Fermenting Bottled Plum Juice

Hello all,

A while back I was speaking to a friend about homebrewing. We got to talking about bottled juices and other items and when we got to plum juice, he quickly advised me to stay away from trying it since he's tried several times and hasn't faired well.


Hearing this, and me being the try it guy, I figured why not? Worst case scenario is I have fun and I'm out $5 give or take. It turns out it was a success and my wife (who loves the plum wine down at the local sushi place) is realy enjoying it.

Here's what I did.

Took a 48oz bottle of Sunsweet Plum Smart juice, poured out a bit, added 1/4 cup of white granulated table sugar and pitched 1 teaspoon of D47 yeast. I got a starting gravity of 1.105 on 2/14/13. I racked it on 2/25/13 with a gravity of 1.030. I figured it's about ~9% so I added about 1 teaspoon of clover honey, shook the heck out of it and stashed it in the fridge.

We cracked it open last night and the results are not bad at all. I'm sure it can be improved for a better taste but for such minimal effort and very little fuss, it's surprisingly good.

Has anyone else had a similar positive experience? Or, is the majority of this group sharing the advice of my friend and saying stay away from bottled plum juice?

I made plum from Vinters Harvest and it was lacking flavor as most of the Vinters Harvest do even though I made the 3 gallon recipe as opposed to the 5 gallon label on the can. So I simmered down Sunsweet Plum Smart to about half and added that and made a huge difference in the taste and the vine is very good now. Only a couple of bottle left at this time.

Sammyk said:

I made plum from Vinters Harvest and it was lacking flavor as most of the Vinters Harvest do even though I made the 3 gallon recipe as opposed to the 5 gallon label on the can. So I simmered down Sunsweet Plum Smart to about half and added that and made a huge difference in the taste and the vine is very good now. Only a couple of bottle left at this time.

Click to expand...

Hey, that's good to know for future refference...thanks for the reply!

UPDATE: It's been about a week since tasting this and being surprised by how good it was but, I tried it again last night and it's not the same. In fact, it has a sour taste to it. I haven't added any chemicals and it's been in the fridge all along. It's clear and looks like red gatorade but has a very sour after taste.

Any ideas on what could have caused this?

Probely it has fermented dry. Backsweeten it again with more honey and try drinking it again. I have a plum wine I made from fresh fruit that is wonderfull!

jensmith said:

Probely it has fermented dry. Backsweeten it again with more honey and try drinking it again. I have a plum wine I made from fresh fruit that is wonderfull!

Click to expand...

Right on the money. I did just that and it tastes great again. Thanks for the reminder!!!

You're welcome! Also remember to stabalize after back sweetning if you are planning on botteling any. Enjoy!