sweet cherries.....are they worth using?

[rattler_mt]

in most of what i read on brewing/wine/mead making tart cherries are used.....well they are hard to come by up here in BFE so im planting some of my own but wont have much for cherries for a few years.....however i should have access to large quantities of fresh sweet cherries in the next month or so.....im not big on cherries but the wife loves them so i was thinking of doing a sweet cherry mead for the wife if its worth the effort....

 

[Brett0424]

I've used them in beer and think they're great. Being "sweet" cherries won't change the amount of sweetness you get from them, they're going to ferment if you let them. But they will have a different flavor from different cherry varieties.

 

[jameswardpeterson]

I would go ahead and try it, I don't see any reason why it would come out bad. the thing you might worry about is not enough tartness that you desire. and that can always be fixed by adding some acid blend into it.

 

[BigKahuna]

I think that Sweet Cherry in a mead would be fantastic. I don't particularly like the tannon and Acid flavors that intrigues Red Wine Aficionados. I just like balanced flavor, which I think is pretty easy to adjust at bottling. You could add a little Lemon or Lime Zest to your mead, and then if you finish up and don't like the flavor, you could add some acid Blend at bottling. Just remember, It's a lot easier to add more later than to get out the Molecular Discombobulator and try to get the acid blend back out of solution once you have added it.

 

[tooomanycolors]

I think i fou have an extra 6lbs and some dry ice I would love to have some

 

[rattler_mt]

well my sense of timing was off.....the cherries got here today, they were picked this weekend on the far side of the state....got somewhere between 25 and 30 pounds for $40.....gotta run out to the bee farm for some honey.....any reason i cant drop this onto the Notty yeast cake from my other mead? i dont want a dry mead and the Notty seems to have produced a mead thats not sweet but not actually dry which i kinda like.....have to rack the other one into the secondary and was just wondering if i can drop the new stuff onto the old yeast since i dont have a new package of it....going to de-stem the cherries tonight....run them over to my parents to drop into the deep freeze over night and i figure ill mix it up tomorrow night....

 

[BigKahuna]

There should be no problem with that. If it doesn't take off like you'd like, you could always add some more Notty when You get some.

 

[rattler_mt]

will do then....have to order some malt for a braggot anyway, but atleast this should get the ball rolling

 

[rattler_mt]

heres most of the haul:

most of it is in the freezer getting ready to start tomorrow........some is going to be vacuum sealed in bags and froze in case i find something interesting to do with them later on.....

 

[fretman124]

I make jam with those. pretty good stuff.....

I also made some mead with them. Used about 4 lbs in the ferment, 4 lbs in secondary. Been in tertiary for 8 months now, won't bottle until October, so won't know what it tastes like till then.