straight water to top off but of course that dilutes you wine and again throws all your calculations out the window. Certainly you can recalculate but again better to have more than needed than to top off. That's why some of us keep airlock-able bottles around of sizes like 12, 16, 20, and up to 1./2 gallon. That way it's all aging at the same time and when you top off your primary carboy you are working with the same ABV, sweetness, acid levels etc.
As to the bit... that's pretty much normal. If you rack from your starting bucket into a new container/carboy that first and sometimes up the the 3rd racking you may still have stubborn bits and pieces that sneak up the racking cane. My racking routine is normally:
1 Starting fermenter to Second container when SG is 1.015 or lower.
2 Second container to aging carboy at end of fermentation (adding K-Meta)
3 Rack to clean carboy after 2-4 weeks when sediment has dropped out and compacted (No K-meta
4 Rack to clean carboy 3 months after end of fermentation (Add K-meta
Repeat step 4 every 3 months until end of aging.
Last racking usually 3 days to 2 weeks before bottling I add last dose of K-Meta and K-Sorbate and back sweeten. OR wait 2-3 day to back sweeten until day of bottling to allow for volume gain from Simple Syrup addition used to back sweeten.