We've been locked down for a month with the Coronavirus social distancing. I'll put on the record here that I think it's an overstep on the part of the government. But that's the end of my political rant.
Through the lockdown we've been trying to support local business as best we can. My wine supplies supplier and a place I play music is Blue Mountain Wines in Funkstown. I bought a gallon of cherry wine starter. It's a ton of corn syrup with natural and artificial flavors. It also helps them stay in business and it's a quick batch of wine. I've never used a starter before.
The process couldn't be easier. Pour in the juice, add water and yeast. I wanted to add a little of my own flavor so I added a gallon of strawberries that we picked last year. I let them defrost overnight with about 4 cups of sugar to pull the juice out. When they were defrosted I used a hand beater to mash them up. They turned very juicy and delicious.
After adding everything to the jug I was sure to leave some head space. I checked the gravity and it was set to yield around 13% alcohol. I did some math and guestimating and added another 8-10 cups of sugar. 2 cups is a pound. this should bring the final ABV to 15-18 percent. It tasted delicious when I was checking the gravity.
It's under the table with KV1116 yeast. After 24 hours the airlock is bubbling and all looks happy.
June 4 - Bubbling has slowed considerably so I thought it was mostly finished. Racked it to a new glass jug and of course tasted. Good and strong and very very tasty. Very tasty. I'm concerned some of the sweetness will go away after it finishes. The hydrometer says that it still has 5% to go. Could have been a bad reading on the lees though.
July 26 - Came back from the beach and this was definitely finished. It's so dark you can't see through it with a flashlight. It made 2 cases and is very tasty. A little on the sweet side. To be honest I didn't feel that the flavor was as pronounced as batches I've made with fresh fruit. However it is really very good and I'm sure will age nicely. I bottled this the same week that Sara and Alex had their little boy Patrick James. I'm going to save a bottle for them to open in the future for a celebration. This was a nice experiment to help out the local wine store, it turned out very nicely.
