I recently did a gallon of pomegranate cherry wine that turned out amazing. I used 3 quarts of POM juice, (it comes in 1.5qt jugs) and then I added 1 quart of "RW Knudsen Just Tart Cherry Juice". I noticed I had some problems with my ferments being too hot and unhealthy yeast so I did a few things to fix this. I fermented in a Rossi jug so I had a little extra room and I slowly added in some dark brown sugar after the fermentation peaked. I did this so the yeast wouldn't be overwhelmed with sugar to start out, and it also degassed it. I also kept it under 70 degrees until it peaked and then i moved it to a storage area i have that is about 74. I started it on a Saturday, moved to storage on Monday and then i moved it to my fridge on Friday and racked to a secondary on Sunday night. When I moved the wine had a couple bubbles every now and then, so i turned my fridge to the highest setting and let it ferment out, I primarily use Cuvee so I know it will take care of anything, I think it was done after 12 hours. I wanted it cold though so it would settle out better. I didn't measure the brown sugar, but i knew the juice had about .5kg of Sugar and that would probably make it 7.5%, i hoped i added it enough to get 9-10%. The bill was:
$15.98 for 3QT POM
$04.81 for 1QT Cherry
I degassed and bottled a solid 3L for bulk aging and drank the rest/lost to sediment. The initial taste after 8 days is amazingly good. The first part of it is very similar to a red wine, kinda thin but thick with flavor. Then in the middle there was a sour flavor. The aftertaste had a complex sweet but bitter tannic flavor. Its not a bad sour, but like an acidic lemonade sour, but i hope it goes away, because i think it may be hiding some more subtle flavors. All in all this wine, at day 8, is better than a few commercial wines that I've had and at $7 a bottle, its cheaper and well worth the novelty. The tartness of the pomegranate was a little strong though and next time I will use a 1-1 or 2-1 ratio of POM juice to cherry, blueberry or blackberry juice. I know pom juice seems expensive but its def worth it.
$15.98 for 3QT POM
$04.81 for 1QT Cherry
I degassed and bottled a solid 3L for bulk aging and drank the rest/lost to sediment. The initial taste after 8 days is amazingly good. The first part of it is very similar to a red wine, kinda thin but thick with flavor. Then in the middle there was a sour flavor. The aftertaste had a complex sweet but bitter tannic flavor. Its not a bad sour, but like an acidic lemonade sour, but i hope it goes away, because i think it may be hiding some more subtle flavors. All in all this wine, at day 8, is better than a few commercial wines that I've had and at $7 a bottle, its cheaper and well worth the novelty. The tartness of the pomegranate was a little strong though and next time I will use a 1-1 or 2-1 ratio of POM juice to cherry, blueberry or blackberry juice. I know pom juice seems expensive but its def worth it.
