Sour Cherry - done!
- Thread starter Bliorg
- Start date
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My sister-in-law just picked and pitted 20 lbs of tart cherries that I’m going to make into wine for her. Any tips? How many lbs of cherries per gallon did you use?
BTW I love the label!
BTW I love the label!
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I am curious what recipe you used. The past cherry wines I have done were 100% fruit, and not pitted. They have had a flavor issue at two years which I have guessed to be a tannin complex.
Anyway I am putting this week and debating treating the must with gelatin to pull some tannin out. This has been a good cherry year and I could do 200% fruit again. I am surprised since the first to pick tested at 1.086. ,,, nice flavor.
Anyway I am putting this week and debating treating the must with gelatin to pull some tannin out. This has been a good cherry year and I could do 200% fruit again. I am surprised since the first to pick tested at 1.086. ,,, nice flavor.
Thanks! I ended up using a little less than 7 pounds per gallon. Would have loved to use about 25 pounds more than I did, but - dosh - and I was going for kind of a blush wine for drinking on the deck anyway, and I'm happy with how it turned out. There's a tremendous amount of clean, sour cherry flavor.
I came up with my own protocol. This was not all fruit. Tart cherries, especially the flash frozen, pitted ones I got from a local orchard, are too dear for me to do that. And I was going for a lighter style blush anyway, which is where I landed. As I said, these were pitted - I've heard bad things about leaving the fruit on pits. Even unbroken, the pits reportedly will leach tannins (bitter ones, too) into the must. I added fermentation tannins but didn't finish with any. My juice started out at 1.020, but I chaptalized to 1.082.
I see that they're ripe! It seems a bit early. I usually use between 4 - 5 pounds per gallon. 45 years ago, I only used 3 1/2.
Do you back sweeten? If so, to what SG? To me, 100% sounds too harsh.
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Charles DeVier
Junior
We raise Juliet Bush cherries and this summer picked 4 1/2 gallons off of two bushes. These cherries are sweeter than pie cherries, but not as sweet as "sweet cherries"(Bing) and about the same size as Bing cherries. I have never made cherry wine as I have not found a commercial one that I really like. Probably a good reason to make my own wine.
My impression is that tart cherries make an excellent wine which resembles the fresh fruit. I find it good at 100% juice as well as 4pounds per gallon. My past version has been lazy taking the whole fruit and fermenting pits and all. This product has an off flavor (like choke cherry) at 18 months. Since lots of folks here pit their fruit I am trying that this year.
My impression is that bing cherry is thin. My guess is that sour cherries contain mainly malic acid (sharp flavor notes), where as bing cherry has mainly citric acid (softer flavor notes). ,,, If you tweak the acid flavor have some pure malic acid.
My impression is that bing cherry is thin. My guess is that sour cherries contain mainly malic acid (sharp flavor notes), where as bing cherry has mainly citric acid (softer flavor notes). ,,, If you tweak the acid flavor have some pure malic acid.
Arne
Senior Member
I will say that I made acid adjustments using Malic. Also, out of an abundance of paranoia, I hit it with lysozyme before bottling.
