# Japanese Plum Wine



## LAgreeneyes (Jul 8, 2013)

I started a batch on yesterday. Anyone else try Japanese plum wine? If so, what should I expect? How does it taste?


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## Stressbaby (Jul 8, 2013)

I will be starting a batch in a few weeks. I have 12# coming my way.
Could you post your recipe? How many #/gallon?


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## beardy (Jul 9, 2013)

I dont know what variety my plums are but I have a tree that gives tons of smaller black plums that are sweet inside and have very tart skins. I froze like 8lbs of them to make a 3gal batch. I'll be watching this thread!!


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## JohnT (Jul 9, 2013)

I had some plum wine at a place called the shanghi jazz. This was a very high end asain restaurant that always has live jazz music. (Woody Allen used to take is daughter/girlfriend there when is daughter/girlfriend went to Drew University).. 

Anyhow, I liked it. It was light, clear, and rather nice.


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## Stressbaby (Jul 9, 2013)

Japanese plum = loquat = Eriobotrya japonica


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## LAgreeneyes (Jul 9, 2013)

Stressbaby said:


> I will be starting a batch in a few weeks. I have 12# coming my way.
> Could you post your recipe? How many #/gallon?



Good job on getting those plums. I love Japanese Plums!!!

This is the recipe that I am using.



> http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request112.asp
> 
> JAPANESE PLUMS
> 
> ...


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## LAgreeneyes (Jul 9, 2013)

beardy said:


> I dont know what variety my plums are but I have a tree that gives tons of smaller black plums that are sweet inside and have very tart skins. I froze like 8lbs of them to make a 3gal batch. I'll be watching this thread!!



You are so lucky to have that tree. I'm jealous. I will keep everyone posted on the progress.

When will you start your batch?


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## LAgreeneyes (Jul 9, 2013)

JohnT said:


> I had some plum wine at a place called the shanghi jazz. This was a very high end asain restaurant that always has live jazz music. (Woody Allen used to take is daughter/girlfriend there when is daughter/girlfriend went to Drew University)..
> 
> Anyhow, I liked it. It was light, clear, and rather nice.



I would have loved to taste it. How much was the wine? Curious.......


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## LAgreeneyes (Jul 9, 2013)

Stressbaby said:


> Japanese plum = loquat = Eriobotrya japonica



Yep! That's them!


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## beardy (Jul 9, 2013)

LAgreeneyes said:


> You are so lucky to have that tree. I'm jealous. I will keep everyone posted on the progress.
> 
> When will you start your batch?



After I finish the apricot in the primary now... and after the DB that I absolutely HAVE to make. Unless the Lady lets me buy another primary!!


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## BernardSmith (Jul 9, 2013)

beardy said:


> I dont know what variety my plums are but I have a tree that gives tons of smaller black plums that are sweet inside and have very tart skins. I froze like 8lbs of them to make a 3gal batch. I'll be watching this thread!!



Eight pounds of fruit in 3 gallons would seem to me to be risking a very thin flavored wine. How much juice would 8 lbs of your plums produce. I would think that 4 lbs per gallon would still be skating on thin ice but perhaps your plums are incredibly juicy and you don't need to add much water...I've never made plum wine before so I may be very wrong...


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## JohnT (Jul 9, 2013)

LAgreeneyes said:


> I would have loved to taste it. How much was the wine? Curious.......


 
Actually, they gave away small (about 1 ounce) glass of it with every meal.


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## LAgreeneyes (Jul 9, 2013)

Apricot? Mmmmmmmm, that sounds tasty.


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## LAgreeneyes (Jul 9, 2013)

JohnT said:


> Actually, they gave away small (about 1 ounce) glass of it with every meal.



Oh Nice! Just the right about for a taste.


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## Stressbaby (Jul 9, 2013)

LAgreeneyes said:


> Good job on getting those plums. I love Japanese Plums!!!
> 
> This is the recipe that I am using.



That is about the same #/gallon that I was going to use.
Interesting use of almonds. What do you make of that?


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## LAgreeneyes (Jul 9, 2013)

Stressbaby said:


> That is about the same #/gallon that I was going to use.
> Interesting use of almonds. What do you make of that?



I'm skeptical about the almonds. Seems to me it would bring a bitter taste huh?


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## jamesngalveston (Jul 9, 2013)

Add drained juice to primary and use hydrometer chart to determine how much additional sugar to add to achieve combined S.G. of 1.095 (find previously measured S.G. on hydrometer chart and determine how much sugar to add to that to achieve target S.G. of 1.095). Add sugar and stir well to dissolve.


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## jamesngalveston (Jul 9, 2013)

the almonds are going to do the same thing as toasted oak.....flavor


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## Stressbaby (Jul 9, 2013)

jamesngalveston said:


> the almonds are going to do the same thing as toasted oak.....flavor



That much we know. But why almond and not oak? And why on this wine when as far as I've seen almond hasn't been used in any other tropical fruit wines?


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## Stressbaby (Jul 9, 2013)

LAgreeneyes said:


> I'm skeptical about the almonds. Seems to me it would bring a bitter taste huh?



I'm with you. I plan to wait at least 3-4 months to see how the flavor developed before adding almonds.


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## jamesngalveston (Jul 10, 2013)

maybe because toasted almonds will give it almost a cherry flavor, which goes with plums..i think....ameretto is made from almonds and or apricots


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## vernsgal (Jul 10, 2013)

beardy said:


> Unless the Lady lets me buy another primary!!



hahaha, and multiplying shall soon begin. That'll be a line that from now on you will continue to say no matter how many you have!


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## vernsgal (Jul 10, 2013)

I bought a japanese wine, can't remember what it was called, but it had a small green plum in the bottom of the bottle.It was real thick, almost syrupy. I love japanese plums as well but this particular wine was not for me. We have a plum tree as well,not sure what type but the plums are yellow and very sweet. I'm looking forward to making wine with them. Good luck on yours LAgreeneyes keep us posted on it


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## LAgreeneyes (Jul 10, 2013)

I checked on and stirred my plum wine on last night and it smells DIVINE!!! OMG!!!!! I am soooooooooooooooo excited about this wine. I cannot wait. I am looking for more Japanese plums to get started on another batch. I have 2 batches of watermelon wine going as well.


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## jamesngalveston (Jul 10, 2013)

you better learn how to use that hydrometer....


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## vernsgal (Jul 10, 2013)

for your hydrometer check this out. I first copied the photo and printed it until it stuck in my head.

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f5/how-use-hydrometer-newbies-16574/


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## LAgreeneyes (Jul 10, 2013)

jamesngalveston said:


> you better learn how to use that hydrometer....



LOL . OK. I will. LOL


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## LAgreeneyes (Jul 10, 2013)

vernsgal said:


> for your hydrometer check this out. I first copied the photo and printed it until it stuck in my head.
> 
> http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f5/how-use-hydrometer-newbies-16574/



WOW!!!!!!!!!!! Great!! I'm printing it out NOW!


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## tingo (Jul 10, 2013)

My wife is from japan. She buys wine that has a stack of plums in it. Its pretty good.


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## Pumpkinman (Jul 10, 2013)

We use to drink Fuki plum wine it was pretty good! And yes, I kid you not, it is called Fuki, I bought it just for that the first time, I was chuckling so hard, I had to have it...lol


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## Stressbaby (Jul 10, 2013)

My FIL shipped the fruit today. Hopefully I will start the wine this weekend.


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## Stressbaby (Jul 14, 2013)

The reason for the almonds will be evident as soon as you start working with the fruit. Loquat (frozen and thawed at least)_* smells just like amaretto*_. It is remarkable. I ended up with only 9 pounds so I'm making a recipe and a half. I will post some pics as I go.


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## Stressbaby (Jul 14, 2013)

Pic 1 is my loquats frozen. 

Pic 2 is after thawing. There is a ton of juice.

Pic 3 is the fruit in the bag in the primary.

The recipe is different; you don't add all the sugar up front, but rather add about half up front and the other half just before racking to the secondary. I suppose this might be a difficult ferment, I can't think of any other reason to do that.


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## Stressbaby (Jul 15, 2013)

I kind of like the water/volume approach this recipe uses, which is to cut back on the water and sugar at first, then after 12 hours drain and remove the fruit back, add water to the desired volume, then replace the bag.

My preadjustment pH was 3.51. I shaded back the acid blend to 2/3tsp/gallon and got post-adjustment pH of 3.39. SG is 1.056. I'll pitch the yeast tonight.


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## LAgreeneyes (Jul 15, 2013)

jamesngalveston said:


> you better learn how to use that hydrometer....




This is just for you. 

I tried it out of the strawberry wine that I made last week.


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## LAgreeneyes (Jul 15, 2013)

stressbaby said:


> pic 1 is my loquats frozen.
> 
> Pic 2 is after thawing. There is a ton of juice.
> 
> ...



yummy!!!!!!!!


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## jamesngalveston (Jul 15, 2013)

is it floating are resting on the bottom of the tube,flash,jar, etc.


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## LAgreeneyes (Jul 15, 2013)

jamesngalveston said:


> is it floating are resting on the bottom of the tube,flash,jar, etc.



It is floating. So what does that mean?


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## jamesngalveston (Jul 15, 2013)

floating means good... i cant read the numbers... looks like 1.050 u got to get to .990 for it to be done fermenting...


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## Julie (Jul 15, 2013)

Sorry James but she does not need to get to .990 for it to be done. Anything below 1.000 and it is stable on three different readings will tell you it is completed.


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## Stressbaby (Jul 16, 2013)

LAgreeneyes said:


> This is just for you.
> 
> I tried it out of the strawberry wine that I made last week.



What you are showing is the balling scale and it looks like around 16. This correlates to something around 1.065. That is pretty good to start this recipe I believe. Mine was 1.062. My calculations show that the next sugar addition is around 15 ounces. I don't know your volume but if you post that we can calculate that too.


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## jamesngalveston (Jul 16, 2013)

thanks julie, for some reason, i never have anything stop below .990, and most are upward from .990, maybe its the yeast i use.


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## LAgreeneyes (Jul 16, 2013)

Ok. I will post all of the numbers. Sorry that you I took a pic that you all couldn't read too well. I will get those numbers up to you all ASAP. Seems there are numbers all around that thing.


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## jswordy (Jul 16, 2013)

Stressbaby said:


> The recipe is different; you don't add all the sugar up front, but rather add about half up front and the other half just before racking to the secondary. I suppose this might be a difficult ferment, I can't think of any other reason to do that.



What many home winemakers do not realize is that high sugar levels in a must are actually an impediment to fermentation themselves. 

In doing high-sugar wines, i have found a number of ways to help the yeast get going when all the sugar is added first. 

But many wineries have for decades done a "continuous ferment" on wines that are expected to finish in the 16-18% or higher alcohol range by adding sugar in 2 or even 3 stages to keep sugars available for the yeast to ferment longer, while keeping the balling or brix level (dissolved solids) low enough that the amount of sugar does not impede fermentation. 

Dessert wines up to 20% ABV have been achieved using this method. This way, the dessert wine does not have to be fortified with the distilled liquor of grape byproducts, and so it does not have to wear the "fortified" label, which is a sign to many consumers of an inferior wine.

I have a feeling that process is what your recipe is aiming to do.


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## Sammyk (Jul 16, 2013)

I do believe on fruit wine the OG should not be higher than 1.085 or you will lose some of the fruit flavor in fermentation. Unless of course you are looking to make a port style wine.


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## Stressbaby (Jul 16, 2013)

LAGreenEyes, sorry for the threadjack.

24 hours after pitching the yeast it is rockin and rollin. Unfortunately the nice amaretto smell is gone. It has the slightest hint of an off odor, not rotten eggs, but something else.
Fermentation temp is 78 which is probably too high. We'll see what we can do to drop that down.


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## Stressbaby (Jul 17, 2013)

LAGreenEyes, how fast did your SG drop?

After 48 hours I've gone from 1.062 to 1.018 and I'm thinking that I'll be adding the second dose of sugar tomorrow instead of at 7 days like the recipe says.

I got a slight funny smell yesterday but I dropped the temp from 78F to 69F and gave it a good stir and today we're all good.


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## Stressbaby (Jul 18, 2013)

1.000 this morning. I added 17oz of sugar. Smells good and has a very nice caramel color.


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## Stressbaby (Jul 20, 2013)

Over a couple of days it fermented back down to 1.008. I moved it to carboys. The recipe says to rack into secondary, presumably leaving behind the gross lees. But I added everything with the plan to rack off of the gross lees in another week or so.


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## LAgreeneyes (Jul 24, 2013)

Stressbaby said:


> Over a couple of days it fermented back down to 1.008. I moved it to carboys. The recipe says to rack into secondary, presumably leaving behind the gross lees. But I added everything with the plan to rack off of the gross lees in another week or so.



That looks tasty.


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## Stressbaby (Jul 24, 2013)

Yes, the amaretto smell is coming back now.
Clearing up already. I will see if I can get some new pics.


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## Stressbaby (Jul 28, 2013)

LAGreenEyes, any update?

The kids are asleep in the basement where the carboys are so I can't get a pic right now, but here is the "topping up" portion of the loquat wine. You can see the color and that it is starting to clear up.

I just read through Joe's almond wine thread. There he failed to make an adequate extract with a quart of almonds, even after grinding them up. I'm think some almond extract is going to be better and easier and more controllable. 

I'm very excited about this wine!


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## jamesngalveston (Jul 28, 2013)

i bet the little bottle would top off the big ones..by the looks of it theres about a 1 1/2 cups needed in both. just saying.
the wine looks good, will have a nice color when done...


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## LAgreeneyes (Jul 29, 2013)

Stressbaby said:


> LAGreenEyes, any update?
> 
> The kids are asleep in the basement where the carboys are so I can't get a pic right now, but here is the "topping up" portion of the loquat wine. You can see the color and that it is starting to clear up.
> 
> ...



Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Yours look delicious!! I hope mine looks AND tastes as good as yours. I haven't taken any readings. I'm scared because I may be disappointed. LOL


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## LAgreeneyes (Aug 16, 2013)

I will be checking on my wine this weekend. Will keep you all posted.


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## LAgreeneyes (Aug 16, 2013)

Stressbaby said:


> I will be starting a batch in a few weeks. I have 12# coming my way.
> Could you post your recipe? How many #/gallon?



Did you start your batch yet?


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## Stressbaby (Aug 16, 2013)

Sure, you see some of the leftovers above


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## RhynoMakingWineO (Aug 21, 2013)

Following along.....hoping to avoid any mistakes..... I also don't wanna highJack.....

I started with a similar plum, but fresh off the tree. (maybe 8.5 gallons worth prior to pitting and and running through a electric blender) (prolly 6.5 gallons sitting with 5 camden tabs, and pectic enzyme, and nothing more, ......yet.......)

Hoping to learn from what you have going......


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## Stressbaby (Aug 21, 2013)

My advice is to give the pectic plenty of time before you pitch the yeast; keep the fermentation temps down; go with the staged sugar additions Keller talks about.


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## RhynoMakingWineO (Aug 21, 2013)

Stressbaby said:


> My advice is to give the pectic plenty of time before you pitch the yeast; keep the fermentation temps down; go with the staged sugar additions Keller talks about.




 Thanks for confirming the direction of my guesses.


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## RhynoMakingWineO (Aug 21, 2013)

Stressbaby said:


> My advice is to give the pectic plenty of time before you pitch the yeast; keep the fermentation temps down; go with the staged sugar additions Keller talks about.



Can you make a suggestion for Pectic Time?

I hope to keep the fermentation temps close to 65 degrees storage room. Right now, the fruit and pectic and camden is 73 degrees.

I searched but couldn't find who "Keller" was. I have read about staged sugar additions, but need to read again. Do you have a link?

Thanks.....


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## Stressbaby (Aug 21, 2013)

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques9.asp

I would give the pectic a minimum of 12 hours, preferably 24


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## RhynoMakingWineO (Aug 22, 2013)

I started a new thread.....

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f5/yellow-plum-wine-attempt-40078/

Thanks for the unintentional HighJack time....


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## LAgreeneyes (Aug 23, 2013)

I checked on my plum wine and it is doing nicely!!!


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## iVivid (Nov 12, 2013)

Mine has gone quite brown... Did anyone else have this happen?
I did add some citric, but I also took all the pips out because they have cyanide in them.


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## Stressbaby (Nov 12, 2013)

Mine still has nice color but is slow to clear. 
Maybe check pH and SO2 levels.


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## iVivid (Nov 12, 2013)

The fruit (I mean) has gone brown in the primary bucket.
I put it into Citric and Sulphite treated water as I processed and replaced the lid all the time.
It's only gone into the bucket yesterday, and yeast today.
Gone a very dark caramel coloured pulp.


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## Stressbaby (Nov 12, 2013)

Sorry, I misunderstood. I don't think I would worry too much about the color at that stage. I can't recall precisely what mine looked like at that point but I've had some nasty looking wines in the primary come out with nice color (and taste) in the end.


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## iVivid (Nov 13, 2013)

Thanks; upon further looking it seems like the top tiny bit exposed to the air has gone really brown (overnight). Because I've sprinkled the yeast I didn't stir, but it doesn't look so dark underneath when I have a poke (lol). Thanks, will hope it's not gone all gross!


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## iVivid (Nov 18, 2013)

Hey Stressbaby when did you rack to your secondary fermenter?
I've got 11 litres of juice with a cap of 6 litres in the bucket.
Shall I get it out of there and into the carboy now?
The SG says 1.020, but it's impossible to get a reading because of the pulp
(I just didn't have a bag, but have pressed the cap several times a day).
Any ideas on when I should rack it? It's been in for a week today.
Is that too long or ok? Thanks!


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## jamesngalveston (Nov 19, 2013)

I would strain as much of the cap off as possible..maybe a few times.
then take a hydrometer reading.If the cap is as thick as you say, its probably not getting enough air to ferment as well.
Strain it throw a pillowcase,paint sprayer bag, etec.

THen take a hydometer reading for 3 days and see if it is done..
my guess is , its not done fermenting....are close.
1.120


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## Stressbaby (Nov 19, 2013)

In my opinion, as long as it's making such a big cap, it is not done. Keep punching it down and give a little more time.
My loquat wine went like this:
7/14/2013	pitched yeast at 1.062
7/16/2013	temp 25.7C; added cool packs
7/17/0201	1.018
7/18/2013	1.000; added 17oz sugar
7/20/2013	1.008; move to secondary 2gal + 375; lots of gross lees
7/22/2013	moved off pulp to 1 + 1/2 gallon + 750 of pulpy stuff for topping off
8/25/2013 racked


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## iVivid (Nov 30, 2013)

Update on the Loquat; threw a quick slideshow, as too many pictures!
www.ivividworks.co.nz/wine.html


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## RhynoMakingWineO (Dec 1, 2013)

iVivid said:


> Mine has gone quite brown... Did anyone else have this happen?........



Sorry for the late/slow reply....

Mine has stayed a very nice color, and some of it has been slow to clear. (I have it in multiple containers.)

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f5/yellow-plum-wine-attempt-40078/index3.html#post467546

I was able to get a small sample to turn golden, though.

It was in another thread, where I added 3 drops of Hydrogen Peroxide to my Plum Wine, to see what would happen.

Overnight, it turned golden, and it's appearance changed.

It tasted good, though.


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## RhynoMakingWineO (Dec 1, 2013)

iVivid said:


> Update on the Loquat; threw a quick slideshow, as too many pictures!
> www.ivividworks.co.nz/wine.html



I went and looked at all of your pics and slide show. (thanks for posting..)

The slide that says this...... "The wine looks great without all the crud...", .....displays a similar color that my sample glass had, after I added Hydrogen Peroxide.

Yeah, HydrogenPeroxide is a "debatable" topic, but it is an Oxidizer, and your pic/slide displays the color that I got. 

......and thought that I'd post.


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## iVivid (Dec 1, 2013)

RhynoMakingWineO said:


> Sorry for the late/slow reply....
> 
> Mine has stayed a very nice color, and some of it has been slow to clear. (I have it in multiple containers.)
> 
> ...



Yours are certainly yellow plums, but they are definitely not loquats.


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## LAgreeneyes (Dec 11, 2013)

My Japanese Plum wine is POTENT!!! WHEW!!!


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## iVivid (Dec 11, 2013)

I don't like the taste of mine... yet.


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## LAgreeneyes (Dec 12, 2013)

I can't wait for next year so that I can get more.


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## LAgreeneyes (Dec 12, 2013)

iVivid said:


> I don't like the taste of mine... yet.



What's wrong with the taste?


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## Stressbaby (Jan 1, 2014)

This is interesting.
"Japanese plum" can be refer to two different types of plants. _Prunus salicina_ is the recipe Keller calls "Japanese Plums" and which calls for the almond. _Eriobotrya japonica_ is a completely different recipe on Keller's site and has no almonds. Yet the loquat definitely has the amaretto smell to it, no doubt in my mind. 
Not sure how I missed that earlier.
I will still try a bit of almond extract.


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