Infinite choke cherries! Anyone have a good recipe for wine?

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jason.loxton
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Infinite choke cherries! Anyone have a good recipe for wine?

Post by jason.loxton » Sat Sep 07, 2013 2:12 pm

Just went and picked over ten pounds in about half an hour. Plenty more where they came from. Never made wine from fresh berries. Found a few recipes online, but wondering if anyone with experience making choke cherry wine has advice and/or a favourite recipe?

Thanks!

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Re: Infinite choke cherries! Anyone have a good recipe for w

Post by RubberToe » Sat Sep 07, 2013 2:18 pm

One of my uncles in Newfoundland makes wine out of any berry he can find, I should send him a message.

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Re: Infinite choke cherries! Anyone have a good recipe for w

Post by Juniper Hill » Sat Sep 07, 2013 11:52 pm

Here's a recipe I found on winepress.us. I've never tried it, so cannot vouch for it (15 camden tablets sounds like twice as much as I'd use).

Wild chokecherry wine

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This is for a 15 gallon batch! For a smaller batch, just cut the ingredients in half/thirds/etc. I used a big rubbermaid bin for primary (make sure you know where 15 gallons is on the container!) and three 5 gallon carboys for secondary.

45 pounds chokecherries
28 pounds sugar
5 dark grape concentrates (available in winemaking shops)
7 tsp pectic enzyme
5 tsp yeast nutrient
5 tsp acid blend
15 crushed campden tablets
3 packages of champagne yeast (Lalvin's EC-1118 works great!)

OG: 1.100
FG: .990

Destem chokecherries and freeze (this helps break them up easier). Place them while still frozen in large mesh bags, and thaw in primary. As they thaw, smash them up by hand or with a mortar and pestle, but don't crush the pits! You only want to break up the skin on the fruit. Dissolve the sugar in 5 gallons of boiling water and pour over fruit, stirring well. Add water, to top up to 15 gallons. Add the yeast nutrient and acid blend. Dissolve the crushed campden tablets in hot water, and pour over the fruit, stirring well. Cover with a towel. 12 hours later, add the pectic enzyme. Check the OG, and adjust to get it from 1.090-1.100.

12 hours after that, add the yeast. Cover loosely with a towel. Stir the must several times a day, knocking the fruit under the liquid. The fruit will keep trying to float- stir it down, and also stir any "cap" that forms. When fermentation slows (an SG of 1.010-1.020), pull out the bags of fruit, and squeeze well. Let them drain back into the fermenter, and throw out the fruit when draining stops. Pour and strain into carboys. Airlock. Don't top up until fermentation slows down a bit more. When fermentation slows, top up to 15 gallons with water.

Rack whenever lees are 1/4" thick, or in about 4 weeks. Thereafter, rack every 45-60 days or whenever lees are 1/4" thick. Top up with water to minimize headspace. After approximately 6 months, and no more lees fall, rack onto 5 ounces French medium toast oak chips, soaked in a bit of brandy. After approximately 6 weeks, taste for oak flavor. If adequate, rack off of the oak and bulk age.

Bottle and age one year.

This wine is a "big" red, and suitable for a dinner wine. If you want it a bit smaller and fruitier, you can cut the grape concentrate, lower the OG to 1.085, and not oak it. Stabilized and then sweetened, the lower OG version is a light red fruity wine.
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Re: Infinite choke cherries! Anyone have a good recipe for w

Post by mahi » Thu Oct 03, 2013 7:12 am

Rather than rely on the yeast getting tired you can aim for SG=1.090, ferment it dry with whatever you want, stabilize it with sulphite and sorbate, then backsweeten to taste.

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Re: Infinite choke cherries! Anyone have a good recipe for w

Post by CiderBeerWine » Wed Dec 25, 2013 5:00 pm

From Jack Kellar:

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/chokech.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

WILD CHOKECHERRY WINE (1)

2-1/2 lbs fresh wild chokecherries
2-1/2 lbs finely granulated sugar
1 tsp acid blend
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
1/4 tsp grape tannin
7 pints water
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 crushed Campden tablet
Champagne or Sauterne wine yeast
Pick only ripe berries. Destem and destone berries, put in blender with one cup of the water and chop. Pour into nylon straining bag, tie and put in primary with half the sugar and the remianing water, acid blend, tannin and crushed Campden tablet. Stir well to dissolve sugar, cover primary and let stand 12 hours. Add pectic enzyme and let stand another 12 hours. Add yeast, stir and cover again. Gently squeeze bag twice daily to extract juice. After seven days, drain bag and squeeze well to extract as much juice as you can. Add remaining sugar and stir well to dissolve, then pour into secondary and fit airlock. Use dark fermenter or wrap brown paper around secondary to preserve color. Ferment 30 days, rack, rack again in two months and again after additional two months. If you are going to sweeten, add stabilizer, wait 10 days, then add no more than 1/4 cup sugar dissolved in 1/8 cup water. Bottle in dark glass or store in dark place. May taste in six months, but best aged a year. [Adapted from Dorothy Alatorre's Home Wines of North America]
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