Old Jam Wine - Tastes Like Mincemeat Pie

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Erik the Awful

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Several years ago my wife tried making jam and apple butter. She did a fantastic job, but she doesn't eat jam or apple butter, and I forgot about it. A couple months ago I was cleaning out the panty and found a box of mason jars. A couple had corroded lids and spoiled, but most were still in good shape. Since neither of us were going to eat the jams or apple butter, I decided to see if I could make a wine from them. I did the final racking tonight and added sparkolloid, and it tasted pretty good. Note that I did have to deal with a lot of sediment, and at the start it was too thick to get a hydrometer reading.

Here are my notes so far:

Old Jam Wine
Started 20221203?
Approx 2 gallons old Jam, apple butter, and other preserved fruit
Approx 2 gallons water (dumped jam into bucket, refilled mason jar with water and added)

20221203?
Opened old jars and dumped into pot with equal amount of water
Simmered one hour, cooled, and put into two 4 gallon buckets
Added 3 campden tablets to each bucket

20221204?
Added pectic enzyme
Waited 4 hours
Added Lalvin EC-1118 yeast
Stirred cap under every day

20221206
Went out of town

20221213
Returned, primary fermentation still going strong
Stirred cap under every day

20221215
Cap dropped in one bucket

20221218
Cap still not dropped in second bucket
Poured both buckets into 5 gallon carboy – short of 4 gallons
Simmered 8 cups sugar in 1 gallon water and added to carboy
Added approx 1 quart water more to fill to carboy neck
Added bentonite to clarify

20221219
Checked, airlock contaminated by burped fruit
Cleaned and refilled airlock
Fermentation still steady and strong

20230211
Fermentation slow, carboy half full of sediment/liquid mix
Tastes like jam, slightly spicy flavor, like mince meat
Racked
Lost ½ gallon to sediment, and plenty of sediment is left in the carboy
Added ½ gallon water

20230420
½ sediment
Still has nice mince meat flavor
Still actively fermenting
Racked off bottom four inches of sediment – siphon worked well until that point
Lost 1½ gallons to sediment
Added 4 cups sugar simmered in 1½ gallons water

20230513
Clarified nicely since 4/20
Still has mince meat flavor, but not as strong
Racked
Lost 1 gallon to sediment
Added 1 tbsp Sparkolloid simmered in 1 cup water
Added 4 cups sugar simmered in 1 gallon water to top off
 
I just finished bottling it. It's definitely a Christmas wine. A little too sweet for my taste, but with a winter-time spice flavor. The entire carboy was clear, and there was less than 1/4" (6mm) of sediment in the bottom.

Old Jam Wine.resized.jpg
 
Thanks! It was more of an experiment, but I'm happy with how it turned out. I will say that the sugar water really diluted the flavor, but you have to work with what you have, and I didn't have any more jam.
 
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