plum wine question

[sashurlow]

I found a recipe recently that said the skins can make plum wine bitter. I don't remember how long I left the fruit in the primary, but the wine is sour and bitter at the moment. I'm hoping aging will improve the taste. If it is still bitter come March is there anyway of improving the taste.
Next year my plum trees should be fruiting (it appears they fruit every other year). Can I make plum wine out of pressed plum juice? It would seem to be easier once juiced and no worried about the skins.
Scott

 

[Daze]

about the only way to deal with bitter is to back sweeten. chocolate is bitter in the raw but add a little sugar and you get something we all love.

 

[feffer]

I found a recipe recently that said the skins can make plum wine bitter. I don't remember how long I left the fruit in the primary, but the wine is sour and bitter at the moment. I'm hoping aging will improve the taste. If it is still bitter come March is there anyway of improving the taste.
Next year my plum trees should be fruiting (it appears they fruit every other year). Can I make plum wine out of pressed plum juice? It would seem to be easier once juiced and no worried about the skins.
Scott

I had this issue with last summer's plums. They were fermented "on the skins" and the acidity was high. The young wine was harsh, close to bitter, and it looked like a loss. A little back-sweetening balanced it out nicely. Very long bulk aging might smooth it out as well, but sugar is quicker

Be sure to test with samples first. Find the amount that just takes the harsh edge off. Then sorbate and bulk age for at least a few weeks. When you taste again, the apparent sweetness will probably be higher. If in doubt go with less sugar at first; you can always add more.

It is possible to do plum with pressed juice and some experienced people do it that way. Use fully ripe fruit, cut up and de-stoned, sprinkle pectic enzyme on the fruit and freeze. When ready to do your wine, thaw the plums in a strainer bag (in the primary) over a few days. Gently press the bag to get the juice, but don't overdo it or too much pulp will come out. Anyway these are the instructions from an experienced person I know. He says he gets about a gallon of mostly clear juice from 10-12 lbs of plums.

This summer, I intend to try this method with some of my plums. However, I'll continue to experiment with fermenting on the skins, possibly pulling them out earlier to keep acidity lower.

 

[yeastluvr]

I had the same problem a couple years ago when I made plum wine. It turned out very bitter and astringent. Almost to the point where I dumped the entire batch as I thought it would never taste drinkable. Let it age........Aging plum wine helps out a lot. Mine is very drinkable now and you wouldn't even know it was the same wine. It took over a year start to smooth out.

Another thing I did with some of the bottles which helped out, although some might think its cheating, was to add a tablespoon or two of peach schnapps to each bottle to flavor and sweeten it. It doesn't take much. If you like a fresh peach wine taste its not bad. Good luck, dont dump it, age it out.