Hybrid Cherry Wine, Sweet Black and Tart Cherries

[DansWinemaking]

Good Morning, I'm not sure if this is correct forum so please move it if needed.
I'm about to pitch a 2 gallon batch of Cherry wine. Being winter and no true fresh stuff is readily available, I grabbed a couple bottles of 32 oz. Knudsen Tart Cherry concentrate, and with the lack of even frozen tart cherries in my area, I grabbed a 2 lb. bag of sweet black cherries. I'm thinking of cold soaking for a few days with the 64 oz of Tart Cherry juice, pitching the yeast and crossing my fingers. I'll probably have to add some sugar and tannin to get up to a 1.090 - 1.100 starting SG, but the question is, has anyone made this mix of cherry wine and how did it turn out? Thanks!
Dan

 

[Ohio Bob]

As with any purchased concentrate, check the ingredients for anything that might be a preservative, like sorbate. The presence might make the must difficult to ferment, as the yeast wont like the preservative. To add some probability in your favor, make a yeast starter, several descriptions about how to make a starter can be found on the WMT site.

 

[Raptor99]

I did a cherry wine with a blend of frozen sweet cherries and tart cherry juice concentrate. It can make a good blend. For a one gallon test batch I used 4 lbs. of fresh cherries plus 8 oz. of FruitFast tart cherry concentrate, which is probably equivalent to at least 64 oz. of cherry juice). In my tasting notes, I concluded that I could have used more tart cherry juice.

I found Knudsen tart cherry juice here: https://rwknudsen.com/products/p/fruit-juices/organic-just-tart-cherry-juice-sn7cn. Is this the one that you have? It is not a concentrate. The good thing is that it does not have any preservatives. If that's what you have, then for 2 gallons I would suggest 6-8 lbs of frozen cherries plus a gallon of tart cherry juice. Or you could shift the blend and use 4 lbs. tart cherries and 5 quarts of tart cherry juice. You need enough fruit to get a good cherry flavor.

For most fruit wines I like to aim for an ABV of around 12% so that the alcohol does not overpower the fruit flavor. That would correspond to an OG of 1.086.

 

[Rice_Guy]

Flavor impact is related to the total acidity, molecules of acid washing off taste buds. What is the TA?
A pie cherry is dominant malic acid with a percentage of citric acid. A Bing cherry is dominant citric acid with a percentage of malic acid. ie one can tweak the flavor to be more like pie cherry by adding some malic acid. As in all tweaking flavor go slow if you only have the bulk batch. I bench trial to have an idea what the flavor target is before I start.

 

[DansWinemaking]

I did a cherry wine with a blend of frozen sweet cherries and tart cherry juice concentrate. It can make a good blend. For a one gallon test batch I used 4 lbs. of fresh cherries plus 8 oz. of FruitFast tart cherry concentrate, which is probably equivalent to at least 64 oz. of cherry juice). In my tasting notes, I concluded that I could have used more tart cherry juice.

I found Knudsen tart cherry juice here: https://rwknudsen.com/products/p/fruit-juices/organic-just-tart-cherry-juice-sn7cn. Is this the one that you have? It is not a concentrate. The good thing is that it does not have any preservatives. If that's what you have, then for 2 gallons I would suggest 6-8 lbs of frozen cherries plus a gallon of tart cherry juice. Or you could shift the blend and use 4 lbs. tart cherries and 5 quarts of tart cherry juice. You need enough fruit to get a good cherry flavor.

For most fruit wines I like to aim for an ABV of around 12% so that the alcohol does not overpower the fruit flavor. That would correspond to an OG of 1.086.

Thanks for the reply! I had been using Coloma concentrate and misread the Knudsen bottle to assume it was also a concentrate. I see now it's made "from" concentrate. Thanks for the catch, I'm going to buy several more bottles and go with your suggestion. Thanks for the thorough response!
Dan

 

[DrGriz]

I have made multiple batches of "cider" (no apples, but a natural sparkling wine with ABV about 7.5%) using straight Knutsen organic cherry juice, sugar added to target the ABV and pH adjusted at bottling. It makes a great, refreshing chilled drink in the summer with a bit of tang. Too tart for a rare person, it is otherwise very popular.

 

[DrGriz]

Come to think of it (I am traveling now, so don't have access to my notes) I also made a gallon of a still wine version (ABV13.0) from Knutsen organic. I haven't tasted it recently, but last time I did it was very good.