Wild Fermented Wine or Juice? Part 2

This has been a pretty exciting project! I feel like I’m going to have a very successful wine and the cherry trees are full of beautiful blossoms and new green cherries!

Click here for PART 1

The plan was to allow the mixture to ferment for 4 days, but I got sick and I left it for 5 days, but I think I did manage to give it stir everyday, but it’s a foggy memory. It was a rough week.

But I did notice on day 4, which happened to be a hot day here and the kitchen was pretty warm and there was some good action going on in the jar! I was EXCITED!

Let’s get started on the next steps!

INGREDIENTS AND INSTRUCTIONS: 

1. 1 gallon of water

2. 1/4 cup lemon juice ( fresh or not, but 100% pure lemon juice)

3. 4.5 cups sugar

You’ll need some type of strainer to set over something big, like a pot.

1. Pour the mixture into the strainer and start mashing until you just can’t anymore. Let it finish dripping.

2. Give your container a rinse and make sure it’s going to be large enough to fit the strained juice and the sugar and the water.

For this next step, you have choices.

1. You can dissolve the sugar in the water in a heavy pot on the stove, basically making a simple syrup and allowing to cool completely before using OR you can just dump it all in and stir until the sugar dissolves.

My choice was to make a syrup, but my goal wasn’t reducing the water or anything.           Simply dissolving the sugar and then let it cool while I was straining and mashing.

1. When there is no juice left in the pulp, pour the juice into the container that you will want it in for 3-4 more days for more fermenting.

I just used a colander with great success!

*don’t throw the pulp away! the chickens would appreciate it and if you don’t have chickens, you can feed your worms or just add it to the compost pile. If you have none of those, keep following me here so I can help you get some or all of those!

1. Now, just cover the container again, the same way. Try to stir it every day and give it 3-4 days to get active.

now is a great time to order your airlocks with a stopper. If you don’t have a carboy or something similar, you might want to start rounding that up. You can go to amazon and type air lock in the search and find some choices. 

#cherrywine #lazywine #homemadewine #airlock #wildferment #wine