Kirschwasser (cherry eau de vie)

[bearriver]

And the journey continues... Nice job there Jimbo! Wish I could say that I wasn't jealous.

[thumper123]

God, Jimbo. That sounds fantastic. If I wasn't such an old man I'd be out there planting cherry trees right now. I've had commercial Kirshwasser, and it sucks as compared to the real local product in Europe. You can taste the sugar head in the boughten stuff. The Montmorency cherries you speak of are pretty good cherries for North America. They call them pie cherries, but what the hell do they know!

[Jimbo]

yup, Montmorency are the classic North American pie cherries. Very close relative to the Morello sour cherries in Germany used for this stuff. I did this one straight cherries and yeast, not a drop or spec of anything else added, just as the Germans do their Kirschwasser. It has a real nice cherry and almond flavor.

[MichiganCornhusker]

I couldn't resist this one, just sounds too damn good to not try.
Cherry pickin season is all but over here in Michigan, so I found a place that gave me a good deal on 60# of fresh picked tart cherries.
I had to order them a day in advance, and when I got there to pick them up they told me that they had even pitted them for me.
They seemed so pleased to have offered this free service, but then I explained that needed the pits. Then I got that look, like "what are you doing?" I said something about wine and they decided that if I wanted to take the pitted cherries, I could go out to the pittin' barn and collect up as many pits as I would like. So I wound up with a big ol' bag of pits and had to try to do some estimating to figure out how many pits to use for 60# of cherries.
I wasn't going to count everything out, so I found out that about 80 cherries makes a pound, and then I weighed out 80 pits and did the math.
Pitched some EC1118 on OG 1.058 and now I wait. Thanks for the inspiration, Jimbo!

[cranky]

I think I remember reading a thread by Paulinka that talked about not using all the pits but only a few for best results. It would be interesting to have enough pitted cherries to try adjusting the number of pits. Cherry season is over here but during the season when 10- 747s are flying out of here every day loaded with nothing but cherries I sit there and wonder just how much brandy could one days load make. I may have to do the math on that one day.

[Jimbo]

Haha, that's great mch, have fun. Cranky I used all the pits and have no issue with the liquor it has a very nice subtle almond flavor under the cherry. Maybe because I used my hands to crush the cherries and didnt crack any of the pits.

[Jimbo]

Hey MC, this cherry and walnut brandy fest we need to have should probably be called the juglone and cyanide carnival eh?

[MichiganCornhusker]

Hey MC, this cherry and walnut brandy fest we need to have should probably be called the juglone and cyanide carnival eh?

Maybe some of that poisonous blowfish for apps.

[Jimbo]

Okay, my son runs a fish market, I'll ask him to score us some. I hear all the danger lies in how the fish is filleted. We should be able to learn how to fillet it properly on the Internet?

[Jimbo]

Cherry season is over here but during the season when 10- 747s are flying out of here every day loaded with nothing but cherries I sit there and wonder just how much brandy could one days load make. I may have to do the math on that one day.

"The 747has a maximum takeoff weight of 910,000 pounds (412,769 kg) and a maximum payload of 248,600 pounds"

248,000/ 29 lbs/bottle = 8551 bottles/747

[MichiganCornhusker]

Cherry season is over here but during the season when 10- 747s are flying out of here every day loaded with nothing but cherries I sit there and wonder just how much brandy could one days load make. I may have to do the math on that one day.

"The 747has a maximum takeoff weight of 910,000 pounds (412,769 kg) and a maximum payload of 248,600 pounds"

248,000/ 29 lbs/bottle = 8551 bottles/747

That's about 20 million cherry pits.

[cranky]

Cherry season is over here but during the season when 10- 747s are flying out of here every day loaded with nothing but cherries I sit there and wonder just how much brandy could one days load make. I may have to do the math on that one day.

"The 747has a maximum takeoff weight of 910,000 pounds (412,769 kg) and a maximum payload of 248,600 pounds"

248,000/ 29 lbs/bottle = 8551 bottles/747

That's about 20 million cherry pits.

Multiply by the 10 plane loads a day (no kidding) and you get 85510 bottles worth of cherries per day in season DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for doing that math MCH

[MooseKnuckle]

Just to feed my curiosity... What are the chances that you could do this sort of thing with dried cherries? (May contain sunflower oil 1%) and if so, Maybe dump the cherries in a barrel, put water in until it's just covering the tops and mash it up...? I assume that would give you a slightly higher than normal starting SG but also more cherry flavour than just using virgin cherries, but the main concern here is whether or not the sunflower oil is a problem for fermenting. I found a supplier nearby that sells these in decent amounts and wondering if it's of any use to try out.

[MooseKnuckle]

Also it is Montmorency cherries dried and pitted

[Jimbo]

dried is fine, and the sunflower oil wont hurt anything, but be careful for sulpher dioxide and other preservatives they use on some dried fruits.

[MooseKnuckle]

Yeah it says cherries, sugar, sunflower oil (<1%). So I would hope that means zero preservatives. It is from a grain supply place that has a lot of natural foods.

[MichiganCornhusker]

KerSHWING!wasser is more like it! This is my first fruit brandy run, and oh baby is it good, right off the Liebig.
Will make a final heads cut tomorrow, it'll be difficult to not just add the whole jar it smells so good, but I've kept everything else until it got cloudy and it is really pretty great.
Very cherry nose with a subtle dry, unsweetened almond body. On paper, it seems like a small piece of sherry soaked toasted oak might enhance this even further, but it is quite nice white.
Also following your lead with a bucket of grappa fermenting, and will add it to this backset and run it as soon as it finishes fermenting.
I was reluctant to heat up all that delicious cherry wine for fear of not liking the result, but I'm very pleased with my first attempt, thanks Jimbo.

[Jimbo]

Nice! Appropriate fruit for popping your fruit brandy cherry. We'll have to compare beverages next time we're together. Cheers!

[ga flatwoods]

Y'all going to hell for using sugar as it is against Jimbo theology!

[Jimbo]

He didnt use sugar for the Kirsch, just the grappa afterwards using the old fruit and cherry backset from the Kirsch. I did the same thing. I have a bucket of fermented grappa with the old kirsch backset and sugar and it tastes good enough to keg up and carbonate. HA

[ga flatwoods]

He didnt use sugar for the Kirsch, just the grappa afterwards using the old fruit and cherry backset from the Kirsch. I did the same thing. I have a bucket of fermented grappa with the old kirsch backset and sugar and it tastes good enough to keg up and carbonate. HA

I meant in the grappa! I like carbonation. When you gonna bring a jockey box down here to share? Looks like I am going to have to have a Coastfest one day! Me and TB camping under the live oaks alone if no one else!

[Jimbo]

I ran the Cherry Grappa today. Basically the backset and old fruit from the Kirsch and enough sugar to get it to 1.061. Pulled almost 2 quarts at 86% on 2 plates.

Its nice, simple and clean with a mild cherry flavor but no almond flavor. Nothing like the Kirsch which is pretty cherry and almond forward, but nice. I'll use it as a base for Cherry Pantydropper.

[midwest shinner]

As always I love the label Jimbo. Your fruit posts always make me jealous, I need to find me some land and start up an orchard. Or just find some folks who don't bother picking their fruit, but out by me that's a rarity. By the way if you want help with apples in the fall just let me know, with some improved picking methods I'm betting we can streamline the process even more. Anyway, I love the cherry grappa idea, good way to stretch those cherries further. Keep up the good work

[Jimbo]

You'd be surprised Midwest. There are fruit trees EVERYWHERE if you look. The apples are getting big enough to see now, so just spot around when youre driving, take different routes to work, or just go for a Sunday drive. The cherries are done now so you wont see any, but in June look for them. There are 35 apple trees that I can pick from now between work and home. There are 2 neighbors in the neighborhood that have apples they are HAPPY for me to take, the ones you and I picked from in 2013. There's another neighbor with Pear trees, and yet another with an apple peach and cherry tree in their front yard that I have yet to ask if I can pick from, but Im sure they wont mind, 2 ladies live there... ahem....(fur traders) I bet a bottle of panty dropper would land me a couple friends and them trees for life.

Point is there are trees everywhere in every neighborhood, and folks (especially the next owners) who are more than happy for you to take the fruit before it falls and makes a mess and attracts bazillions of fruit flys.

[midwest shinner]

That is true buddy, I just recently found a big crabapple tree outside my work with grape vines growing around it and both are just stuffed with fruit. And I just planted 2 seedling apple trees at my house that I'll keep inside over this next winter to bring out to Colorado when we head out there next spring

[RandyMarshCT]

2 ladies live there... ahem....(fur traders)

Jimbo, after your bit of education and tasting MC's run, I want to make this.... bad!

Have you ever heard of anyone using Ranier cherries? I love them and I bet they'd make a killer offering. It's not a realistic ambition, however, due to the $10/lb price out here. That would be even more expensive than my maple spirit... $290/fifth. Hmmm...

[robb]

Very nice write up. Sounds delicious. Once again your labels are great.

[Jimbo]

2 ladies live there... ahem....(fur traders)

Jimbo, after your bit of education and tasting MC's run, I want to make this.... bad!

Have you ever heard of anyone using Ranier cherries? I love them and I bet they'd make a killer offering. It's not a realistic ambition, however, due to the $10/lb price out here. That would be even more expensive than my maple spirit... $290/fifth. Hmmm...

DO IT. Delicious stuff. Traditionally Kirsch is made from sour cherries (Morello's), I use a close relative, Montmorency. But YES, you can make them from Rainer sweet cherries. Steve McCarthy over at Clear Creek uses sweet cherries in his Kirsch, and given his location, they're probably Rainier cherries. http://clearcreekdistillery.com/product ... a004c5e748" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Sweet cherries are a lot meatier than sour cherries, which at their peak of ripeness are virtually little juice balls. So you might need to add a little water, which will drop your ABV, so keep the water minimum. Will still be fine with a double run tho getting you up to where you need to be in proof.

Thanks Robb.

[Jimbo]

PS: If you think cherry eau de vie is a pain in the ass, read down the page at that Clear Creek link I posted to the Framboise description..... Makes me want to try it, but gonna have to grow my own first. I just paid 5 bucks a lb for raspberries for my Raspberry Mead, and that was a deal compared to most stores around here.

[RandyMarshCT]

That's actually a damn good price for a bottle that uses 80 lbs of raspberries!