Dark Chocolate Cherry Wine

I took my sccessful cherry pie wine and did a 3 gallon batch. Into which I added an entire 8oz package of Hurshey's Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder to it.

I'll do a full write up on the receipe page once it's bottled and ready to go... until then...

has anyone tried something similar before? thoughts on clearing it? thoughts in general?

Whoa, tag to see how it turns out, sounds nuts.

Can't wait to see the recipe for this...

What was the final result of this? Or is it still in progress?

It has only been 2 days.

oopsi read the join date as the post date...too excited to hear how it went!

Well I acctually started it a few weeks ago. But in any case... thoughts on how to clear it? It looks pretty much like hot chocolate.

If I am not mistaken, commercial chocolate wines are choc-milky. You can try fining agents after it has bulk aged for a while. My suggestion is natural egg whites (more powerful than most powdered egg products). I will post my recipe below. I am not guaranteeing it will help, but it might. and it couldn't hurt. Make sure you have a good amount of Kmeta in it. Enough that you can sense it in the nose, but not enough to be harsh, maybe 25-30 ppm.

1 egg white
1 tablespoon distilled water
a pinch of salt

mix the three together in a bowl until there are no globs of egg whites, do not whip it into a meringue, it should be transparent. expose it to copper for about 20 seconds (put a small piece of thoroughly cleaned copper pipe in it and stir) then slowly drizzle it into the wine while stirring the top (try not to kick up too much sediment). This will take a lot of the particulate matter out including some of the harsh tannins if there are any. Let it sit for a week, then carefully rack the wine off of it.

Well for now I've tried my standard clearing for cherry wines...

2tbl bentonite
1/2 tbl pectic enzyme

I topped it up with some regular cherry pie wine I had around. We'll see how it turns out. I should take some pictures.

Just made some meade using Chocolate (40oz) cherries and honey. Made one gal and I am using Jack Keller's recipe. Will rack twice every 60 days then bulk age for one year, bottle and let sit for another year...has to be this long to let the oils in the meade break down...

Well where are the oils coming from? If it's from the chocolate then I need to wait too, if it's from something else I don't... You also used WAY more chocolate then I did. I used 8oz in 5 galons and you used 40 in one.

Yes I followed Jack Keller instruction. The oil comes from the choc. powder...You might not have to wait that long. would let it bulk for at least 6 mo. Then in bottle for a year....enjoy...

UPDATE

It stopped bubbling last month so I've been letting it clear up. took a taste test sample today. You can decidedly tell that it's got chocolate in it. It's not AMAZING but I've made (and dumped) far worse. I think with some aging and back sweetening it's going to be pretty good.

tagged! i'm interested brazel, any report on this beauty?

ended up bottling it at the end of june and it wasted pretty ok then. The chocolate was a lil bitter though. I've been letting it bottle age since. I should probably try it again soon.

I've read that chocolate is disgusting once fermented, Take that with a pinch of salt though because I am a complete newb and it was something I was reading online. If it works out though I'd like to try the recipe

Racked my chocolate Cherry Meade for third time today. Now it bulk ages for a year then bottle and age another year per Jack Keller's receipe.

Mine is all in 12oz bottles so I'm going to give one a taste around thanksgiving. If it needs more aging wait longer till I get a good length of time spent aging.