Cherries

Johnboy

Ive got access to a lot of reject cherries mostly bird pecks and rain splits was thinking of making Kirschwasser (ferment with pits) with half of them and straight cherry (without pits) the other half. I have about 20 kgs to start with. Any advise or tips recipes etc

Cheers John

FullySilenced

Cherry Schnapps @ Danish Schnapps Recipes

punkin

Freeze them first mate it helps bust them up and makes the cell walls rupture when thawed. Then i have a sharpened mortar mixer that goes on the end of a FBD (fucking big drill) to whip em into juice. You can then strain the skins and stones out through some bird mesh or whatever appropriate size mesh you have handy.

Makes really short work of it.
When i have worked with all fruit before i have put the wash back on with 100% backset and enough sugar to give a 10% wash. This has a different flavour than the original but still a full flavour. You can either blend or get a different fruit vodka style from it.

Unsensibel

I hand-pitted mine which was a royal pain. Whenever I see @punkin 's MOADB (mother of a drill bit) on the FBD, I'm getting concerned about crushing too many kernels and generating cyanide. On the other hand, he's still alive and kicking, so be carefull not to crush too many pits.

Kill_Devil_Spirit_Co

This dude knows his way around a fruit, particularly cherries and apricot it seems. Very informative chap.

Pálinka - The Fruit's Spirit @ HD

punkin

I've used the mixer on peaches, nectarines etc and haven't seen any broken stones. I know it's possible in theory, just hasn't happened yet to my knowledge.
I haven't had the luxury of using cherries though.

Johnboy

I have access to about 10 butchers tubs a day if i want. I didn't freeze them but gave them a 20 min thrashing with my paint mixer in the drill till just pulp and juice did the whole 20 kgs added 30L boiling water and gave another 10mins rev up, added cold water to make 55L of must, scooped out about half the pits added about 3 kgs of raw sugar to bump up the yield hit it with EC 1118 and was bubbling away nicely with in about 30mins will punch down the cap couple times a day till finished. Unless advice is to remove the pulp.

Johnboy

I might borrow a mates basket press and do a straight juice run next or maybe an apple/cherry or apple/strawberry straight juice see if the flavours carry through nicely??

Eucyblues

@Johnboy said: I have access to about 10 butchers tubs a day if i want.

I think I'd be crawling through them with a fine tooth comb and let my stomach do the fermenting.

Paid $12/kg today at a roadside seller for cherrries from Young

Johnboy

A grade perfect cherries here are going for similar prices but orchardist is only getting $7 kg

Johnboy

It's criminal how the farmer does all the work but gets the least profit his break even is $6.50 kg

punkin

Did you check the gravity of the juice before adding the water JB? Interesting to know where it's at. So long as it's above 1055-1060 i'd run it without the water and sugar if they are cheap enough (free). Like i said you can get a sugar run out of the backset too.

FullySilenced

backset or out of the dewatered cherry pulp?

FloridaCracker

@Johnboy said: It's criminal how the farmer does all the work but gets the least profit his break even is $6.50 kg

That's how I feel every Spring when I get paid for my blueberries.

Smaug

@FloridaCracker said: That's how I feel every Spring when I get paid for my blueberries.

Good blueberries are some spendy treats at the grocer. Must burn your ass.

Johnboy

I'll check the SG of the next batch I would need way more to fill 60 L fermenter without top up with water

FloridaCracker

@Smaug said: Good blueberries are some spendy treats at the grocer. Must burn your ass.

Yeah, it does because on average we get about $2 a pound. Compare that with $8 at the store during peak season. Marketers and retailers make more per pound than I do and I work the farm all year long. AND we only get one crop a year. It's like every other business though, has its negatives and positives.

CothermanDistilling

maybe this year we can soak some in neutral to 'preserve' them for later in the season ;-)

FloridaCracker

Each year is different. We need about 100 chill hours in Nov-Dec to have a good crop the next Spring; So far we have 0 chill hours. Shaping up to be a really shitty season next year. If I get some culls that we can use, that would be great to try. What I will NOT do again is try to ferment them. Colossal waste of time last time I tried.

Kill_Devil_Spirit_Co

Yeah you need a hell of a lot of blueberries to make a fermentation worth while.

CothermanDistilling

I tasted a really good Blueberry and Honey mead Saturday... Jim Parrish was the mazer... So many blueberries it tasted like regular red wine... he said he lost a LOT due to pulp, like half

FloridaCracker

I used at least a couple hundred pounds. Product came out looking and smelling soapy.

Johnboy

So I've run the cherry must through a baby dragon i borrowed and to be honest it's nothing special no real flavour or anything that stands out as cherry bit disappointing really not nice enough to drink on ice so what to do put it on oak or just add to neutral spirit run

hellbilly007

Johnboy, alot of fruit flavors come across with the heads. I've read that some will add a bit of heads to the mix and put it on toasted oak for the long haul. I've yet to make any brandy, but this seems to be the consensus of those that do. You may want to go back and taste your heads jar and perhaps loosen up on the cuts a bit. Hope this helps

Johnboy

I ran the second half of the wash in pot mode and the result was a lot better took my hearts jar and let it air for 5 days locked it in the cupboard till i decide what to do with it

jacksonbrown

A lot of Europeans don't even make cuts on their fruit wines (and they wouldn't use any plates or packing either).
When you think about it, it can't be any worse than the wine you started with. It's just concentrated.

Fruit brandys are for savoring not bingeing. One glass won't do any harm.