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Hi,

I just finished processing the cherries I picked to make a Kirsch. I ended up with 75 lbs of cherries and prior to adding pectinase the sugar was 1.097 SG using a refractometer. I wanted to bulk up the wash with some sugar but do not want to impact the flavor/aroma too much. I have seen several cherry wine recipies posted and the sugar to fruit ratios are around 0.75:1 (W/W). Will a 1:1 sugar to fruit ratio result in bad flavors? What starting gravity should I shoot for if using sugar?

Thanks,

Norwest

SG of 1.097 has a potential ABV of 12.5%. Why would you want to go any higher then that. That's pretty high for no added sugar. I would pitch the yeast and go for it.

I want to increase the volume of the wash to get the most out of the cherries. Idealy I would have picked more and done an all fruit mash but it was 100 F and my back hurt. Nowest

Norwest wrote:I want to increase the volume of the wash to get the most out of the cherries. Idealy I would have picked more and done an all fruit mash but it was 100 F and my back hurt. Nowest

The more you increase the abv of your cherry wash with sugar, the more you dilute the cherry flavor of the distillate. Your choice. Do as PP says and go for it as is.

do an all fruit.
Save and freeze any pulp you strain off.
distill.
add the back-set to the frozen pulp with more sugar and do a sugar-head fruit wash, distill with the feints of the fruit wash, find the hearts and blend as you see fit with the hearts of the fruit wash. best of both worlds that way

the higher the abv the more stress you put on the yeast....the more stress the more off flavors.

frozenthunderbolt wrote:do an all fruit.
Save and freeze any pulp you strain off.
distill.
add the back-set to the frozen pulp with more sugar and do a sugar-head fruit wash, distill with the feints of the fruit wash, find the hearts and blend as you see fit with the hearts of the fruit wash. best of both worlds that way

I like this idea. Might just try it in the fall when I harvest my Java Plums.

That is an interesting idea...

But, like the others, I would go with straight fruit. Thats a pretty ideal situation you have...

frozenthunderbolt i like the backset on pulp idea...just wondering what kind of added sugar amounts are we talking about on the secondary fruit sugar head, i used a juicer to tear through peaches for their juice and i would love to run the juice in one bucket and the pulp sugar head in another?

FantsGrove wrote:frozenthunderbolt i like the backset on pulp idea...just wondering what kind of added sugar amounts are we talking about on the secondary fruit sugar head, i used a juicer to tear through peaches for their juice and i would love to run the juice in one bucket and the pulp sugar head in another?

Personally i would keep it fairly low, 3 kg in 20 l wash, certainly no more than 4KG at the max. The lower the sugar, the less the stress on the yeasties and the less off flavours - i now use no more than 3.5 kg on all my UJSSMW ferments and i can taste a difference.

That is quite a high SG reading for cherries! I think cherry juice is usually in the 12-15 brix range, vs the 23 brix you got. I haven't picked mine yet this year but am hoping to make it out this coming weekend.

Thanks Ill def give it a go and see how it works out, better than tossing on the scrap heap and worse case just really pack the column and knock all the flavor down

With fruit and berries, 11% max.