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chokecherry wine
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Chokecherry Wine

Chokecherry wine is a tasty way to use up a bumper crop of wild foraged fruit. Turn it into a homemade mead by using honey instead of sugar.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time10 days
Secondary Fermentation28 days
Total Time38 days 20 minutes
Servings: 1 gallon (about 4 bottles)
Author: Ashley Adamant

Ingredients

  • 4 to 5 lbs chokecherries destemmed
  • 2 1/2 lbs cane sugar about 5 cups or 2 1/2 lbs honey for mead
  • 1 tsp yeast nutrient
  • 1 tsp acid blend
  • 1 tsp Pectic Enzyme
  • Wine Yeast see note
  • Water to fill
  • Optional ~ Campden Tablet and Potassium Sorbate for Stabilizing I do not use these

Instructions

  • Begin by washing chokecherries and removing stems. 
  • For juicing method, juice chokecherries using a steam juicer to extract the most juice and pour in the carboy.
  • For fruit-in method, gently mash chokecherries and place in a brew bag. Move to a wide-mouth carboy.
  • Heat some water and mix in the sugar. Add to carboy and stir. Once cool, add the remaining wine ingredients except for the yeast.
  • After adding all the other ingredients, you can add the wine yeast. Rehydrate the yeast in a small amount of water for 10 minutes before adding it to your wine mixture.
  • Next, add water to fill the carboy and seal with a water lock.
  • Let ferment in primary for 5 to 10 days.
  • Siphon to a clean carboy for secondary, leaving the sediment (and fruit) behind and ferment for at least 4 weeks. 
  • Rack to a new container to help clear the wine. Ferment for another 2 to 3 months. 
  • Sample the wine and adjust to taste. See notes for backsweetening.
  • Siphon the wine into bottles and seal with wine corks.
  • Let age at least 2 months before drinking. Wines will continue to improve with age.

Notes

Amount of Juice

You’ll get about 3 cups of juice from 5 pounds of chokecherries if you use a steam juicer. A steam juicer uses a cooking method to extract juice so the seeds won’t make the juice bitter. If you include the fruit in your ferment, 4 to 5 pounds is a good amount.

Mead

For chokecherry mead, substitute 1 quart honey for the sugar to yield a one-gallon batch of chokecherry melomel. Time in secondary may be longer than with sugar since honey is less digestible for your yeast than regular sugar.

Yeast

For chokecherry wine, there are several yeasts you can choose. Lalvin EC-1118 is the preferred yeast, but I’ve heard of others using Montrachet or Premiere Blanc with success as well. See notes within the article for specific qualities of each yeast.

Stabilizing and Back Sweetening

If you find your wine tastes a little too dry for your palate, you do have the option to backsweeten at the end of secondary. First, rack the wine to a clean container and then stabilize the wine (do this by adding 1 Campden tablet and ½ teaspoon potassium sorbate to kill the yeast). 
Wait 24 hours before adding the sugar. If the yeast isn’t fully killed off, the sugar may reactivate the ferment, causing bottled wine to burst. 
Add sugar by making a simple syrup of equal parts sugar and water and heating. Start with ½ cup sugar to sweeten a one-gallon batch of chokecherry wine. Wait 1 week before bottling to ensure the ferment does not restart.
See notes within the article for more detailed info regarding stabilizing and back sweetening.