Hopefully Making Apricot Cherry Wine

[WFox93]

Ok, so not quite yet. (TL;DR at the bottom)

I had an empty fermenter and with too many beer projects laying around, I decided it would remain empty unless I could come up with something quick and dirty that I could set and forget and not have a whole lot of money invested. I started gently brain storming ideas for random fermented stuff using some wine yeast I had left over from the Apfelwein I started a few weeks back.

It finally hit me, while I was at the grocery store. They had Apricots on sale. So I picked up a bunch of those and decided to grab a pack of cherries too. Pitted all the fruit, or "de-stoned" as I watched my dad do in the past. I blended the cherries in a puree (I really wanted the color) then tossed it all in a pot of water and heated it just enough to soften the fruit and mash it up. I also added a decent amount of corn sugar and about a cup of regular sugar. ....and then I realized what time it was and ran out of the door to make it to work. So now I have a gallon bucket of Apricot/Cherry juice chilling out on my kitchen table, sealed, waiting for me to pitch some redstar (I think) white wine yeast.

I haven't measure anything yet except a gallon of water. best I can remember, I used about 10 or so apricots and most of the bag of cherries. Maybe a pound at the most of corn sugar and a cup or so of regular sugar. I'll take a hydrometer reading when I get home. How do you guys think I did for flying by the seat of my pants? lol

 

[jgmillr1]

I haven't made apricot wine so I can't comment there. I would expect them to add necessary acid to the blend. Even a straight 100% cherry wine needs acid added to it.

Good call to de-stone the fruit since the pits will only add bitter tannin. When I've made cherry wine, I didn't puree them or even heat them up. The yeast is surprisingly good at breaking down the fruit and extracting the liquid and color. You may have a mess when it comes time to press/strain You'll want to also check the pH and TA along with the brix and add sufficient sulfites if you haven't already.

Sounds like you are on the right track. Cheers.

 

[bernardsmith]

OK WFox93 - I am tough and I don't mince my words:
Ten apricots - in a gallon of water? Apricots in the best possible of worlds - when you extract the juice and ferment that juice without any dilution in any water - are flavor thin... How much cherry? A pound? Two pounds? Three? Not a lot of juice (AKA flavor).

Here's the secret of wine making - Wine ain't beer. And while brewers need to boil grains in gallons of water to extract sugars, fruit gives up its sugars without heat, and water simply dilutes any juices in the fruit. Dilute juice tastes like... water. Here's another secret: taste the must (the juice before you pitch the yeast) If it's not something that you would pay good money to drink and enjoy then it won't make good wine. You can take THAT to the bank, WFox93.

Oh, I know that people like Jack Keller offer recipes that use three or four pounds of fruit for every gallon of wine - but that wine has no body or flavor. You want to use about 10 lbs of fruit (that might provide a scant gallon) and use the water for cleaning your fermenter and diluting the sanitizer (K-meta) , not for the wine.

If you freeze the fruit and then let it thaw the juice is expelled with hardly any force because the ice crystals rupture the cell walls - and if to this fruit and juice you add pectic enzyme more juice is extracted and the pectins in the fruit won't set - using heat not only cooks the fruit but helps set the pectins so you get jelly or jam rather than wine... OK I exaggerate - you get cloudy wines that are a pain to clear.

Last point - You added a variety of sugars to produce a must with juice that has about a pound of sugar per gallon (1.040- 1.050). But you diluted that juice so the gravity of the water might be - what 1.010 perhaps a little less. Perhaps 1.005. Most wines are more in balance (acidity, flavor, tannin, alcohol - even sweetness) when the ABV is around 12% (starting gravity of about 1.090) but if you need to add 10 times the amount of the flavored sugars to reach 12% ABV then your wine is starting off out of balance. Do you know how much sugar you added ? if you don't know what ABV you are aiming for then achieving a reasonable "balance" can be a real challenge.

 

[jgmillr1]

Ten apricots - in a gallon of water

Good catch! I absolutely concur. Grapes run like 11-13lbs/gallon. I never add water to my fruit wines. It is more expensive but I want to make wine that actually tastes like the fruit...

 

[WFox93]

Well, I can consider myself educated (at least a little bit). Honestly I had no real goals in starting this "wine." I just wanted a little side project. I haven't got the slightest clue on how much cherries I used. I just know it was all but about 10 in a standard size bag of them. I did taste the must and it didn't taste bad but it was thin. My gravity was around 1.050 if I remember rightly (notes are on the fridge at home while I'm at work). Thank you for the frank education bernardsmith. another shot of complete honesty: I am a brewer first and have done little to no research on wine making other than watching my dad with it (He picked it up after I started brewing), So I am quite literally flying by the seat of my pants and figuring it out as I go.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

For a decent fruit flavor in fruit wine (non-grape), go with a min. of 3-4 lbs. fruit per gallon; more for milder tasting fruits.
Regards, GF.