Plum out of ideas

[AzOr]

hello mazers,

I have a plum mead in secondary now. It’s been there for about two weeks. It spent about a month in primary.
Pretty basic recipe- 5 gallon batch. About 12lb honey, 15 lbs of free sourced Italian type plums, 2 quarts tart cherry juice ( I had that laying around so I decided to throw it in). It’s tasting delicious but very young. I believe the og was about 1.10. It’s now sitting at 1.004.

I have two q’s;

1) How do I retain a nice reddish color? I know that plum wines and meads can take on a brownish color. It now is a orange/amber color when poured. In the carboy it’s a nice red/purple. I was thinking of making a strong tea from jamaica/hibiscus flowers and adding it to the secondary. Thoughts? Is there any other natural ingredient that would work better?

2) any experience using this type of plum? They are small, grey chalky, freestone, and no bitterness to the skin. They are quite sweet and not much of an acidic bite to them. I picked them off of a tree along a walking path, so I’m not exactly sure what type they are. I may do tannin and acid additions later but wanted input.

Thank you

 

[bernardsmith]

I believe the way to lock the color in is to make sure that there is enough acidity in the wine and that there are enough tannins. Tannins appear to bind to anthocyanin pigments and prevent the color from literally dropping out. I have no idea how much tannin is in plums, but with strawberries - and they are notorious for changing to blonde as the wine ages - unless the wine has a low pH and unless you have added tannin (strawberries are low in tannin) you are likely to find that the color fades to pale.

 

[AzOr]

bernardsmith thank you so much. That was very helpful.

I googled hibiscus and found this on wiki-

Hibiscus tea contains 15–30% organic acids, including citric acid, malic acid, and tartaric acid.

So it sounds like a bit of hibiscus tea and some tannins may do the trick.

 

[piojo]

In an interview on the GotMead radio show, Ryan Carlson said he added ascorbic acid (an antioxidant) to his acid blend to help preserve color. I would also expect proper sulfiting (acting as an oxygen scavenger) helps a ton. I can't remember references* to back this up, but my impression is that a major purpose of antioxidants in food is to preserve color.

Also note that hibiscus itself will lose its color, so it is not proof against degradation! I tasted one commercial hibiscus mead (YELLOW at time of drinking), and I made two which are no longer the same color. Use the big guns; don't assume acids will be sufficient.

* Note: if you don't remember a reference to prove your point, a citizen scientist should never google to find something that agrees with him or her. Because if you dig, you can find an article that says anything at all. It doesn't help determine whether your claim is correct. This is the type of confirmation bias that's not often discussed.