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EoinMag · 03-30-2009, 05:40 PM

So I made a plum wine there a little while back, it's still only 10 weeks or so old, but it's really really good already.
Basically there's not a lot of it left so I decided to do another one today.
The recipe was made up on the fly from fresh plums.

I juiced about ten kg of plums and kept back the pulp, I brought this up to 25 litres with campden treated water in the fermenting bucket then added 5kg of sugar and the pulp and then pitched yeast on top.

I'll primary it for about a week or so and then I'll rack it off into a better bottle style bottle and ferment it a while.

The recipe is very rough as you can see, the last time I boiled, but I don't want to add pectic enzyme this time so I've done it with the juicer instead.
I'll report back when I have had a try.

Tusch · 03-30-2009, 08:28 PM

Congrats on stepping it up in size, I just saw your other update so I am going back to check out your tea recipe.

**Saccharomyces** · 03-30-2009, 09:49 PM

I tried a commercial plum wine once, it was really awesome. I can imagine, this sounds like good stuff!

llazy_llama · 03-30-2009, 09:53 PM

EoinMag: Would you mind posting the recipe? My wife got hooked on the stuff when we were in Japan, and it's expensive as hell to buy commercially here.

EoinMag · 03-31-2009, 10:27 AM

Llama I'll have a stab at the recipe later when I get home, although this is more of a rose made from plums than a japanese style sweet plum wine.

EoinMag · 04-01-2009, 09:29 PM

I went up to check on the primary just a few minutes ago, what a mess, it's exploded all over the floor. It looks like just cracking the lid a bit wasn't enough for the wine with all the floating solids as it would be for a beer. It's spilled about a kilo of fruit must, luckily I have the bin stood in a black plastic bin bag so it's only spilled a bit on the wooden floor. I was trying to overfill it to make up for the loss I'd have due to the amount of fruit solids I added. I've learned a lesson at least.

accroul · 04-02-2009, 07:53 AM

I assume from the 'rose' comment, you used plums with red flesh? as opposed to yellow

llazy_llama · 04-02-2009, 08:02 AM

I wish I knew enough about plums to help here. I would love to find a nice sweet Japanese style plum wine recipe for the wife, but if it comes out more dry, I wouldn't mind adding a recipe for myself to the ol' toolbox.

Cheers, Slainte, and Kanpai!

EoinMag · 04-02-2009, 02:02 PM

The plums were yellow fleshed, but the skin gets mixed up with the whole lot when it oxidises it all goes a kinda red colour. I think the pink/rosé colour comes primarily from the skin rather than the flesh.

I still have to post the recipe, it's just a case of dragging it out of my lazy brain again.

EoinMag · 04-02-2009, 06:21 PM

Ok so recipe time.
The first plum wine I made, the recipe of which I modified by adding a lot more fruit for the large batch and less sugar is as follows.
If the large batch turns out good then I'll reproduce it.
I started with Jack Kellers directions and modified for what I had available.
# 6 lbs plums (ish)
# 1-1/2 lbs fine granulated sugar
# Water to one gallon
# Juice of one lemon instead of acid blend.
# Pectic enzyme I added per instructions later on in the process well into secondary.
# 3/4 tsp yeast nutrient
# A cup of strong black tea as I didn't have wine tannin.
# KVI 1116 yeast as that's the wine yeast I had on hand.

I used a boil extraction which produced a very pink milky wine until I added the pectic enzyme which then cleared the wine very well and turned it a beautiful pink colour.
I left the fruit must in the primary in a bucket and siphoned from under it to go to secondary when I put the airlock on.
That's more or less it for the one I've tasted, if the other turns out then I'll report back on that with a kinda hit and miss recipe which is what I did on the day cos I had a ton of plums and just decided to juice them all.