Cherry Wine with champagne yeast

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godfrey

godfrey

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I have a situation where I have been brewing a lot of champagne see my introduction for details viewtopic.php?f=12&t=42377

it looks like my cherry wine has started fermenting before i pitched the yeast
and I guess it is yeast contamination from all the champagne I have been brewing recently

my SG of the cherry must is about 1100

if it is the champagne yeast ( Vinters Harvest SN9 )
then I guess the must will brew out, as the yeast will go to 18%
this will be very strong and dry
not quite the 15% and sweet I was planning for

should I boil all the must to kill the yeast and pitch my preferred yeast
or let the must brew out to full strength

I am worried that if i do boil then I may get contamination again
so if I do boil the must, I guess I need to move the FV to another room in the house ?

any advice on this would be appreciated


EDIT:
perhaps I should add more sugar to make it strong and sweet ?
 
Vintners SN 9 is a great champagne yeast i use it all the time in apple ciders and Sour cherry turbo ciders too. I just racked off a cherry made from pressed cherries - i thought it had stopped but its still fermenting away at the mo.

When you say yours started fermenting how long had you left it in the DJ before it started? If everything is sterilised it should be ok - maybe leave it and see how it turns out - or next time stick some campden tabs into the must 24 hours before pitching your choice of yeast - this will kill off any wild yeast. :thumb:
 
it was day 4 i first notice fermentation, I added pectolase on day 3 and assumes the foam next day was pectin ( noob lol )

we are in day 5 now so still early days

I did not add any yeast nutrient as I was going to add that with the yeast

the recipe i used for 3 gallon @ SG 1100

5 KG cherry
2.2 KG sugar
2 small can red grape concentrate
1 cup of tea
juice of 4 lemons
9 litre spring water

was going to use the VR21 yeast but it didn't arrive yet

I try to stop the fermentation with campden (second dose as I already added at the start) but no luck.

it was in an open bin covered with cloth to soak the fruits then filtered into the first FV as soon as I noticed the foam

don't plan on racking into demijohns for several weeks yet

my last batch of champagne also spontaneously started fermentation also about the same time day3/4 my guess it is airborne as i sterilise everything with milton

l like the idea of pressed cherries, I will look into adding a press to my kit :D
 
end of day 5 and just taken the SG reading, I got 1055 dropped 45 from yesterday evening

the foam is now all gone and i have fizz on the surface just like when I was making the champagne

so I think I can say with confidence this is the SN9 in my cherry wine must
 
end of day 6 and this is brewing off super fast, dropped almost another 30 points today

4pPUTMC.jpg
 
3 days on and end of day 9

looks like I will be moving the cherries into demijohns in the morning


ZWS9LkM.jpg





EDIT Monday: still not got round to racking, but I always thought the must was a bit weak on flavour
so I have added the juice from 2KG more cherries, got about a litre of fresh pure juice from the cherries
 

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