Home grown cherry wine

[Srimmey]

Good afternoon,

After a very trying week, I took a few hours to put myself in a better headspace. I took some wide swings on this and already feel there is room for improvement next year. That being said, assuming nothing goes wrong during fermentation this one will have a few bottles set aside for many years to come. We had a death in the family earlier this morning so the pitch date has real meaning. Pictures, recipes and notes below.

If anyone has advice on what kind of cherries these are, that would be helpful because I would love to plant a few more trees.

6/17/23 - wine to remember a life well lived.

3 gallons fresh pitted cherries from the tree - made 1.1 gallons of juice
- approximately 13 pounds after pitting & cleaning

1 gallon black cherry juice (store bought, not from concentrate)

32 oz tart cherry juice (store bought, not from concentrate)

Sugar to 1.09 OG
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 gram malic acid
6 gram fermaide O
QA23 yeast

1. Clean cherries, remove pits and freeze 24+ hours.
2. Thaw in warm water, press and set aside pulp.
3. Rehydrate yeast with gofirm, spring water and 1/2 cup black cherry juice. Set aside while cherries thaw
4. Mix juices, lemon juice.
5. Take gravity reading, add sugar and mix. Repeat this step until OG=1.09
6. Add fermaide O and malic acid. Stir with drill 5+ minutes to oxygenate must.
7. Pitch yeast starter, gently stir so it doesn’t sit on foam.

Notes: the fresh cherry juice was out of this world. Complex flavor and mild sweetness hot off the press. Next year it might be worth not adding water or store bought cherry juice. Just sugar, pressed juice, pulp and additives.

 

[Elkobrewer]

Sorry for you loss. I have the same cherry tree in my yard so I would also like to know what type they are

 

[Srimmey]

Racked to secondary, degassed and stabilized. Had the perfect amount for 3 gallons without getting the siphon into the trub! Ended up going to 1.000, gives me about 11.8% abv.

A 2 week flavor test shows lots of promise. Minimum alcohol burn, even right after primary. Its acid balance and flavor profile is similar to a syrah with a distinct note of chocolate. I blame to QA23 for doing a great job.

 

[cottonwoodks]

I don't know what kind of cherries they are, but if you want to propagate them, buy some cherry rootstocks, take scion wood cuttings from these cherry trees during the winter (saving them in your fridge until spring), and graft them onto the root stock. Then, whatever variety they are, that's what you'll have.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Those look like sand plums to me. Here in Oklahoma they're about the same size as small cherries. In my experience sand plums are fairly tart compared to cherries.

 

[Srimmey]

I don't know what kind of cherries they are, but if you want to propagate them, buy some cherry rootstocks, take scion wood cuttings from these cherry trees during the winter (saving them in your fridge until spring), and graft them onto the root stock. Then, whatever variety they are, that's what you'll have.

This is a great suggestion, thank you!

 

[Srimmey]

Those look like sand plums to me. Here in Oklahoma they're about the same size as small cherries. In my experience sand plums are fairly tart compared to cherries.

They are definitely some sort of tart cherry. The wine has been bottled now and it turned out very nice!

Something on par with a nice rose’, except more brown than pink. Time and age will make it something special!