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Cherry WineCountry Wine · Dry

Cherry Wine

E
by @essesser
13.1%
ABV
1.095
OG
0.995
FG
4.5 litres batch · target 13% ABV
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About this recipe

Easy homemade cherry wine recipe for one demijohn (1 gallon). Sweet or sour cherries, sugar and patience. Worth the purple fingers from stoning.

Ingredients

cherries2 kg
sugar1 kg
water4.5 l
acid blend1 tsp
wine tannin0.25 tsp
pectic enzyme1 tsp
campden tablet1
yeast nutrient1 tsp
sachet Lalvin 71B1

Method

1
Destone the cherries and mash in a sterilised bucket
2
Dissolve the sugar in hot water, cool, and pour over the fruit
3
Add the acid blend, tannin, pectic enzyme and a crushed campden tablet, cover and leave 24 hours
4
Add the yeast and nutrient
5
Ferment 5 to 7 days, stirring daily
6
Strain into a demijohn, top up to 4.5 litres and fit an airlock
7
Ferment out for 2 to 5 weeks
8
Rack off the sediment
9
Age at least 6 months before drinking
Tools for this brew: scale it to your batch size, work out ABV from your readings, or correct a warm hydrometer reading. All free.

Brewer's notes

Sour cherries make the better wine if you can find them, morellos ideally, but sweet supermarket cherries work with the acid to sharpen them up. Destone the lot. It is tedious and your fingers will look fingerprinted, but the stones bring a harsh almond edge. Ferments dry with 71B; sweeten at bottling for something nearer a dessert red.

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