ok opinions please

[ivegotabike]

I have landed on about ten pounds of fig jam. at first thought i was like o wow i love fig jam on my toast but now a half pound in i am sick of it. thinking on i am an avid home-brewer so maybe making a fig wine would work i would start it with the 9 something pounds use some grape wine concentrate for a back bone, yeast nutrient and just rack until it is good/ drinkable. i have made many beer batches and hard cider batches but this is like an experiment for me. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!!

 

[RachmaelBenApplebaum]

Jam wines are always interesting, but I never get around to doing anything with all those jars of somewhat ok jam. Definitely follow but as for making it? Mix up proportional amounts and take a gravity reading. Might not need anything for "backbone". Take, say, a jar and mix it with a half-gallon of water and take a read. If it's too low you'll need to add something else/make less wine, if you can't get a reading because it's too sugary, dilute and measure again and figure out hoe much you need in #'s per gallon for a recipe. Adjust acidity as needed etc, and of course, share your experiences!

 

[ivegotabike]

ok thank you for your opinion i looked more online after posting and there isn't a lot of forums out there for it but i will get started this weekend and post pics and recipe i went with.

 

[Arpolis]

Here is a link to a thread all about my escapades into a strawberry jelly mead. Which is easily translated into wines:

Strawberry Jelly mead

Pectic enzyme is a must for you must! Lol sorry bad pun and could not resist.

My suggestion is to take 1lb of your jam and water it down 50/50 water/jam and add in 3 tsp of pectic enzyme and then let that sit for 24-48 hours. If you are wanting to do a larger batch then you are looking at 1lb of jam per gallon. Once you treat the jam with pectic enzyme you should be able to ferment like adding any normal concentrate or such. My recipe was for mead. If you want wine rather than mead then instead of my 2lb of honey use 1.5lb sugar. That should be about the same gravity as long as your jam has the Sam sugar content as mine did. If you want "back bone then instead of back sweetening with more sugar. Just treat another pound of jam like above and use that to back sweeten. Have fun and keep us in the loop!

 

[ivegotabike]

Here is a link to a thread all about my escapades into a strawberry jelly mead. Which is easily translated into wines:

Strawberry Jelly mead

Pectic enzyme is a must for you must! Lol sorry bad pun and could not resist.

My suggestion is to take 1lb of your jam and water it down 50/50 water/jam and add in 3 tsp of pectic enzyme and then let that sit for 24-48 hours. If you are wanting to do a larger batch then you are looking at 1lb of jam per gallon. Once you treat the jam with pectic enzyme you should be able to ferment like adding any normal concentrate or such. My recipe was for mead. If you want wine rather than mead then instead of my 2lb of honey use 1.5lb sugar. That should be about the same gravity as long as your jam has the Sam sugar content as mine did. If you want "back bone then instead of back sweetening with more sugar. Just treat another pound of jam like above and use that to back sweeten. Have fun and keep us in the loop!

Very interesting page. I did just finish prepping it up. I added 7.06 pounds of fig jam, 3 gallons water at 120 degrees and 2 tbsp. (6tsp.) pectic enzyme. Let it sit for 26 hours. mixed two gallons water with 3 lbs. sugar and mixed slowly. let mixture cool. Pitched lavlin ec-1118 yeast at 71 degrees f.
og- 1.080 (i know this is really high but there is a lot of fig chunks in the bottom which i assumed would rise the gravity)
No idea what the fg will be but its in a 5 gallon ale bucket with airlock will transfer to glass carboy once main fermentation is done. will show pics and gravity points thanks for the help!!!

 

[Arpolis]

Ec-1188 will take this bone dry to a FG of .996 - .998. So you should have a 11% ABV or slightly over wine. You will probably need to stabilize and back sweeten with a little sugar once it is clear to bring out the gig fruitiness.

 

[ivegotabike]

So it has been a few weeks fermenting and it looks amazing! Transfered it to a secondary glass carboy. I tasted it and am surprised how much fig flavor there is. Still has a few more months at least until everything settles out. Thank you for helping me put this together!

 

[Arpolis]

Sounds good. If it is still fermenting then it looks good. There is so much head space though. Don't rock it around and keep it still. You want to keep any CO2 floating on top of that to keep it from oxidizing. If you can rack to something smaller then great. Otherwise keep off it and be paitient and it should be ok.

 

[DoctorCAD]

Love the Floyd reference in your user name!

 

[ivegotabike]

Sounds good. If it is still fermenting then it looks good. There is so much head space though. Don't rock it around and keep it still. You want to keep any CO2 floating on top of that to keep it from oxidizing. If you can rack to something smaller then great. Otherwise keep off it and be paitient and it should be ok.

its actually still filling in that picture. i was so excited that it was actually working i just started taking pictures. This one was the best quality. i got around 4.75 gallons in the 5 gallon carboy. will keep updating!

 

[ivegotabike]

Love the Floyd reference in your user name!

glad you get it! nobody has ever understood my user username reference! everyone thinks I'm some biker dude.

 

[ivegotabike]

So this ended up amazing! Surprisingly there was no need for back sweetening! So much fig came through with an interesting sweet flavor that surprised me. It was a dry yet sweet wine. Crystal clear. I still have one gallon still aging. I will post a pic once I get a new camera. Thank you everyone for your help. I am glad I put use to this fig jam and made a great wine as well. an't show enough thanks to HBT!