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Cherry Melomel Anyone?

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WRATHWILDE

Lifetime Patron
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Mar 19, 2005
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Has anybody made a Cherry Wine or Melomel?

Thinking of this as a possible basis for a Cherry Melomel.

Cherry Juice & Maple syrup to SG 1.07
Honey to SG 1.16
Yeast K1V-1116 (to finish with a gravity of around 1.02 for a semi-sweet to sweet mead)

Wrathwilde
 

byathread

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 8, 2005
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Boulder County, CO
I just pitched a Cherry mel a couple weeks ago. My recipe went like this.

Cherry Mel (1 gal)
---------------------
3.2 lbs Huajillo honey
44 oz Black cherry juice (RW Knudsens)
1 T green raisins
nutrient
5g 71B

OG = 1.140

Shooting for a sweet/tart fruity melomel. I have some dried tart cherries I plan to rack onto. I also just found some tart cherry juice today (wish I'd found it sooner as I LOVE tart cherry flavor). I topped up with 5 oz. of tart cherry juice this evening.
We'll see how it goes!
 

ken_schramm

The Compleat Sybarite
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Jan 5, 2005
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Troy, MI
I make my cherry mels on the fruit. 15-25 lbs pitted morello-type sour cherries, 15-18 lbs honey, water to 5.6 or 6 gallons (depending on how much volume I'm going to lose coming off the fruit), a three week fermentation with 71B-1122, racking off the fruit when the fermentation slows.

They're pretty good. No, they're really good.

Mr. Vanity,
Ken
 

ScottS

NewBee
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Nov 12, 2003
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I didsweet cherry and tart cherry melomels side by side last summer. At this point, the sweet cherry tastes like Robitussin and the tart cherry tastes AWESOME.

I just ordered 6 wine cherry trees. I can't believe how hard it is to find fresh tart cherries around here. This is the state with the frickin' Cherry Festival, after all.
 

ScottS

NewBee
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Nov 12, 2003
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storm1969 said:
I've made wine from sour cherries and it always tastes like cough syrup. How do you avoid that?
This may sound like a stupid question, but are you certain they are tart cherries? I've used sweet cherries in several beverages, and they always turn out like cough syrup. Never had a problem with tarts.
 

Miriam

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Feb 2, 2005
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It was only this summer that I found a truly tart cherry, and of course that was best of all - but the sweet-cherry wine I made last year, dry, was still pretty good. Once I detected the beginning of a cough-syrup taste, I stopped chapitalizing (my usual way), so it fermented out dry. The syrupy taste disappeared. This spring's first cherry melomel was made with sweet cherries too, but remembering last summer's experience, I went for dry and it worked again.

The sour cherries allowed me to make a somewhat sweeter melomel and wine later on.

Miriam
 

storm1969

NewBee
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Jun 13, 2005
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Maybe I have been useing to many cherries? My last batch had 6 lbs of cherries per gallon of water. I did half the batch dry and half the batch sweet.

The cherries are pie cherries. Maybe I just don't like cherry wine. A lot of my friends love the stuff, they think it's great.

Maybe I just can't get past the cherry cough syrup my mom used to give me. I make a small batch every year for my friends, and use the rest of the cherries for pies and such.

Brian
 

Val

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 8, 2005
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So has anyone made a good cherry mel from canned cherries or store-purchased juice?

Getting fresh fuit here isn't really an option, and I've been wanting to do a cherry/vanilla mead.
 

lostnbronx

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Dec 8, 2004
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Miriam said:
Once I detected the beginning of a cough-syrup taste, I stopped chapitalizing (my usual way), so it fermented out dry.

Miriam,

My ignorance is showing here, but...what is chapitalizing?

-David
 

WRATHWILDE

Lifetime Patron
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Mar 19, 2005
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chaptalization - (in winemaking) the correction or improvement of must by the addition of calcium carbonate to neutralize acid, or of sugar to increase alcoholic strength.

Wrathwilde
 

Oskaar

Got Mead Partner
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Dec 26, 2004
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The OC
Chapitalization is the addition of sugar or concentrated grape must into the must after they are crushed in order to enhance the flavor or to increase the alcohol percentage. Chapitalization is illegal here in California and in most parts of Southern Europe.

Most of the time when you mention chapitalization to winemakers they think of adding sugar. Acid adjustments can be made as well, but mostly it means to add sugar or concentrated grape must.

Cheers,

Oskaar
 

WRATHWILDE

Lifetime Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Mar 19, 2005
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Dubuque, Iowa
www.zazzle.com
I hadn't heard the term before either, took the definition from the oxford tome.

Has Oskaar become invisible ??? he seems to have been replaced by a blue square question mark.

Wrathwilde
 

Miriam

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Feb 2, 2005
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Heavens...I just think of chapitalization as adding increments of sugar over time - to improve flavor/alcohol content, as Oskaar said. A term I picked up out of winemaking books. Honestly, as I have nobody to actually talk to about brewing here, I don't think I've ever even said the word out loud.

Miriam
 

Miriam

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Feb 2, 2005
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OK, TBD, let's just say it out loud together - you never know what it might do to the brain cells. Ready? Chap... chapital... chapitalization. Ow! I dunnit.

Miriam
kind of disappointed that nothing weird happened
;D
 

Meriadoc

Worker Bee
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Jul 6, 2005
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just curious -- why would "acid adjustments" (making a must less acidic, I assume) be lumped in with "adding sugars"?

i mean, i can see where making a must less acidic might help the perception of more sweetness (since there's less acidic flavors to wade through), but that's a world of difference from adding more fuel to the fire (so to speak)!

or is it just that the term refers to general tinkering with the must, rather than letting it lie?

(heck, i was thinking of playing with the acidity level of an orange ginger mead i'm experimenting with; never thought it would have a twenty-five-cent name!)
 

Oskaar

Got Mead Partner
Administrator
Dec 26, 2004
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The OC
Miriam you crack me up! LOL

The process is mostly for added sugar, but was named after a guy (Jean-Antoine Chaptal) who was Napolean Bonaparte's minister of agriculture.

Cheers,

Oskaar
 
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