a progression ,,plum wine ,,

[somptingsaint]

hi all ,,well ive gone for it tonight ,

I had 2 of my sons pick me some plums from the 20 odd year old plum tree in our garden ,

must admit its the first year ive had anything to do with the masses of fuit that come from it :thumb:

no ones sure what it is ,,their sweeter than victorias but still quite hard when ripe ,,any ideas let me know

so after all that i seem to have 29 lbs :shock: of plums of an unknown variety, minus a few my youngest has eaten

so ,,,
im going to work on moleys theory of 4lbs of fuit = 2lbs of sugar = 1tsp of pectalose=1tsp of nutrient per gallon ,

should get 7ish gallons :shock: so ,,any other advice guys? ,

will be de-stoneing and setting it off tomorrow

:

 

[oldbloke]

They look like the ones I used last year. About 9lbs made about 2.5 gallons, I was intending 2. It's just starting to get nice now, though it's been drinkable for a while.

9lbs plums halved and stoned
125g raisins
crushed campden tablet
1/4oz root ginger
4 cloves
1/2tsp citric
1/2tsp tartaric
gallon boiling water
covered and left for 4.5hrs
gallon cold water
5g pectolase
cover and leave 55 hours
strain
boil
pour over ...
5lbs sugar
[seem to have 2.5gallons...]
Split across 3 demijohns 3/4 full
cool to 21C
yeast+nutrient
Took 3 weeks to clear enough to rack,
racked into new demijohns: 2 plus a litre rum bottle
Taste when starting syphon: trying to subract the yeast, perhaps a little sharp.
Hydrometer says it's a dry wine already
Couple more weeks, deffo not bubbling at all.
Moved to cold garage to encourage total yeast death and clearing.
After about 10 days, racked to new demijohns which were topped up with bottled water to discourage oxidation.
(Full bungs, no locks)
All dry. Demijohn 2 very dry. Demijohn 1 slightly sweeter. The spirit bottle has a slight bitterness, perhaps from using a balloon as a seal.
All quite strong, from the taste - didn't bother checking the gravity when I started the batch.
Remind me of the more dangerous scrumpies from Deep Somerset (land of my youth), but with a plum edge.
Bottled a month-ish after that. Had thrown more yeast sediment.
Tried one, improved from 'not unpleasant' to 'drinkable'.
Expect further improvement.
Further 4 months aging: still smells a bit like scrumpy but tatses much better. Pleasant.
The last gallon bottled at approx 9 months old. Wine, but young.

 

[BrewDan]

I picked a full bag of plums over the weekend and am just wondering what to do with them, I have a fair few wine recepies from an old boots book and some in a newer book I have. I think I will have enough for a couple of demijohns.

The plums are similar to those ones, some are a dark purple, but all Are fairly soft. Should be interesting! What's the progress on this batch?

 

[somptingsaint]

cheers for the info oldbloke:)

managed to get them halved and stoned on sunday

then got the slave/eldest son to squash them up in 2 gallons of water with 5 tsp of pectalose,

and then sealed the bucket and left them under the dining room table guess how popular I am :?

this is what they look like tonight ,,

must admit im a bit concerned about the colour but will strain it all tomorrow after work :

 

[oldbloke]

ISTR mine being about that colour. After straining it's a cloudy yellowy-brown. When finished it's the yellow end of white wine.