Article: There are a few different kinds of cherries on the market these days, and using a particular type will influence the taste of your wine. Here are some things to consider: Try black cherries or sweet cherries for a sweeter wine. Morello cherries work well for a dry wine. A dry wine is simply a wine that has no residual sugar, meaning it isn't sweet. To make a dry wine, let your mixture ferment completely, allowing the yeast to consume all of the sugar. Here are some things to consider when making "dry" wine: After about 2 weeks most of the sugar will have been consumed by the yeast and fermentation will slow, making it easier to keep track of the falling sugar level of your wine. Tracking the sugar level will give you an idea of how your fermentation has been progressing. You may wish to stop the fermentation early and leave a bit of residual sugar in your wine. The fermentation is considered done when you either reach your desired sugar level or go "dry" at 0 Brix on the wine scale. A wine with 0.2% residual sugar contains two grams of sugar in a liter of wine. Dry wines are typically in the 0.2%-0.3% range, off-dry wines in the 1.0%-5.0% range, and sweet dessert wines are normally 5.0%-10%. There is no "correct" sugar level for your wine, it just comes down to your personal preference. You can give your wine an intriguing flavor by adding small amounts of oak during the fermenting process. Here are some things to consider: Use oak powder. This way, you won't risk over-oaking your wine. The oak powder will also sink to the bottom of your crock during fermentation, making siphoning easier. When adding oak powder to a batch of homemade wine, you'll want to add anywhere from 4 to 20 grams per gallon, depending on the type of wine (white vs. red) and desired flavor. Generally speaking, for six U.S. gallons of wine you would add about 40 to 50 grams of oak powder for a white wine, or 70 to 85 grams of oak powder for a red wine.
What is a summary of what this article is about?
Experiment with different types of cherries. Make a "dry" wine. Oak your wine!