If the cherry or sweet cherry in the garden has not deprived you of the harvest, and you don’t eat so much cherry jam, feel free to prepare cherry moonshine. In Europe, cherry or cherry moonshine is called not just moonshine, but Kirschwasser or simply Kirsch. This is what we are going to prepare. In general, the drink is not for everyone and not everyone will like it in its pure form. But it is good in cocktails and as an alcohol base for various tinctures.
Kirschwasser (Kirschwasser, from German Kirsche “cherry” and Wasser “water”, literally “cherry water”) is a dry cherry brandy made from cherries or sweet cherries with a stone. At home, the drink is made from fermented black cherry must with a stone, while the presence of a stone is obligatory – it gives the drink a pronounced almond flavor, characteristic of traditional Kirsch. The strength of the drink, regulated in the EU countries, is 37,5% by volume, but you can find specimens and stronger – from 38 to 43% by volume, sometimes 50%.
Kirsch, as an independent drink, has been known since the XNUMXth century. Germany is considered its homeland, but cherry brandy is also common in other European countries, for example, in Switzerland, France and Belgium. In Russia, Kirschwasser was often used to make burnt, grog, and punch. The first Kirsch was made from morel cherries – sweet dark cherries with a small stone. In France, brandy was often made from cherries, and this drink was called “cerise”, but its origin is obvious. Sweet cherries, by the way, contain more sugar, and cherries are more fragrant.
Kirschwasser production technology
To date, the technology has remained unchanged. The drink is made from different varieties of cherries and sweet cherries, but it is best made from small dark, sweet berries. Red fruits give a drink of inferior quality. After picking, the berries are cleaned of leaves and stems, after which they are placed under a conventional winemaking press. At the same time, they try not to crush the bone so that the drink does not turn out to be too almond. The crushed berry is then placed in vats and fermented. Cherries ferment perfectly without yeast, but wine or beer yeast cultures are used to speed up this process.
After the cherry has fermented, which lasts from 15 to 20 days without yeast or 8-10 days with yeast, the wort is distilled twice in copper alambika. During the second distillation, the heads are taken, and the body is taken until the distillate has a strength of 40%. The tailings are then taken and added to the next crude alcohol before the second distillation. Kirschwasser is aged exclusively in glass or earthenware containers with a cork stopper so that the drink breathes and ennobles. From 100 kg of cherries, an average of 12-15 liters is obtained (depending on the sugar content of the berry) Kirsch with a strength of 51%.
Adapted cherry moonshine recipe
Wort without sugar:
- 10 kg (1 bucket) cherries or sweet cherries;
- 3,3 liters (1/3 bucket) of water.
Wort with sugar and yeast:
- 10 kg (1 bucket) cherries or sweet cherries;
- 12 L of water;
- 2,5 kg of sugar;
- 60 g dry or 300 g pressed yeast.
Wort fermentation
Mash the berries with your hands or with a wooden crush, try not to crush the bones. Add water to the must. If you cook without yeast, let the wort ferment: pour into a container with a wide neck, which is tied with a thick cloth. After the cherry / sweet cherry ferments (after 2-3 days), it must be poured into a fermentation container under a water seal. If you are cooking with yeast, simply add the prepared yeast to the sweetened wort and immediately under the water seal (you can first make a starter from yeast and part of the wort). In both cases, the pulp cap must be periodically knocked down, the wort itself must be intensively mixed, saturating it with oxygen.
Distillation of cherry moonshine
When the wort ferments (2-3 weeks without yeast, 1-1,5 weeks with yeast), we send it for distillation. Berries can be squeezed and only the juice can be distilled, but this is not done according to the traditional recipe. Also, if desired, a few seeds can be added to the cube during distillation. But you should be careful, as the cake can clog the tube of the apparatus and burst it from pressure – you need to drive it on low heat. Traditionally, Kirsch is distilled in a copper distiller, but you can use a normal still and distill with steam, a water bath, or direct heating (the first distillation is best done, of course, with steam). By the way, you can try to overtake the unsuccessful cherry wine, then you get the usual cherry brandy without almond motifs.
In the homeland of Kirschwasser, the wort is first brought to a boil, stirring constantly so that it does not burn, and only then covered with an alambic cap and distilled. It is possible that this is done to remove hydrocyanic acid (cyanoglycoside amygdalin, which, when hydrolyzed, forms a poisonous substance known as hydrocyanic acid) found in the cherry pit. When boiling, as I understand it, this acid is partially formed, the boiling point of which is about 27 ° C, that is, it will immediately evaporate with the heads during the secondary distillation, if it still remains in the raw alcohol.
The first time you need to distill without crushing, to dryness, while the distillate drips. The resulting raw alcohol is diluted to 18-20% alcohol and again into the distillation cube. The second time we drive with the selection of heads and tails, we focus on the smell and strength – the body of moonshine from cherries is selected at a strength of 50-55%. We select the main fraction up to 40%, then muddy tails. We pour out the heads, add the tails to the next first shoulder strap. With 10 kg of cherries, about 0,5-0,6 liters of distillate with a strength of 53-56% should be obtained if the must was fermented without sugar, and about 3-4 liters of 40% after dilution of Kirschwasser from the must with sugar.
The resulting cherry/cherry moonshine will be sharp at first, with a faint cherry aroma with pronounced almond notes, even a woody aftertaste. You can try to age it in wine bottles under cork stoppers, or you can age it in a barrel or on oak chips / shavings / chips. If you want Kirschwasser for copious libations, you can add 1 tsp. fructose per 1 liter of drink 40% – so it will become softer and it will be more interesting to drink it. Cherry distillate must be aged in a barrel for at least 3 years (but in a small barrel it will take several months).