Lots and lots of cherries

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Shine0n
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Lots and lots of cherries

Post by Shine0n »

Earlier this year my oldest son and I found a massive cherry tree that was covered with overgrown crap.

We took all the vines off and cleaned up around it and this spring we were going to cut the saplings growing up under it. (Not cherry) but work stopped that part and as of now there are thousands of cherries and in the next couple weeks I should be able to harvest as many cherries as any man or woman could ever want :thumbup:

I'll gather them as they ripen to keep ahead of the birds and would like to make a brandy with them.
There are enough to fill a 55 gal drum or more and will be ready soon.
My buddy who lives on the block ahead of me says cherries come and go very fast so I'll have to be on top of my game when the time arises.

I may make some wine as well but brandy is the main goal with this harvest.

I'm going to do my homework but ANYONE who has worked with them may chime in and give advice because I'm about to be loaded very soon like within the next 2 weeks.
I have a deep freeze and will freeze them if needed.

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der wo
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by der wo »

Do you want ferment juice or must?

A freezer is always helpful with fruits. It is important to mash only ripe fruits. Unripe ones add neither sugar nor taste.
Without a freezer the best way would be to start to ferment the ripe fruits and then every day or few days add new ripe ones to the mash.

Cherries have a lot of bitter almond flavors when you mash and distill with the stones. Generally I like the taste, but this taste is similar to other fruits with stones like plums or sloes. So I always try to remove all stones before distilling, then I get more of the specific fruit taste.

No water is needed for mashing cherries.
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by Lko67 »

It will be a fight with birds and chipmunks. I've got two tree's full size ones and usually loose half of the fruit should have planted dwarf tree's, then could net them. I try to net these. Use my backhoe and stand in bucket as wife maneuvers around stops birds somewhat.
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by MichiganCornhusker »

Shouting and shooting, I can't let them catch me...
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by MDH »

Your friend is right. Cherries do come and go very fast.

My personal experience is that standard black or "eating" cherries are not very acidic, unlike their sour-cherry relatives, and because of that, ferments made with them will encounter some serious flaws.

I recommend going to a wine or homebrewing shop and investing in a bag of "Acid Blend". If not that, look for malic or tartaric acid. Add these to the mash until you reach a pH of 4.6, ideally lower to about 4.0, before proceeding with fermentation.

Remove stems, but do both ferment and distill on the pits. Yes, this adds more ethyl carbamate to the spirit, but it's unlikely you're going to be drinking tons of cherry brandy on a daily basis. The flavor imparted by cherry stones cannot truly be replicated with almonds.
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by Shine0n »

Der wo, I have a large freezer. That's what I kept my fruit in last year and I'll also remove the stones, at least 90-95?
MCH, I read that thread this am after posting. I've had a very slack day for work so I've had the luxury of reading almost all day today.
As for the birds, I'll just have to compete for the fruit as I wouldn't net because the property isn't mine. Plus I don't have a way to get a net that size over such a tree.

We'll see how it pans out, I have a refractometer to check them and of course I'll taste them as I see them getting closer and closer.I'm hoping I'm not out of town when the do get ripe, that would very much suck.

I plan a no sugar added brandy, stones removed and fermented on the pulp. If I'm blessed to get enough for 30 gal of must then I'll steam strip the pulp in the thumper with the cleared must in the boiler and save enough must to do a final spirit run with low wines.

Damn birds better not get them all. My neighbour said they go quickly so I better keep an eye on em.
Last edited by Shine0n on Thu May 04, 2017 1:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by Shine0n »

Thanks MDH, not having to destone them will be a big time saver. What would be a good way to crush them without breaking the stones to bits? Paint/drywall mixer, hands, low speed?
Last year when I did my peaches I did my be st to remove all the stones because my mixer beat some of them to pieces, I assume because they have more surface area to get hit by a blade from the mixer. Cherry stones are small and probably wouldn't take the beating but I haven't a clue since I haven't done them before.

I've read mixed reviews on the stones, some say 10 % and some say all. I'll keep on reading and see, but all and any advice from you fine folks are more than welcome.

I wouldn't be here without yalls help.
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by Shine0n »

Are cherries like tomatoes, will they continue to ripen after they've been picked? My neighbour just asked me that question and I don't know.
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by Truckinbutch »

Haven't worked with cherries But I have a suggestion . Freeze them pit and all . When you get a desired quantity thaw them and either use a cherry pitter made for the job (or before you freeze them which can be drill powered) or ,once thawed , use a drywall paddle mixer on the lowest speed to avoid breaking pits . A coarse screen should separate the seeds without an extreme effort .
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by Pikey »

Shine0n wrote:Are cherries like tomatoes, will they continue to ripen after they've been picked? My neighbour just asked me that question and I don't know.
Most stuff will continue to ripen when picked "nearly ripe" - a banana or two around the fruit helps them to ripen.
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by Shine0n »

Good to know Pikey, they're just about to start turning this week it looks like.
I'm going to try a snap a pic of the tree today and share.
This thing is big! I guess I must have seen dwarf trees my whole life because this thing looks amazing.
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by Shine0n »

My god!!! The black birds stripped the tree within 2 fn days :thumbdown:
Next year there will be a net on that tree damn it all to hell.
Man I hate this happened but hey, the birds been coming to that tree for ever and I just discovered it sooo. SHIT

NEXT YEAR!!!
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by Lko67 »

You'll have to set up camp with a pellet gun. I've had birds get them netted and chipmunk chew thru netting hard to stop them when they get a taste
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by Pikey »

Yup :lol:

Good ain't they ? :wink:
Shine0n
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by Shine0n »

Pikey wrote:Yup :lol:

Good ain't they ? :wink:
I wish I knew. Lol
I've never seen a tree go from full to damn near empty in that short amount of time.
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by Bushman »

Most stuff will continue to ripen when picked "nearly ripe" - a banana or two around the fruit helps them to ripen.
never heard that about bananas, they sure can draw fruit flies though!
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by Bushman »

Had to understand why this happens:
http://www.sciencefocus.com/qa/why-do-b ... pen-faster" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by RedwoodHillBilly »

Store bought tomatoes are picked green for shipment then "reddened" with ethylene gas, but I wouldn't call it ripening. They are red, but still hard and tasteless compared to vine ripened.
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by The Baker »

RedwoodHillBilly wrote:Store bought tomatoes are picked green for shipment then "reddened" with ethylene gas, but I wouldn't call it ripening. They are red, but still hard and tasteless compared to vine ripened.
You could play cricket (or baseball) with them.

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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by Jimbo »

MichiganCornhusker wrote:Some good cherry info here:
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 38&t=56670
Thanks MCH, I was about ready to start typing, and saw your post and realized I already typed a heap of stuff on running cherries.

Shineon. A nice white cherry eau de vie off 100% cherries, no sugar or water is a really delicious thing. Ferment on the stones for a sweet little almond note, but dont distill on the stones. Dont crack the pits when you mash em up in a buckets. I used my hands and just squished em up, all you really need to do is cause a crack in the skins, the yeasties will absolutely find their way in and gobble up the innards.

Cheers! Nice find.
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Shine0n
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by Shine0n »

Jimbo, are you suggesting to use the unripe cherries? If so I may be able to scavenge a few lbs of them when I return home.
It would be nice to get at least 5 gals worth to make a small batch. I'm not holding my breath because I seen the the tree go from full to 7/8 empty in 2 days but I hope to find some if that's the case.

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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by Jimbo »

No sorry, I meant white spirit, not aged on oak. eau de vie is a white fruit spirit, brandy is an oak aged fruit spirit (brown), in most circles anyway. Left white and made from pure cherries with nothing added will create a 'kirshwasser' in the German tradition. Very nice drink. Im having one now in honor of your cherry tree find.
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by Shine0n »

Ahh, I gotcha!
As 90% of my fruit brandy I keep white, I haven't gotten my oak procedure down quite good enough plus I try and capture as much of the fruit as possible.
The only thing I have aging on oak at the time is HBB and a little rum. I think I like the white of the rum but time will tell.
I have 1.5 gal of my peach brandy left from last year and I would not even think about tainting it with wood. Also have 3/4 gal of plum. All ran around June and late July last year. Their flavors have developed well and I only sip now and again.
I had no idea about the brandy being oaked and the eau De vie being clear. Shit, I called it white brandy and I guess I need to learn all the differences.
I know plum is sliv, and cherries are kirsh, but just thought if it were a fruit spirit it was brandy. Lol now I know!
The birds have had their way with this tree but at least now I have big future plans with it. I'll try to get what I can and use them as I've been working on a modular still and have a 7.75 gal keg to run small batches.

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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by der wo »

Call it like you want. Generally there is no big tradition of barrel aging in the middle and eastern Europe countries. That's why normally Kirschasser or Slivovitz and all the other traditional spirits there are white. Today you often find barrel aged ones, because the consumers want it. Unfortunately the most of them have more the look of barrel aged than are real barrel aged. Caramel color and sugar added (and perhaps a few months in a mini barrel).
Cognac and Whisky of course have a barrel tradition. But this is north and west Europe.
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by Pikey »

Shine0n wrote:Jimbo, are you suggesting to use the unripe cherries? If so I may be able to scavenge a few lbs of them when I return home.
It would be nice to get at least 5 gals worth to make a small batch. I'm not holding my breath because I seen the the tree go from full to 7/8 empty in 2 days but I hope to find some if that's the case.

Shine0n
Not Jimbo, but I have used unripe fruit - Gooseberries and also Grapes - Both made excellent wines, but I just used the fruits for flavour and added sugar for the ferment. Both were excellent and very similar - similar to a really good Hock ! :D

Don't now whether it would work with cherries, but what's to lose in trying ?
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Re: Lots and lots of cherries

Post by Shine0n »

Pikey, I'm suck in VA Beach working and won't be home till Thursday at the earliest. Them black birds stripped damn near the whole thing in 2 days so I won't hold my breath but when I get home and see some I'll be very happy to gather them up.
I have a plan with the tree and the land owner said I could do as I please with the tree, she also has a peach tree that's been neglected for some time but my wife and oldest son are planning on tending them from here on out.
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