Cherry Pie

[rantan]

there are two cherry trees at the end of my road, both loaded with ripe black cherrys. needless to say the number has been reduced dramatically. there will be cherry pies, cherry crumble and perhaps a gallon of wine. all right definitely a gallon of wine. anyone else finding cherrys in the hedgerows

[flower]

theres a pub we got to with cherry trees so i have been picking them and putting them in the freezer have about 5 lb now i love it when you get things for free

[benarnold]

There's quite a few trees round here with cherries on, I started looking for them last year and now I'm surprised how I never spotted them before! Ours our only just ripening, I think next week will be the first picking for me.

I made a cherry braggot with them last year's harvest, it tasted pretty good at racking. I think I got the recipe from the winepress.us site originally, but tweaked it a bit for the ingredients I had (edit: original Berry, Berry Cherry Braggot recipe). I also mode a couple of pies (hmm, pie!) and scoffed a load of them as I was picking

Here are my notes for the braggot if you're interested.

#22 Cherry Braggot

• 2008-10-22 - Simmered 650g honey, 500g cherries, 100g elderberries in 1.5l water for 5 mins
  - Added to 1l red grape juice, l1 water, 1/2 tsp tartaric, 1tbsp lemon juice, 1tsp pectolase, 1tsp nutrient + campden
  - Made starter with 3tsp honey to 200ml water
• 2008-10-23 - Oxygenated vigorously, pitched yeast starter. SG: 1.084. Ambient temperature: 15C
• Daily - Released gas build up in primary and stirred.
• 2008-10-28 - Racked into small bucket, let bag drip for 10 hours. SG: 1.052. Transferred into demi-john.
• 2008-11-04 - Racked. SG: 1.006. Topped up with 500ml water.
• 2008-12-14 - Racked (tasty!)
• 2009-03-08 - Racked, tiny deposit left behind.

Looks like I need to check it again!

[fatbloke]

There's quite a few trees round here with cherries on, I started looking for them last year and now I'm surprised how I never spotted them before! Ours our only just ripening, I think next week will be the first picking for me.

I made a cherry braggot with them last year's harvest, it tasted pretty good at racking. I think I got the recipe from the winepress.us site originally, but tweaked it a bit for the ingredients I had (edit: original Berry, Berry Cherry Braggot recipe). I also mode a couple of pies (hmm, pie!) and scoffed a load of them as I was picking

Here are my notes for the braggot if you're interested.

#22 Cherry Braggot

• 2008-10-22 - Simmered 650g honey, 500g cherries, 100g elderberries in 1.5l water for 5 mins
  - Added to 1l red grape juice, l1 water, 1/2 tsp tartaric, 1tbsp lemon juice, 1tsp pectolase, 1tsp nutrient + campden
  - Made starter with 3tsp honey to 200ml water
• 2008-10-23 - Oxygenated vigorously, pitched yeast starter. SG: 1.084. Ambient temperature: 15C
• Daily - Released gas build up in primary and stirred.
• 2008-10-28 - Racked into small bucket, let bag drip for 10 hours. SG: 1.052. Transferred into demi-john.
• 2008-11-04 - Racked. SG: 1.006. Topped up with 500ml water.
• 2008-12-14 - Racked (tasty!)
• 2009-03-08 - Racked, tiny deposit left behind.

Looks like I need to check it again!

Well it certainly sounds like a goodun! Not got any cherry trees though, but they're cheap enough at the moment......

But I'm confused why this recipe is labelled a braggot..... I thought that braggots were made with hops.......

regards

JtFB

[benarnold]

Good question! Is it hops, or malt that makes it a braggot? Or maybe either, kind of like a beery-mead. The original recipe includes malt, and I seem to remember that I did actually put some malt extract in this. I definitely put it in one recipe... let me check my notes.

OK, so my notes obviously aren't complete as there is no mention of the malt extract anywhere. I think I put it in this one (in the quantity of the original recipe) but I can't be absolutely sure. So I guess this is a Cherry Could-Be Braggot

[fatbloke]

Good question! Is it hops, or malt that makes it a braggot? Or maybe either, kind of like a beery-mead. The original recipe includes malt, and I seem to remember that I did actually put some malt extract in this. I definitely put it in one recipe... let me check my notes.

OK, so my notes obviously aren't complete as there is no mention of the malt extract anywhere. I think I put it in this one (in the quantity of the original recipe) but I can't be absolutely sure. So I guess this is a Cherry Could-Be Braggot

Ah ha! that'd be why it's been called a braggot then. Otherwise, without the malt/hops etc it'd be a melomel......

Oh, yes, right............I'll get me coat!

regards

JtFB

[grandmawoods]

Ours our only just ripening, I think next week will be the first picking for me.

Good luck...our birds allways beat me to the cherries

[benarnold]

Good luck...our birds allways beat me to the cherries

Thanks! Hopefully I'll be able to find at least some they haven't taken.

[fatbloke]

Good luck...our birds allways beat me to the cherries

Ah, but "the ball is in your court" grandmawoods.

I bet the birds couldn't get to the cherries, before you get to them with some "12 gauge buckshot"!

It'd be a fair match, but always end up with the same result........

grandmawoods 2 birdies nil !

regards

JtFB

[benarnold]

Despite it raining at the beginning of the week I managed to spend two lunch-times picking cherries. On Tuesday I ended up thoroughly damp; yesterday was much nicer and the berries on those trees were much easier to get to so no climbing.

I haven't weighed them yet, but I reckon I got about 3kg, should be enough to make something tasty