Its looking like this year i will have a bumper crop of chokecherries and was wondering who has a tried and true wine recipe?
Thanks
Chokecherry wine
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Re: Chokecherry wine
🎱 The struggle is real and this rabbit hole just got interesting.
Per a conversation I had with Mr. Jay Gibbs regarding white oak barrel staves: “…you gotta get it burning good.”
Per a conversation I had with Mr. Jay Gibbs regarding white oak barrel staves: “…you gotta get it burning good.”
Re: Chokecherry wine
Any luck?
I picked 25lb of chokecherres this year. I froze them, thawed them, simmered them with a little water to make crushing easier, crushed them and fermented them as you would a red wine.
Once the cap no longer formed, I pressed the wine off.
It has a ton of pulp in there still which is normal in my experience so I will rack it and transfer the sediment into smaller vessels, and finally freeze filter it to get the last of the liquid out.
It will then sit in the secondary for a year so the acidity and astringencyhss a chance to work out.
The wine I made last year is excellent but I won't be drinking it for another year because I will be freeze concentrating it into a chokecherry port, and letting it age on oak.
I picked 25lb of chokecherres this year. I froze them, thawed them, simmered them with a little water to make crushing easier, crushed them and fermented them as you would a red wine.
Once the cap no longer formed, I pressed the wine off.
It has a ton of pulp in there still which is normal in my experience so I will rack it and transfer the sediment into smaller vessels, and finally freeze filter it to get the last of the liquid out.
It will then sit in the secondary for a year so the acidity and astringencyhss a chance to work out.
The wine I made last year is excellent but I won't be drinking it for another year because I will be freeze concentrating it into a chokecherry port, and letting it age on oak.
Re: Chokecherry wine
If you still have those chokecherries in the freezer I recommend https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/wi ... ne.121092/. I have tried Yooper's wine and it is wonderful
Re: Chokecherry wine
I found that time doesn't reduce the astringency all that much. Even after 2 years it was still hard on the taste buds. I'm guessed the astringency was from polyphenols, so I fined it with gelatin. The wine went from crystal clear to chunky immediately. I waited a few days for the sediment to drop out and racked it.
Still too astringent, so I repeated the process until the wine I was looking for emerged.
Finally I fortified it with a neutral spirit, added some oak, and my choke cherry port is ready to put away.
Still too astringent, so I repeated the process until the wine I was looking for emerged.
Finally I fortified it with a neutral spirit, added some oak, and my choke cherry port is ready to put away.
Re: Chokecherry wine
Don’t you love it when a plan comes together? Good on you for seeing it through. That glass looks great. Congratulations!
🎱 The struggle is real and this rabbit hole just got interesting.
Per a conversation I had with Mr. Jay Gibbs regarding white oak barrel staves: “…you gotta get it burning good.”
Per a conversation I had with Mr. Jay Gibbs regarding white oak barrel staves: “…you gotta get it burning good.”
Re: Chokecherry wine
I've already noticed a change. I had to remove some of the fortified wine so I could add sugar syrup (port is sweetened).
There are some beneficial reactions going on, and the sugar helps a lot in offsetting the residual astringency.
There are some beneficial reactions going on, and the sugar helps a lot in offsetting the residual astringency.