Cherry Wine part 1

Brew day minus 5

After you have bought your cherries home, you need to de-seed and stem them, and once this is done put them into the freezer for a minimum of 3 days. The freezing breaks down the cell walls allowing more juice to be extracted.

 Brew Day minus 2

Remove your cherries from the freezer and place them in  to a large sanitised bucket to allow the to thaw. ( We place the fruit into a large grain bag inside the bucket, this makes removing the fruit later a much easier task )

Brew Day

With clean or gloved hands squash the cherries as much as possible, do this in the bucket as they will squirt juice everywhere.
Cover the cherries with boiling water, cover the bucket with a clean tea towel and allow to cool.
After cooling add 1 teaspoon of pectinase to every 5L of must, stir well and put the tea towel back on.

Brew Day plus 1

Add 1 crushed campden tablet per 5L of must and stir well (this will kill off any wild yeasts from the fruit).

Brew Day plus 2

Mix 2kg of white sugar with 4L of hot water till the sugar is dissolved and allow to cool.
Once cooled add the sugar solution to the must.
Add your chosen yeast and stir well, recovering when finished.

Brew Day plus 3

Stir morning and night, pushing the fruit back underneath the liquid.