Bing Cherry Juice Wine?

madbare · 11-21-2009, 07:20 PM

Hi Guys,

Been brewing for years and have done some wine many years ago. I am kind of getting more into wine right now, just to switch things up. I was at the local Whole Foods and found some 100% Bing Cherry Juice from here in Colorado. I am interested in making a gallon of wine from the stuff to see how it is. I have been looking at so many recipes, but almost everything is for if you have the real fruit itself. Any guidance on a Bing Cherry wine? I prefer my wine a little on the sweet side than Dry. Any suggestions would be appreciated. For your info this is the juice: http://coloradocherrycompany.com/products.asp?cat=10

Steve

pulpfiction32 · 11-21-2009, 10:11 PM

Ok First I would make sure this juice does not have any
preservatives in it. Then i would take the Gravity of the
juice with a hydrometer. If the ABV is below 11% I would
add sugar in small amounts until you reach 11-12% abv.
I always find it best to let in ferment dry and backsweeten
later. But you could always step feed your must more
sugar until the yeast becomes overloaded

pulpfiction32 · 11-21-2009, 10:16 PM

By the way make sure you stabilize your wine with Ksorbate
before you backsweeten

outdoorsmadness · 11-22-2009, 02:34 AM

if you make just one gallon itll take at least 6 months to a year to get the real affect of tne wine and you will find that it gets better and bettetr and you will regret that you only made 1 gallon, i would suggest to make at least a 3 gallon batch if not a 5 gallon batych, that way youll have enough to last untill you decide to make some more.
Bryan

madbare · 11-23-2009, 01:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pulpfiction32

Ok First I would make sure this juice does not have any
preservatives in it. Then i would take the Gravity of the
juice with a hydrometer. If the ABV is below 11% I would
add sugar in small amounts until you reach 11-12% abv.
I always find it best to let in ferment dry and backsweeten
later. But you could always step feed your must more
sugar until the yeast becomes overloaded

Do you think I should add any other additives to the juice at all? I am willing to give this a go. Right now I just want to do small batches and experiment with things. Any other suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

pulpfiction32 · 11-23-2009, 02:17 AM

This is a recipe from Jack kellars website

I hope this helps you

1 gallon black cherry juice, pure or reconstituted
1½ lbs granulated sugar
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/8 tsp tannin
1 tsp pectic enzyme.
½ tsp citric acid
Lalvin RC212 (Bourgovin) wine yeast
Start with a gallon of juice or juice reconstituted from concentrate. Float your hydrometer in it and record the reading. Compare that to the table at my hydrometer page and calculate how much sugar you will need to attain an initial specific gravity between 1.085 and 1.090. Put that amount of sugar in a primary, along with pectic enzyme, citric acid , yeast nutrient, and tannin. Add black cherry juice and stir very, very well to dissolve sugar. Cover and set aside 12 hours. Add activated yeast and recover primary. Stir daily until s.g. drops to 1.010. Transfer to secondary and fit airlock. Rack after 30 days, top up and refit airlock. Wait 60 days and rack again. When s.g. indicates dryness (0.990), stabilize wine, sweeten to taste, allow to sit for 2 weeks to ensure fermentation does not restart, and rack into bottles. Store in cool, dark place at least 6 months before tasting. Improves with age. [Author's own recipe]

My thanks to Andrew Ory of Hattiesburg, MS for requesting this recipe.

madbare · 11-23-2009, 02:27 AM

Good stuff! Thanks for posting that!