fisrts attempt at wine

[jampot]

fingers crossed but im just sarting on my very first wine (cherry plum) its steeping for a few days before i add the yeast etc (found a simple recipe to follow ) wish me luck

[Jandra]

Goof luck

[MKG]

Hi jampot

You're brave!!! Most beginners start with wine kits.

Best of luck (but do remember that your finished wine is supposed to taste of plum, not grape)

Keep us up to date.

Mike

[CyberPaddy66]

Good luck and please post your recipe so we can all follow your exploits ;)

[becks77]

Yay good luck sounds yummy

[jampot]

hi
thanks MKG im more skint than brave really
(the plums were free and i blagged the sugar of me mam)
the recipe is quite basic and i cant remember where i found it, but this is it

pit and cut up 4lb plums
bruise a "thumb" of ginger and add to plums with a sliced lemon .pour over 1 gallon boiling water and leave to steep for 4 days( stiring ocasionally)

strain through muslin onto 3lb sugar stir to dissolve and add yeast (activated in mug of warm water)
add airlock ,ferment and rack off into bottles.


i used only 2lb of plums so halved everything else too and im up to the aitrlocking today
i hope it works

[MKG]

Well, it'll certainly work - there's basically everything there you need. Just a few comments ...

Plum wine is sometimes difficult to clear, especially if you haven't used a pectic enzyme - which you haven't. However, it doesn't matter in the least. You may end up with a hazy wine, but it's perfectly drinkable. The wine should end up at about 15% alcohol (which is pretty strong) if you used wine yeast. Having said that, your comment about activating the yeast in warm water makes me think you may have used baker's yeast. If so, you'll still get wine but the yeast may not be capable of fermenting all of the sugar - in which case you'll end up with a slightly sweet wine.

Don't be too hasty in your bottling. It is not a good idea to rack into bottles as soon as you think the fermentation is over - that way lies a lot of explosions and mess. I don't know what you're fermenting your half-gallon in, but if the wine fits in there with only little air space, then rack it off when you think it's finished, rinse out the container and then put the wine back in it, complete with the airlock, and leave it in there for as long as you can bear to. You can always top up with tap water.

Enjoy

Mike

[hoomin_erra]

I tend to leave mine in the Demijohn for at least a year, racking every 3 months. They say that wine matures better in larger volumes. And it also means that fermentation is definitely over. I leart my lesson when i had bottle corks and streams of Ginger wine sailing over my head one night whilst i slept.

The room still smells of Ginger.

[jampot]

thanks for the advice
yes its bakers yeasrt as my grandad always used that and sed it was fine
im not bothered about the clarity as im not going to show it (just glug it)
its in a 1 gallon demijohn at the mo but im not sure how long it will take to finish fermenting ill just keep an eye on it i suppose till it looks "dead" i was told that a covered jug is as good as bottles if im not going to store it too long.

[jampot]

well its turned out better than expected and even tastes ok eeeek im soooo happy


its also *quite* strong ( i have no idea of the %) woohoo

[MKG]

Now that was quick! Congratulations

Methinks I spot a convert.

Mike

[gigglybug]

Well done!!

I just started my elderberry wine off yesterday, hopefully it will turn out better than my first attempt

[CyberPaddy66]

its also *quite* strong ( i have no idea of the %) woohoo

If you take a specific Gravity reading just before you add the yeast then another specific gravity reading when it's finished fermenting you can calculate the ABV% with a simple calculation...

(O.G - F.G) / 7.36 = ABV%