Cherry Cider: When and where to rack cherries?

[dinnerstick]

these bottles carbed up very quickly and i pasteurized them. it tasted pretty nice at bottling; again, lacking tartness to some extent but very cherry indeed, and i possibly overdid it with backsweetening but that's a separate issue and was probably related to the quantity of cider that i took onboard while cleaning bottles etc. the only problem with the cider itself was a persistent yeasty aftertaste, despite being very clear. only right at the finish. i have never had a clear cider still carry a yeasty taste before.
priming with fresh juice was always going to lead to more sediment than from priming with sugar, and indeed while pasteurizing (70 deg) there was a lot of "flocculation" i love that word, coming to the top and eventually settling; that was to be expected, and i hope some of the yeasty notes settle out as well. now to age for a few months

 

[hroth521]

Pectin puck - just a great way of phrasing it ha!



Dinnerstick/hroth - do you have cherry trees? Curious what variety cherries you work with to make wine. I have three varieties of cherry trees and assume the sour mixed with some sweet would be the ones to use, but haven't tried it yet. I have bing (sweet), tartarian (sweet) and richmond cherries (sour). Dinnerstick- Of course being in the netherlands probably means you have different cultivars than what we have in the u.s.

I can find out. They are sour, not sweet. They come from two trees in a friends yard. She is always asking me if I can use them because they take up so much room in her freezer. I can tell you I will not know how the flavor of my cherry apple cider changes over the next few months because my wife loves it and it will not last until summer. Next year I'll need to make 10 gallons rather than five!