In search of wild food, I explored briefly the hydro corridor next to my house. I identified a fruit tree laden with berries as prunus serotina, wild black cherry. I picked 7 lbs and crushed them in food processor using the plastic kneading propeller so that the seeds not be broken, but the fruit would break up, adding water to create nice crushed must (which can be seen in the primary fermenter (before juice and water is added (3rd picture). Then I add the juice pack from the Zinfandel fruit wine, Niagra Mist: these fruit wine kits come with a sweet sugary fruit conditioner that is added at the end of the fermentation. It makes a sweeter wine and I can no longer tolerate that. So what to do? The Zinfandel wine from Niagra Mist is not particularly good without the fruit pack. So I decided to make wild cherry wine. Now I added the concentrated juice from Niagra Mist and bentonite (mixed in hot water) and stirred it and sprinkled the yeast pack on top. I will leave the cherry skins on the wine for one week, then squeeze them using a cheese cloth putting the juice back into the fermenter. I will rack it after the second week into a glass carboi for secondary fermentation. Then, well see. Fermentation is already robust for day two; and I suspect that the cherries have commenced natural fermentation without the aid of the yeast pack. Ive found more trees even closer to my house than the one Harald and I picked from yesterday. I think there will be enough to make an entire batch of wine without adding grape juice. That could be an interesting prospect. The skins are astringent, and obviously have great tannins for red wine making.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 22:38:12 +0000
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