Plum Wine
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phil55494
- Barbara Good
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- Location: Glossop, Derbyshire. UK
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Plum Wine
Now we've got a wild plum tree growing nearby and I'd like to have a go at Plum Wine. Assuming that the tree hasn't been stripped by other foragers or birds and that the plums haven't gone over and fallen off. What is a good recipe for wine from the fruit? From looking online the recipes I've seen have anything from 1 to 3kg fruit and 1 to 3kg sugar added. Now we're not afraid of a dry wine but would like some body in there so any recommendations on how much fruit and sugar needed?
Re: Plum Wine
Always a problem, isn't it? 
For a reasonably-flavoured wine, 4 lbs of ripe plums per gallon is plenty.
(Recipe: Wash and then cut plums up roughly, don't worry about the stones. Chuck 'em in a bucket and pour a kettleful of boiling water over them. Add 2.5 lbs - 1.14 kilos - of sugar and stir to dissolve. Cover the bucket and leave to cool. When cool, get your hands - clean - in there and give everything a good squeeze, taking out any stones which rise to the surface. Add a teaspoon of yeast nutrient, some Vit B1 and a teaspoon of pectic enzyme. You can get by without the first two of those, but I'd recommend the enzyme. Top up with tepid water to about the 7 pint level and add general purpose wine yeast. Cover again and leave in a warmish place. After fermentation has begun, leave for four days, stirring daily. After four days, strain off into a demijohn, top up to the gallon, put under an airlock and ferment to a finish.)
That will give you average body. If you prefer a heavier-bodied wine (which will probably taste awful if you try to make it dry) increase the plums to 6 lbs per gallon and increase the sugar to 3 lbs - but be prepared to add up to another half-pound after the wine has completely stabilised.
The first version will give you a dry (or almost dry) wine at about 12.5 % ABV. The second will be between that and 15% ABV, depending upon how good your yeast is.
Mike
EDIT: 3 kg of sugar in a gallon is a waste of time. It will never ferment out and may even prevent any fermentation from starting.
For a reasonably-flavoured wine, 4 lbs of ripe plums per gallon is plenty.
(Recipe: Wash and then cut plums up roughly, don't worry about the stones. Chuck 'em in a bucket and pour a kettleful of boiling water over them. Add 2.5 lbs - 1.14 kilos - of sugar and stir to dissolve. Cover the bucket and leave to cool. When cool, get your hands - clean - in there and give everything a good squeeze, taking out any stones which rise to the surface. Add a teaspoon of yeast nutrient, some Vit B1 and a teaspoon of pectic enzyme. You can get by without the first two of those, but I'd recommend the enzyme. Top up with tepid water to about the 7 pint level and add general purpose wine yeast. Cover again and leave in a warmish place. After fermentation has begun, leave for four days, stirring daily. After four days, strain off into a demijohn, top up to the gallon, put under an airlock and ferment to a finish.)
That will give you average body. If you prefer a heavier-bodied wine (which will probably taste awful if you try to make it dry) increase the plums to 6 lbs per gallon and increase the sugar to 3 lbs - but be prepared to add up to another half-pound after the wine has completely stabilised.
The first version will give you a dry (or almost dry) wine at about 12.5 % ABV. The second will be between that and 15% ABV, depending upon how good your yeast is.
Mike
EDIT: 3 kg of sugar in a gallon is a waste of time. It will never ferment out and may even prevent any fermentation from starting.
The secret of life is to aim below the head (With thanks to MMM)
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frozenthunderbolt
- Site Admin
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- Location: New Zealand
Re: Plum Wine
If you want a port like wine - use the high sugar and high plumb ratio with damson plumbs (or a fair proportion there of) and try adding 500gm of chopped rasins (or 500gms blackberries OR 500gms elderberries - with these figure on an extr 6months to a year aging) for more body and a more complex flavour.
Jeremy Daniel Meadows. (Jed).
Those who walk in truth and love grow in honour and strength
Those who walk in truth and love grow in honour and strength
Re: Plum Wine
I'd go with an absolute minimum of 3lb of fruit. This is my red fruit recipe:
4 lb of fruit it a clean bucket (we use Milton to clean it). Add one gallon of water. Leave for two days with a tea towel over it but really squishing the fruit every day. Add 4lb of fruit and stir well. Add a couple of tea spoons of bakers yeast, sprinkle it over the surface of the water. Leave covered by a tea towel for three days. Decant the liquid into a demijon using a rubber tube and add an air lock. Leave for a couple of months in a room temperature room out of direct sunlight. Decant the liquid off the sedement at the bottom and into another clean demijon then leave for six months. Decant into bottles and leave for a few months. Drink.
This is quite a haphazard recipe and some of my wines have been fantastic and some have been just okay.
4 lb of fruit it a clean bucket (we use Milton to clean it). Add one gallon of water. Leave for two days with a tea towel over it but really squishing the fruit every day. Add 4lb of fruit and stir well. Add a couple of tea spoons of bakers yeast, sprinkle it over the surface of the water. Leave covered by a tea towel for three days. Decant the liquid into a demijon using a rubber tube and add an air lock. Leave for a couple of months in a room temperature room out of direct sunlight. Decant the liquid off the sedement at the bottom and into another clean demijon then leave for six months. Decant into bottles and leave for a few months. Drink.
This is quite a haphazard recipe and some of my wines have been fantastic and some have been just okay.