Well.. i'd have to lean towards too much fermentables in this case, as the main difficulty in brandy sounds like getting the flavor of the fruit to carry over. DD, i think that's an excellent idea to use cherry juice. No diluting flavors. I may not use only cherry juice, i'll have to add some water, as i think with that much cherries and sugar from juice, i could be approaching unpleasant ABV potential levels. I definitely don't need some off flavors or a stalled ferment. Especially after my apple brandy horribly failed attempt. I got in some potassium bicarbonate, and it worked well on a neutral to get it back to life (WPOSW, which i'm just reading about other ppl's troubles with PH crash on. I was wondering why i was having stalls with this recipe, there's almost nothing in it.)
Cranky had suggested using a meat grinder on dried fruit i believe. I just happen to have one, so, that sounds like the right tool for the job. I could use the cherries whole, but it seems like breaking them down and exposing the inside a bit would be beneficial. I'll use part cherry juice and part water, maybe a bit of nutrients, and EC 1117.
Cranky, my apologies for bringing up that cursed wretched horrible company. I did not mean to give them any credit at all, as any "good" they have done in furthering ag science, is vastly a billion times out weighed by all the awful shit they have done and continue to do. They FORCE farmers to buy a new round of seeds every year with their round up ready bullshit strains, then will hack you to pieces if they were to catch you harvesting the seed from your own plants. You don't even really own your plants. they do.
but i could go on for awhile about those scumbags.
Very poor choice for an example. I more meant that that is what farmers on the whole have been doing for a long time. Selecting the best stock to take cuttings/clones/ or seeds from. Simply trying to select the best genes or ones that are most appropriate for your terroir etc to produce the next crop. I do not know near as much as you do about the history of apples and apple varieties. It's fascinating and i love to learn and would love to learn more.
One thing i have learned.. from a book I believe (an early one, by Michael Pollan) called the Omnivore's dilemma (it could have been one of his other books, i don't recall) is that, much to my fascination, Johnny Appleseed AKA John Chapman, not only was a real person, but a fascinating one with a keen BUSINESS sense. We are taught in schools and as kids, that johnny appleseed was some mythic-like character whom traveled the countryside and threw appleseeds all over the place, and apple trees grew all over america (
) This food was a staple and sustained many an olde-tyme-y early american. And the oxes plowed the fields and oh pioneer life was grand, as they munched on shiny, bright red worm free apples. WRONG.. so so wrong not even close. These folks like to drink. HARD. And by hard, i mean hard cider. I'm sure olde - tyme life was rough.. short, and a lot of work. LOL. So, to get through life in those times, people really had a liking for the drink. In comes Cider. (and drinking it was probably much safer than water in those days) JC recognized the love and need of hard cider in lots of pioneer communities. So, what he did, was get ahead of the pioneers. He would plant orchards of CIDER apples (AKA, not great for eating, but good for making booze) In areas that were just beginning to be settled, or in some cases, before being settled at all. That way, in a few years time that area would be settled, and when the growing population of that area needed apples, lots and lots of apples, to make lots of cider, JC was there, at the ready, with an orchard full of sapling, young, or even fruiting trees, ready to cash in and sell it to them.
OK, most of that is true, i didn't make anything up, but it was like 15 years ago i read about this, so i'm paraphrasing. Anyways, it's a pretty fascinating, and surpising story, to me. But it makes a hell of a lot more sense than the legend that is usually told. Apologies if i remembered anything wrong or left something out, but, if you like booze, and a good story, check out the real story of Johnny Appleseed. That, friends, is MY kind of fruity goodness. Getting lit.