# Sour cherries - want to make cherry melomel/cherry mead



## Bee Bliss

Sour cherries - want to make cherry melomel/cherry mead.

We have never done this before so please help.

We talked our son into making some cherry wine with our sour cherries which we are picking now. I mentioned using honey with the cherries. He's in! He has experience making some beer and has equipment that can be used.

Our questions for now are: 

1. Anyone have a good recipe or suggestions or links?
2. Can we leave the pits in?
3. Is the honey instead of sugar the same ratio? About how much honey for 5 gallon batch?
4. How many pounds of cherries (pits in) for a 5 gallon batch?
5. We are freezing the cherries first. Is that good?
6. How long to ferment............how long to age? 
7. We have this for yeast.............. Lalvin 71B-1122 Wine Yeast

Sorry, we're quite new to this. Got bees, honey and lots of cherries (also growing lots of other fruit). Can't eat it all, might as well start drinking it! lol 

Thanks in advance! p.s. What are your favorite fruits to use?

~ Bee Blissing


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## Tenbears

Your wish is my command.

Cherry Melomel 
(Makes 5 Gallons) 
Ingredients 
25 lbs. of cherries 
11 lbs. honey +- I like to set the specific Gravety (SG) at 1.090 
1 tbsp. Yeast Energizer 
¾ tsp. Pectic Enzyme 
3 tsp. Acid Blend TA at about.45% honey has a tendency to get acidic as it ferments. so don't go over you can add more to taste when botteling
1 Packet of Wine Yeast: Montrachet 
10 Campden Tablets (5 prior to fermentation and 5 at bottling time) or 1/4 tsp Potassium metabisulphite (K-met) per dose 

Directions 
1. Prepare the cherries by busting their skins. This can be easily accomplished by putting them into the fermentation bag and gently squeezing the bag. Be careful not to break the bitter pits. It is important to understand that you can over-process the produce. Food processors, blenders and such should not be used for this purpose. Doing so will cause too much bitterness from the skin and seeds of the produce to be incorporated into the resulting wine. 
2. Stir together all of the wine making ingredients called for, EXCEPT for the Wine Yeast, into a primary fermenter. Collect any pulp in a fermentation bag and submerge the bag into the wine making mixture. Add water to equal the batch to 5 gallons. Then add 5 Campden Tablets or 1/4 tsp. K-met. They should be crushed up before adding. Do not add the wine yeast at this point in the process. Adding the wine yeast at the same time you add the Campden Tablets will only result in destroying the yeast. 
3. Cover the fermenter with a thin, clean towel and wait 24 hours. During this waiting period the Campden Tablets are sterilizing the juice with a mild sulfur gas. During the 24 hours the gas leaves the container making it safe to add the wine yeast. 
4. Sprinkle the wine yeast over the surface of the juice and then cover with a thin, clean towel. Allow this mixture (must) to ferment for 5 to 7 days. You should start to see some foaming activity within 24 hours of adding the wine yeast. Typically, 70% of the fermentation activity will occur during this 5 to 7 day period. 
5. After 5 to 7 days remove the pulp from the fermenter and discard. Siphon the wine into a carboy in a careful manner, so as to leave the sediment behind. You can easily remove the pulp by lifting out the fermentation bag. Wring out any excess juice from the bag. Siphon the wine off the sediment without stirring it up. Get as much liquid as you can, even if some of the sediment comes with it. If necessary, add water back to 5 gallons. 
6. Attach a wine airlock and fill it half-way with water. Allow the juice to ferment for an additional 4-6 week period or until it becomes completely clear. You may want to verify with your wine hydrometer that the fermentation has completed before continuing on to the next step. The wine hydrometer should read between 0.990 and 0.998 on the Specific Gravity scale. Be sure to give the wine plenty of time to clear up before bottling. This can take months, and bulk aging never hurts.
7. Once the wine has cleared completely, siphon it off of the sediment again. Stir in 5 Campden Tables that have been crushed and then bottle. When siphoning off the sediment, unlike the first time you siphoned the wine, you want to leave all of the sediment behind, even if you lose a little wine. 
If you subsequently rack the wine add 5 crushed campden tablets, or 1/4 Tsp, K-met to protect the wine. I age all my meads and melomels for at least 1 year. a mead that taste good at bottling time may taste poor in 6 months, an them great in another 6 so give it some time. Salute


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## BeeBop

I didn't ask the original question but THANKS Tenbears!

I've done blackberries before with a recipe fairly similar to yours but never with cherries.
C'mon bees, hurry up and make some honey! I want melomel now!


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## Ian G

Ive never heard of a melomel until now... but it sounds delicious!


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## Bee Bliss

Thank you so much Tenbears! That was a lot of typing for you! Much appreciated.

The cherries (Danube) have red juice and are said to be a nice wine cherry.

What can we use for a fermentation bag? Or can a flour sack towel be used and tied up?

Does the type of yeast determine dryness and what else? 

Salute indeed! Hmmmm..............what next? We will have pears, apples, plum-size crab apples (Centennial), plums, lots of red currants, pink currants (Pink Champagne). A new peach tree and pluot not producing much yet.


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## Tenbears

It has been a great year for cherries, At least around here I have sour cherries and black cherries, and all my trees are loaded, I have in excess of 50 pounds frozen, that I will use for melomels. Black Cherry/peach is great. 
You really have it going on ALL of the fruits you mentioned make great melomels, as well as wines. Plum is to die for. and a good pear can hardly be beaten....Just don't get like me!! :lpf:



Dryness can be determined by the yeast which is why I recommended setting the SG at 1.090 rather than just using honey by volume or weight. A SG of 1.090 will result in an Alcohol by volume (ABV) of 13.25% Red Star, Montrachet Has a alcohol tolerance of 13% meaning at the point the available sugar in the honey is converted the yeast is ready to give out. this method helps ensure there is not a hot ferment that burns off the honey nuances. If you desire a higher ABV you would want to start with a higher SG and use a yeast with a higher alcohol tolerance. If you set the SG higher and use the Montrachet yeast. the yeast will peter out when the ABV reaches 13% and residual sugar will be left unfermented leaving the wine sweet. You can also add honey just before bottling to sweeten the mead. however be sure to add Potassium sorbate at 1/2 tsp per cup of honey added to prevent fermentation from restarting. If targeting a higher ABV or using a workhorse yeast I would also add yeast nutrient. it contains some of the same compounds as in the energizer, And I would add it at the half way mark of the ferment. This will prevent a nitrogen starved yeast from producing hydrogen sulfide which can ruin the mead. 

I highly recommend getting a fruit bag. They are a nylon screen bag that can be boiled prior to use to sterilize they are available from Mann Lake On page 148 of their catalog Item # HH380 $4.95 after use I wash them with a hose. then run them through the washer. and boil before next use. I have used a single bag for over a year, and believe me I make a lot of melomel. and pyments, as well as wines.


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## BeeBop

Oh my, that's a beautiful sight all those carboys working away. Awesome!


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## I'llbeedan

Holy Cow Tenbears, what kind of melomels do you have there? Are you missing any?


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## Tenbears

On the top shelf back row left to right is Raspberry Melomel, Elderberry Melomel, Elderberry Orange Melomel, Blackberry Melomel.
Top shelf front row left to right. Medowfoam Mead, Triple Berry Melomel, Peach Melomel, Elderberry Wine.
Bottom shelf rear left to right. Plum Melomel, Buckwheat Mead, Plum Guava Melomel, Sarsaparilla Metheglin, (using basswood honey)
Bottom shelf front left to right. Concord Pyment, Black Current Melomel

On the end table Left to right. Cranberry Melomel, and Chokecherry Melomel

The four 6 gallon pails have Chilean juice fermenting, Merlot, Malbec, Carmanere, and Zinfzndel. I also just started 6.5 gal Mango Melomel.


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## Vance G

Two cups of pitted cherries, one cup honey in a quart jar and fill to top with 100 proof, I use sourmash. Let set in the dark for several months. The cherries prevent scurvy and the gravy ain't bad. I planted two more cherry trees.


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## Bee Bliss

Thanks all for the responses! We picked 50# of Danube cherries (with pits) and put them in the freezer. There is 5# of cherries in each one gallon freezer bag. The Danube have nice red flesh and red juice and are good for wine.

Vance, in the past we have dumped pitted cherries in a canning jar with sugar (I'll use honey next time) and filled (to cover the cherries) with either peach schnapps, blackberry brandy or amaretto. We discovered that the peach schnapps cherries are pretty good in chocolate cake!

Want to use vanilla McGillicuddys next.


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