Preventing Fermentation

[PaulyWally]

I'll try to make this short.

I have a cherry tree. I made a cherry "hooch" the first year the tree produced. The ingredients were:

• Cherries
• Water
• Brown Sugar
• White Sugar
• 190 proof grain alcohol
• Cinnamon
• Bitters

I mixed all the ingredient during bottling. The only thing I mixed first was dissolving the sugar in the water on the stove. It went well and tasted great after a couple months.

Last year I did the same thing, but made it in larger batches, and froze the cherries first. I "aged" it in a glass carboy for a couple months to combine all the flavors. Then bottled. The bottles started leaking after a week or two. I assumed there was some wild yeast on the cherries that began fermenting in the carboy. I dumped all the bottles into a pot, pasteurized (>165*F for >20 minutes), and re-bottled. That seemed to work. But it didn't taste as good due to a higher alcohol content than I wanted.

This year I'm mixing all the ingredients first, pasteurizing, and then pouring the mixture into a carboy. After a day or two in the carboy, I noticed fermentation. I let it go for a few weeks anyway just to see what happens (I'm still learning and experimenting). I just tasted it, and it is quite sour with a high alcohol content. It tastes like all the sugars are gone, and there is barely any cherry flavor.

Any thoughts? Just looking for some ideas on maybe something I'm doing wrong, or something is going on that I'm not familiar with. TIA!

P.S. I'm having a little fermentation trouble with cherry wine I made as well. The first year it seemed to go well. The next year it kept fermenting after bottling - and I bottled AFTER I thought fermentation was complete. I'm guessing I was wrong.

 

[JohnSand]

Could be infected. I've had beers turn into gushers over time. I've also had orchard pasteurized cider ferment in the bottle.

 

[Erik the Awful]

I make cherry-jalapeno wine every year, and it's my friends' favorite. My blackberries ripen about the same time, so I use them to help with my juice content. I've also used apples and raisins.

Cherry wine is naturally sour, so to most people it tastes like dry wine unless you sweeten it. I'd skip the grain alcohol and bitters, but my palate isn't the most sophisticated, so maybe it works. I'm not sure about the cinnamon. Maybe try some vanilla extract instead?

Before I got my fruit press, I blended my ingredients and simmered them on the stove for an hour before adding them to the primary bucket. Whatever you do, don't boil the ingredients because that will cause a cloudiness and tannin flavor that's difficult to get rid of. I still simmer my fruit juice, but the lack of skins and seeds helps.

I use Lalvin EC-1118 because of its temperature tolerance, but it does make a higher alcohol content, which also makes the wine taste "spicier" on top of the jalapenos. I don't stop the fermentation, but rather let it make alcohol until the yeast can't take any more. The extra sugar on top of that is how I sweeten it. I don't even bother with hydrometer readings much because I go by taste and let the yeast do its thing. If you don't care for a high alcohol content and can use a yeast with less temperature tolerance, I'd use a milder yeast.

Typically my wines stay in secondary about four months, and with bentonite and sparkolloid they clarify about the time the yeast is maxed out, and I can bottle without fear of making bottle bombs.