Persimmon wine

Morning folks, quick question about one of the wines we have perking away in a carboy. We started a persimmon wine in September. If clearing beautifully. However, the carboy currently looks like a 1960's lava lamp. What I mean is, the top half of the carboy is perfectly cleared, while the bottom half is full of, I guess, very fine pulp from the flesh of the persimmons. Any suggestions on how to rack this wine off of the pulp and not transfer the pulp to the next carboy? If I just rack everything above the pulp, I'm going to loose about 2.5 gallons of the 5.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Photo of my description

You could try pouring it through sanitized pantyhose. I think I'd be sure to have several pair on hand, though!!!

(N.B: and this is why we put the fruit in a nylon mesh bag instead of leaving it free floating, I imagine)

You could coldcrash it, above freezing, overnight and this should get the gross lees to settle some. Then rack from the top down to just above the sediment and consider repeating the chilling/racking until you get as much fluid off as possible. Any live yeast will waken back up as they warm. You could look at bentonite and sparkolloid use, this will compact your lees. But right now, you need to rack off of the gross lees. When in Sept did you start this, and is this the first attempt at racking off that pulp?

It If you are familiar with persimmon, a fruit sack would not have caught this. I left it in primary for about 8 days because of how vigorous it was, then racked to this carboy

Hmm, hit send button accidentally.


Ok, pulled notes out for this wine. Wasn't September.

Actually started in primary on 10/8.

17 lbs of ripe persimmon
3 tsp pectic enzyme
2 crushed Camden tablets
3 1/2 tbsp acid blend
3 tsp yeast nutrient
10 lbs white sugar
1 pkg Lavlin 71 B-1122 yeast

Crushed persimmons removing leaves and stems. Impossible to wash ripe persimmons. Mashed pulp through stringer to remove the seeds and skins. Placed all course pulp and seeds into a mesh bag and placed into primary. Added pectic enzyme, Camden, acid blend, and nutrient to primary. Topped off with enough water to bring the level to five gallons. Covered with cloth and set aside in utility room at 72 degrees

10/10
Added approx 1 gallon of water to sauce pan and brought to boil. Added sugar, stirring constantly. Allowed to cool. Added to must. Brought the total volume to 6.5 gallons. Sprinkled yeast onto must, covered, and placed back into the utility room.

10/21
Racked to carboy after things calmed down. Added 2 more Camden tablets.

Haven't done anything since except occasionally rattle jug to get gasses out of the pulp.

Oh yeah, after adding the sugar and bringing volume to 6.5 gallons, the OG was 1.100. Didn't measure SG when racked to carboy, too much pulp for accurate measurement.

What is your SG now?

You can always use a double lined bag next time, medium inside, fine on outside. The fruit probably do not need mashing if they are ripe and soft. Stashing in freezer overnight and then placing in bag to thaw will ensure their breakdown. And ferment will break them down. I know a few near EKU that double bag it all, taking care not to squeeze the bag but suspending it like a jelly bag and allowing it to drip as much as possible when they remove it around Day 8. Of course they still have pulp escape and rack gross lees once they surpass 1/4"...but that resolves pretty quickly, so they told me.

But your wine will be fine.

Specific gravity now is .995. Very dry. Taste is good. Got that young wine flavor, but hints of being a great wine with a meal.

WKU_Doc_D said:

Specific gravity now is .995. Very dry. Taste is good. Got that young wine flavor, but hints of being a great wine with a meal.

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Sounds great! I have about ten lbs pulp, fuyu and hachiya, in freezer from last year and another ten lbs of hachiya ripening now. So once they are ready I will start a persimmon mead with 25% apple cider base. Vanilla, nutmeg, allspice in secondary. Maybe star anise, cardamom.

WKU_Doc_D said:

It If you are familiar with persimmon, a fruit sack would not have caught this. I left it in primary for about 8 days because of how vigorous it was, then racked to this carboy

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What your are looking at in the pic included is persimmon brandy/wine in the 5 gallon carbon and persimmon wine in the gallon bottles ( the one that looks like lemonade), they were both started on 10-3-12 and they were racked for the first time 2 days ago. I used a nylon/ or mesh bag and strained the crap out of it. Worked perfectly. I was actually surprised at how clear it already is. My brandy style wine is very good. Fg is at 12.84 abv.

Ingredients from my uncle on brandy style

4 oranges
4 lemons both sliced like a tomato with peel on
4lbs raisins
12 lbs sugar
4 quarts persimmons
3 gallons water
Yeast of your choosing
I used high gravity yeast, and another with mono red and later combined batches as I saw no difference in taste at racking
Then the usual additives pectic, yeast nutrient ect.

As for my persimmon wine just made up the recipe

4quarts persimmons
3lbs white grapes
3 gallons water
Champain yeast I think,
And 10 lbs sugar
And the usual additives.

So far taste ok, but a little early to tell, does smell slightly funky. So I splashed racked it. Will keep you all posted.

Last year I mad a back of the cabinet cyser on a rainy night. It was made of about 7 lbs of dried persimmons and the water required to steep them, 8 oz of honey and a quarter gallon of honey crisp apple juice. I sliced up and cooked the dried persimmons in 2 gallons of water at 160 degrees F for 1.5 hours. It poured off to about 3/4 of a gallon of dark orange brown liquid. I heated up the honey and added it then topped a 1 gallon bottle with the apple juice. During fermentation it did the same thing as yours and cleared to a beautiful dark orange on the top and a large mass of fine sediment on the bottom. I allowed it to ferment to dryness and racked it to another gallon jug and topped off with apple juice. Secondary for 6 months then to bottle. Even after secondary there was a fine sediment in the bottom inch of the jug. Needless to say I only was able to bottle 5 19 oz bottles from it. Bottle primed with brown a bit of brown sugar. It turned out to be a fantastic beverage with a flavor like a citrus hopped wheat beer in the end. I never took a gravity reading but it felt to be in the 8% range of so. I also don't recall what type of yeast I used. It was likely and ale yeast. Good luck!