# plum wine question



## wood1954 (Oct 7, 2011)

I just squeezed about 40#s of Mount royal plums and added about 1.5 gallons of water to the mess in the bucket. i added 2 tsp of pectic enzyme , tannin, acid blend etc, my question is how do i strain this mess and when? It is really thick and gloppy. I froze the plums for a few weeks prior to squeezing them.


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## djrockinsteve (Oct 7, 2011)

Let it ferment to @ 1.020 and remove the pulp as best you can. Let it ferment dry and rack.

Did you take a gravity and an acid/ph reading?


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## wood1954 (Oct 8, 2011)

*Plum wine*

I tried this morning to get some juice but the must is still too thick. I added 8 lbs of sugar to get where i think the SG is about right. I also added acid blend and tannin just to the point where i can taste it. I'm hoping tomorrow i can get a SG reading and a TA measurement before i pitch the yeast.


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## djrockinsteve (Oct 8, 2011)

Don't blindly add sugar. You will get additional sugar from the meat of the fruit as the pectic enzymes chew them up.

You need somehow to get some liquid out to get a reading. When I have lots of fruit in a bucket I'll push in a beaker and anle with my fingers over the opening to allow juice to flow in but keep fruit out.

Then I can drop in my hydrometer for a reading.

Again can or did you take an acid/ph test. You may need to add water if it's high. If it's low in acid don't add anymore water.


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## greyday (Oct 11, 2011)

I completely agree with the above, do not add sugar blindly. As a future suggestion, I use jam bags and a large masher to make plum wine. That way the bulk of my fruit meat is easily removable but I still get the juice, and the pectic enzyme and, later, yeast can still eat away at the actual plums; I also leave everything in the primary for 1-2 days after removing the bags (in your case, that would be straining) to allow more lees to fall before transferring to a carboy and adding campden.

If you have a drill-mounted degassing rod, this may actually help liquify your must (in a bucket, use LOW settings on your drill). You can also add more water, with that much fruit it won't dilute it that much, but it sounds like you're going for a thicker wine. Are you keeping it in a warm place? Lower temperature will have a rapid thickening effect on plum mush.

Stirring will help, but you really need a watery solution to accurately read sg. I wouldn't add any more sugar (the batch of plum wine I just transferred to a secondary was 30#s with 4 gallons of water and I only used 7.5lbs of sugar; I may back sweeten a little, but even fermenting to dry it tastes pretty good and ended up with a pretty red-wine color and feel).

You COULD try just running blind; with that concentration I don't suggest it but it might work, though it will likely end up a pretty strong (or pretty sweet if using weaker yeast) wine if you added 8#s of sugar with that much fruit. Will you be pitching yeast or are you shooting for natural fermentation?


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## Tom (Oct 11, 2011)

You need a hydrometer. Get one

How much you making?


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## wood1954 (Oct 11, 2011)

*nature solves the problem*

Well, i let the must sit for two days at 66 degrees and then added the yeast. I just pitch it on top now, it has worked great for the last several batches i've made. The next day it was fermenting very well, this morning (2 days of ferment)it was fermenting enough to float all the seeds and flesh to the top and the juice below is thinning out to wine consistency. I plan on fermenting for 5 days and then siphoning off the juice and leaving the cap with all the solids floating on top. I'm using Lalvin D47 yeast and i think it finishes off at 14% ABV. Now here's the tricky part. Because it's too late to take a SG reading i thought I would give the yeast 8 days and then add 1 pound of sugar and see if it continues to ferment, and keep doing that until it stops, adding a little yeaast nutrient as well. If it gets too sweet I could always ad a yeast strain that will ferment to a higher ABV to get to dryness right? 
I must say right now the color has come back as the SO2 has dissipated and it looks really nice, smells and tastes good too.


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## Tom (Oct 11, 2011)

I would NOT add sugar till the yeast dies. You will have Jet Fuel with NO taste. 
Fruit wines should be no higher than 10%. Starting gravity of 1.085 tops.


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## Sirs (Oct 11, 2011)

Tom said:


> I would NOT add sugar till the yeast dies. You will have Jet Fuel with NO taste.
> Fruit wines should be no higher than 10%. Starting gravity of 1.085 tops.



Sorry Tom I gotta disagree with the part that fruit wines should be no higher than 10% I've got a plum wine thats abit over 18% I blended it with a slight mixture of mixed grapes that are also at 18% and there is tons of taste in fact. Yeah if you make your wines weak by only adding certain amounts of fruit which I think are sometimes not near enough then yes if you have a high ABV and no taste it will taste awful, but if you add plenty of fruit you can fortify up to 25% and have an excellent wine.. In fact I've fortified up to 40% with wine grapes and there was no lose of flavor to the wine in fact the extra alcohol seemed to make it stand out more


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## bigswol2 (Oct 12, 2011)

I would sanitize another bucket and paint straining bag. Transfer the mixture over to the new bucket lined with the bag and contain all that plummy goodness while letting the liquid drain out into the bucket. Get those seed outta there before they impart and "off taste"


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## wood1954 (Oct 16, 2011)

*success with plum must*



bigswol2 said:


> I would sanitize another bucket and paint straining bag. Transfer the mixture over to the new bucket lined with the bag and contain all that plummy goodness while letting the liquid drain out into the bucket. Get those seed outta there before they impart and "off taste"



Great idea, thank you. I strained the must three times and got about a quart of fine sludge out of it. The must is now nice and clean. Those paint bags are only $1 a bag what a deal It's fermenting really nice now and tastes very good. I did add 2lbs of sugar , enough tartaric acid to get the TA up to about .75% and tannin enough to taste and a packet of Lalvin EC-1118.


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## docanddeb (Oct 16, 2011)

Before you just add yeast... you need to make a starter and slowly acclimate it to the high alcohol level. It might not do anything, depending on how high your alcohol level is now.

You would hydrate the new yeast with a bit of sugar... after it gets rolling good... few hours... to a few minutes... add just a half cup of your wine... wait until it comes back to a rolling foam... add another half cup... you can add more and more until you have a BIG starter that is used to the high alcohol level... then mix it all together.

Do some reading on the basics of wine making and you'll get a feel for how each step should look, smell and react. It makes those early batches more fun and less stressful!! Been there, done that!

Debbie


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## docanddeb (Oct 16, 2011)

An easy way to get a reading on thick must is to sanitize a fine strainer... put it half way into the must and use your turkey baster to suck up the liquid that is inside the strainer. You'll leave the thick pieces of fruit behind.

So many tricks of the trade to learn... makes life much easier, though!

Debbie


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## jem837 (Oct 19, 2011)

djrockinsteve said:


> You need somehow to get some liquid out to get a reading. When I have lots of fruit in a bucket I'll push in a beaker and anle with my fingers over the opening to allow juice to flow in but keep fruit out.
> 
> Then I can drop in my hydrometer for a reading.



*Regarding not being able to get juice from the must, I use a small sterilized strainer, press it down into the must and extract the juice from the strainer basket with a sterilized turkey baster, this keeps fruit out of the juice. I'm able to take an SG reading with this fruit free sample.*


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## greyday (Oct 25, 2011)

Sirs said:


> Sorry Tom I gotta disagree with the part that fruit wines should be no higher than 10% I've got a plum wine thats abit over 18% I blended it with a slight mixture of mixed grapes that are also at 18% and there is tons of taste in fact. Yeah if you make your wines weak by only adding certain amounts of fruit which I think are sometimes not near enough then yes if you have a high ABV and no taste it will taste awful, but if you add plenty of fruit you can fortify up to 25% and have an excellent wine.. In fact I've fortified up to 40% with wine grapes and there was no lose of flavor to the wine in fact the extra alcohol seemed to make it stand out more



Seconded. I usually shoot for 1.1 or higher starting and ferment to dry...


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## wood1954 (Jul 25, 2013)

*update on plum wine*

Just planning for this years plum wine made me read this post agian. This wine turned out great, pretty potent, but with tons of flavor and somewhat sweet. my source for plums says he has a bumper crop this year. I've learned so much from everyone on this forum i feel like this years batch will be really good.


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