Apple cherry cider?

Ok I fermented (5) 5 gallon batches of unpasturized apple juice from a local orchard. I'm racking it now and it taste great, my question is I was planning on racking one batch onto some frozen cherrys (I'm going to thaw first). Should I use frozen cherrys or cherry concentrate? Oh by the way I'm thinking 8lbs or frozen cherrys.

You can use either one, or even both if you want. My 1st choice would be to go with the fruit, but the concentrate would be a little easier to work with, it might even give you a flavour option you don't have with fruit. Around here, (MT) it's kind of hard to come by fresh pie cherries, but we have plenty of fresh, sweet cherries every year; so there are times when tart cherry concentrate would certainly be an attractive option for me. If you do end up using the fruit, you might want to add some pectic enzyme. Regards, GF.

Fruit always wins in my book. Although GF's point about tart vs sweet is a good one.

i want to try this on a small scale with maraschino cherry juice to add a touch of sweetness. has that worked for anyone? other than that my LHBS sells a bottle of cherry flavoring for $5. . .

Look at the maraschino cherry ingredients. They often have high fructose corn sugar and preservatives. But these don't matter too much if your using it post fermentation. But it may inhibit finings.

bass-a-roo said:

i want to try this on a small scale with maraschino cherry juice to add a touch of sweetness. has that worked for anyone? other than that my LHBS sells a bottle of cherry flavoring for $5. . .

Click to expand...

I'd avoid the cherry flavoring like the plague. Most of them are extremely medicinal. Think cherry cough syrup.

Whole fruit, or fruit puree is my vote.

Tusch said:

Look at the maraschino cherry ingredients. They often have high fructose corn sugar and preservatives. But these don't matter too much if your using it post fermentation. But it may inhibit finings.

Click to expand...

that's a good point, thanks. looks like they are made with k-meta so it would be okay for a still cider but would probably kill a carbonated one. Also looks like the main flavoring is almond extract. i guess i'll try a more natural approach

bass-a-roo said:

i want to try this on a small scale with maraschino cherry juice to add a touch of sweetness. has that worked for anyone? other than that my LHBS sells a bottle of cherry flavoring for $5. . .

Click to expand...

If you check in most of the big stores around the pharmacy area, they carry, real black cherry concentrate that folks use for their arthritis problems- The stuff that Wallyworld carries didn't have any preservatives last time I looked and is really Black Cherry concentrate.. Others carry blueberry juice concentrate for the same reasons and it is usually pure. I never use any thing called "Flavoring" if I can help it. Also you can usually find fresh juice in the fancy juice area by most produce areas, it will be right next to the POM brand pomegranate juice.
But since Michigan is a big Cherry/blueberry producing state, I hope that it is not just a local thing.

This time of year, you might get lucky with some produce out of South America... but since most all Cherries are ripe sometime in the Summer... The ones you get in the store now have sat in cold storage for a while now...

Frozen probably has a much better probability of not tasting like watery Cardboard...

Good luck

John

IF you decide to go with concentrate, you may find this to your liking: http://www.knudsenjuice.com/products/concentrates/black_cherry Regards, GF.

On my third Apfelwein, after one week in primary I racked it to secondary with a half gallon of black cherry juice. Can't remember the brand, but it was canned w/o preservatives and 100% juice. The finished product had just a tinge of pink and after two months was smooooth.

Hibob! said:

On my third Apfelwein, after one week in primary I racked it to secondary with a half gallon of black cherry juice. Can't remember the brand, but it was canned w/o preservatives and 100% juice. The finished product had just a tinge of pink and after two months was smooooth.

Click to expand...

I am a bit confused(I'm still learning) After your primary fermentation Say you did apfelwein and you wanted to put in blackberry. Would you take the juice or berrys thawed either one you use put it in the carboy and then siphone the apfelwein over it? Also how long in the secondary. Also won't it just continue to ferment even dryer and you would lose any sweetness or fruit flavor?

For a great selection of organic or all natural flavorings and concentrates: http://www.naturesflavors.com/index.php/catalogsearch/result/?q=cherry

mastamind said:

I am a bit confused(I'm still learning) After your primary fermentation Say you did apfelwein and you wanted to put in blackberry. Would you take the juice or berrys thawed either one you use put it in the carboy and then siphone the apfelwein over it? Also how long in the secondary. Also won't it just continue to ferment even dryer and you would lose any sweetness or fruit flavor?

Click to expand...

Let me elaborate - I would siphon my still-fermenting apfelwein to a clean carboy just to get it off the yeast cake. I then add the juice or mashed fruit (cherry, blackberry, peach, etc ), slap on a ferment lock and walk away. I like my ciders dry, so the loss of sweetness is not a bad thing for me. I bottle condition, so if you need a little sweetness add aspertame or something else that will impart sweetness without giving itself up to the yeast.
Do I need to get the cider off the yeast cake? Maybe. I tend to let things sit for a really long time and I do worry about the autolysis of the yeast, altho some claim it's no big deal. I tend to run secondary for around 3 months - makes dryer, higher alcohol content.