How much cherry juice for apple-cherry cider.

Chalkyt

Sadly the "big wet" and floods that we have experienced here in Oz over the past six months or so has caused my big old cherry tree to kark it from root rot. No sign of life this spring so endless cherries of the past are no more.
Typically, I had added about 10% frozen cherries by weight to secondary fermentation (starting at about 1.020), and this worked well.
So, I want to get a handle on how I can make an Apple-Cherry Cider using "store bought" juice before harvesting my apples (and hopefully jag some cherries) in about six months time. I have found a supposedly pure cherry juice "nothing artificial" (only lists carbohydrate 15g, sugars 11g, sodium 7mg per100ml) which is probably SG 1.040 or so.
I also have fresh apple juice coming (6L Pink Lady, 4L Royal Gala, 2L Granny Smith). My dilemma is how much of the cherry juice to add to secondary once primary fermentation is over. Gut feel says go with 10%, but I don't really know how the juice relates to "real" cherries. The frozen cherries were quite strong with pulpy flesh and thick juice. The store-bought juice is O.K. but quite thin in comparison.
Any comments or advice from someone who has made an apple-cherry (or any other fruit) cider are more than welcome.

madscientist451

I've found fermented cherry juice to be almost tasteless, all I get is a slight hint of flavor and aroma. Sometimes I'll put a shot of cherry juice in a glass and then add the cider, or 50/50 cider and light lager. This "blending in the glass" method works better for me than the unpredictability of getting flavor out of fermenting fruit or juice. But back to your question, if 10% by weight worked for you in the past, I'd start there with the juice and see how you like it. Most soft fruit is 90% water so you should be pretty close. Also note that most commercial juices are watered down from the original, otherwise the sugar content and flavor of the product wouldn't be consistent.
When COVID came around, I took all the fruit out of the freezer and used the freezer for meat and veggies. I put the thawed cherries in glass jars with Vodka, let it soak for months (still have some) and use the tincture as flavoring for cider and mead. It works OK, but does boost the ABV

Chalkyt

Thanks for that. I hadn't considered that fermenting the cherry juice might result in some loss of flavour and "character". I will look at using the cherry to "back sweeten" at the very end and so retain much of its sugar. Perhaps something like ferment the apple down to 1.004, add the cherry to 1.010, bottle and pasteurise at say, 1.006... or something like that for hopefully a lightly carbonated, touch of sweetness result. I need to do the maths to work out quantities but it does give me some ideas.
I also like the tincture idea. I have some cherry liqueur made from last year's cherries (simply cherries soaked in vodka and brandy) which is quite thick and great with ice cream!!!

Raptor99

Tart ("pie") cherries have a much better flavor. I prefer tart cherry concentrate so that I don't dilute the apple juice too much.

Kees

Isn't 10% the recommended amount? IIRC I once read 70% apples 20% pears and 10% cherries.

CKuhns

I hsve done a 70 / 30 apple juice to tart cherry juice in primary and it came out well. More than that i think the tart cherry would overwhelm the apples.