Victoria Plum Wine

[Jo67]

Hello all. We've inherited a large bag of Victoria plums and thought we may make wine from them (after cutting away the little wiggly things inside) Does anyone have a recipe for a medium to dry wine using these? Thanks in advance.

 

[jof]

Not a specific recipe,
You might just need to adapt other soft fruit recipies.

The challenge is usually in exctracting the flavour (juice) from the fruit & making sure its not contaminated by anything that will turn your experiment to vinegar.

Have you made homebrew wine before or is this just an inspired experiment to use up the plums?

 

[Jo67]

Hi @jof we have started this recipe Simple & Easy Plum Wine Recipe but would be grateful if you could add your comments and add any possible pitfalls/what to avoid??? We have only made wine from a kit before so it is a bit into the unknown!

 

[LED_ZEP]

I've had a quick read through the article and the method and recipe seem sound. If you've followed this exactly then you shouldn't have any issues.

 

[SamBrewster]

I have some on the go:

2kg plums mushed a bit in the bucket with an upsidedown pick axe (heavy so easy).
2kg sugar (a bit too much, I think this will give me about 15% wine - OG 1.11).
5l boiling water
Left to cool overnight with a campden tablet.
Next day added strong tea and out of date yeast. Nothing for a week so added some in date yeast.
After 7 days of good fermenting strained into a demijohn and it's bubbling away nicely.

This has worked well for blackberries so hopefully will be nice

 

[Jo67]

Thanks for the input folks. Fingers crossed!

 

[jof]

Sorry I didn't get back to you quickly - but one of the great things about this board is that others will pick up the story and continue with advice.
There will always be someone with more experience that will either confirm your method is OK, or offer advice or hints on how previous answers could be improved on

 

[Jo67]

Hi me again. Well we have something, currently 13% after the last hydrometer reading. We have racked to 2 demijohns and the recipe says to leave (for quite a long time) (For those who havent read it, the instructions are here Simple & Easy Plum Wine Recipe

My question is, although it doesn't say, should I be adding stabiliser to stop the fermenting as there is still a little going on?

 

[jof]

I would have added stabiliser. You don't want it to continue to ferment with solid bungs in the demijohns.

Demijohns are not pressure vessels - so will either explode or blow the bung out of the top if its still fermenting

 

[Jo67]

Yeah we've actually put airlocks onto them hence can notice the odd bubble or so. I just wondered if I was missing anything and if stabiliser would harm, even though it doesnt mention it?

 

[jof]

I use campden tablets to stop fermentation.
Basically they are sodium metabisulphate & handily sized for 1 per gallon.
Just crush and add to the demijohn.

I think the stabiliser stuff is similar - add a tea spoon per gallon (or whatever your one says)

Then leave for several months.
You could even rack them off from the sediment after a couple of months as they clear. I can't remember if it made much difference when we used to make wine from real fruit.

 

[Jo67]

Thanks I think we'll definitely add something! It does mention racking them off again (we did the first stage in a fermentation bucket) so we'll have to get more demijohns - well at least another one! Incidentally we tasted what we racked (well a sip) and if you ignore the yeast flavour, it did have a nice fruit to it - though was very acidic. Should the acidity regulate as it matures or will that need to be addressed?

 

[jof]

I will leave the acidity question to someone who may know more than me.
But yes, rack off once it has gone nice an clear.
So it doesn't mature with so much the yeast/sediment.
You can get away with decanting back into the fermentation bucket (sterilised), put the lid on, then clean & sterilise your existing demi johns & pour it back in them.

Demijohns seem to be very expensive these days
Alternatly get a single cheap plastic demijohn or old 5L sprint water container to use for the transfer.

 

[Jo67]

Thanks @jof If anyone can advise me about the acidity that would be great

 

[LED_ZEP]

Hi Jo
If you're going to add stabiliser then you could sweeten with a little sugar (I use sweetener so I know it can't ferment again) to take the edge off the acidity or you can add a little alkaline to it. You can by products from the home brew shops that are basically chalk or I've even know people use baking powder. If your going to rack again I'd make decision after another taste then.

 

[Jo67]

Thanks @LED_ZEP Yes we're intending to leave until the end of this month to clear then rack it again so we'll have a taste then but have something to hand to reduce the acidity (further reading is called for I'm sure!) What would be the purpose of adding the sugar? Does this reduce the acidity or just make it a sweeter wine?

 

[LED_ZEP]

I find it takes the edge of a wine that is slightly too acidic. How sweet you make it is down to your taste, with fruit wines the sweetness can help bring out the fruit flavour. Try a half a glass and just add a little sugar/sweetener (say 1/4 tsp) taste then add a little more till you it the flavour you like. Then you can just scale the amount up per bottle/litre

 

[Jo67]

Thanks all. Watch this space! Incidentally is there anything I can do to reduce the 4-5 months the recipe is telling me to wait? Or should I just be patient!??

 

[jof]

Have you tried commercial fruit wines - to have something to aim for.
Eg Gales fruit wines, or the ones from Lyme bay spring to mind as ones that are sometimes in supermarkets.
Like LED says - they do tend to be quite sweet

 

[DocAnna]

Hi, just catching up here and researching recipes for plum wine. I'm thinking of going a bit off piste and after a bit of squeezing I'm going to blend the pulp in a liquidiser, then add a bit pectinase to see just how much I can really extract from it after straining. I also froze the plums after removing the stones to kill off the bugs bigger than the usual ones we deal with in brewing. I'd presoaked them all overnight in a fermenting vessel full of the plums and 2 gallons of water with a couple of campden tablets worth of metabisulphite powder to try to clean the wild yeasts from the skins.

For all this preparation it will probably be no better than any standard plum wine, I just like to make things complicated.

Anna