Tart cherry wine recipe

[user 32114]

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

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

 

[user 32114]

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

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.

 

[Arne]

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.

 

[Arne]

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.

 

[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.

 

[Tnuscan]

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

 

[Thatnewguy]

H

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?

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[Johnd]

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..................

 

[wildhair]

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

 

[Arne]

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

chooks??

 

[wildhair]

LOL! Right you are, mate.

 

[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

 

[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.

 

[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??

 

[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.

 

[Zwack]

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.