Cherry Wine

A couple of months ago, we brought home 15 pounds of cherries from our Saturday produce pickup. We read this guide and purchased the requisite brewing supplies:

5 gallon food grade bucket with lid

air lock and stopper

rubber grommets for the stopper

red wine yeast (Pasteur)

size 4X pantyhose to use as a sieve

sugar (12 lbs!)

I spent several hours pitting the cherries by hand before borrowing a cherry pitter from the neighbor. What a difference! Both the kitchen and I looked like a murder scene by the time I finished. 

All of the cherries went into the sterilized bucket. I then poured several gallons of boiling sugar water onto the cherries.

I slowly heated the entire packet of yeast until it activated and then stirred it into the cherry must.

We cut a hole into the lid and fitted it with a rubber grommet and attached the stopper and air lock.

We stirred the must everyday for a couple of weeks. Here you can see that it's already fermenting.

After more than a month of fermentation, Vadim drained the resulting liquid through pantyhose and added more water.

The leftover cherries were greatly reduced in mass.  We'll let the wine continue fermenting for up to three months, tasting periodically. 

Interestingly, the acidity of the cherries made my hands more sensitive than I realized, and I stupidly decided to roast and peel poblanos the same day as the pitting. I spent the night immobilized with my hands soaking in a mixture of milk and, oddly, bleach. I'll probably wear gloves next time I attempt something like this.

Cheers!