Getting max Greengage flavour in wine

[hypnoticmonkey]

Hi all,

Last year I made a '3 plum' wine, made from Vics, a type of bullace and greengages. Now, I'm not criticising that wine, it tastes pleasant and I've convinced a number of friends that homemade wine can be nice on after cracking open a bottle of it. However, it doesn't taste very 'plummy'.

This year I've picked 8 or 9lbs of greengages and, in the process of halving and stoning them I may have 'tested' a few of them and my word they were amazing. They're very very sweet and packed full of flavour. I really really don't want to lose this flavour in the brewing process, because it really could be amazing.

I've heard before that fruits added nearer the end of the ferment hold their flavour best, so I have the following theory.

1) Halve and stone the 12lbs of Victoria plums that I have also harvested this year (which are okay, but relatively flavour-free)
2) Cover in a primary with cold water for 3-5 days, squidging them on a daily basis
3) add yeasties and ferment on the pulp for another 3-5 days before straining through muslin into a FV.
4) add sugar (the amount I will calculate later* but enough to take to an assumed final %ge of 9-11% ABV)
5) let ferment down to about ~1010, at which point take the greengages out of the freezer and add to another fermenting vessel, and then let this ferment on the pulp for a little while longer before straining a second time, and allowing to ferment out.

*I plan to use a known sugar content table to estimate the sugar content in the 12lbs of victoria plums that I have used, plus the 8lbs of greengages, and then work out the amount of sugar needed to take this up to 1070.

What do y'all think about this method? Any potential pitfals? Think it will taste more of greengages by the end than the last batch did?

 

[Moley]

Sounds fair to me, let us know how it goes.


You could always run it past Bob Lockwood at winesathome, he seems genned up on later additions.

 

[user 1290]

I find the flavour of greengages rather delicate compared to other plums I use, so make wine from them by themselves with the addition of a small amount of white grape juice concentrate (half a small can/gall max.) so it isn't overwhelmed.

5) let ferment down to about ~1010, at which point take the greengages out of the freezer and add to another fermenting vessel, and then let this ferment on the pulp for a little while longer before straining a second time, and allowing to ferment out.

I don't quite understand (5) as it appears as if you're going to start fermenting the gages in a seperate fermenter just as the plums are almost finished with no mention of amalgamating them. If you intend defrosting/straining and adding pure greengage juice as a late addition to almost finished plum wine watch out for the high sugar content pure juice from ripe gages can have (as the % sugar in tables is normally for whole fruit and needs to be divided by something like 0.85 to get the juice sugar content).

How much wine are you intending to make with those plums/gages.

 

[hypnoticmonkey]

Hi David,

My plan was to get the greengages out of the freezer, put them in a fermenting bucket and cover them with water and a few CTs, then leave for a few days, squidging daily.

Once this was done, I planned to rack some or all (as yet undecided - advice sought?) of the nearly-finished victoria plum wine into the fermenting bucket and allow it to ferment away for about 7-10 days. After 7-10 days, I would then strain through muslin again, back into a 5gal fermenter and let it ferment to dry.

 

[hypnoticmonkey]

p.s. I plan to make 5 gallons of wine.