Tart cherry juice as a cider flavoring?

[thelema5]

I just bought a bottle of R.W. Knudsen's "Just Tart Cherry" juice, which I understand is so acidic that it's nearly undrinkable straight.

I'm putting together a recipe for a tart-cherry cider because I was inspired by BlainD's Unicorn Blood recipe, but wanted something a bit bolder.

Has anyone worked with this juice before? At the moment I'm thinking a 6/1 apple juice to tart cherry juice ratio would be okay, but I'll omit my usual malic acid amendment to compensate for the tart cherry.

If you've used this juice before, is this ratio too cherry-centric? I imagine that the stuff would quickly dominate any cider recipe due to it's strong character.

 

[VasDeferensly]

I use tart cherry as a flavoring fairly often. I usually put it in during bottling at around a 5/1 or so ratio. Honestly what I do is put in about 2 gallons of cider, add some tart cherry juice, taste, and adjust, then take that ratio up to the full 5 gallons. It does dominate the flavor, but it's good so I don't mind.

 

[thelema5]

I use tart cherry as a flavoring fairly often. I usually put it in during bottling at around a 5/1 or so ratio. Honestly what I do is put in about 2 gallons of cider, add some tart cherry juice, taste, and adjust, then take that ratio up to the full 5 gallons. It does dominate the flavor, but it's good so I don't mind.

For clarity, do you halt fermentation and sterilize your cider before adding the cherry juice at bottling, or are you adding the cherry juice to a "live" cider as a priming agent for carbonation?

 

[VasDeferensly]

I bottle pasteurize, so there's no sorbate or sulfites added, and enough yeast in suspension to bottle carb. I add cider from my secondary to the bottling bucket, usually a gallon or two, then I add cherry juice in measured increments until I get it just so, then add sweetener, note the ratio, put the rest of my cider in my bottling bucket, add cherry juice and sweetener again, priming sugar, bottle, wait a few days until CO2 is where I want it and pasteurize.