# Plum wine - remove the pits?



## destroyer-of-fruit (Jun 24, 2010)

Hey all!! - The peach wine from last year came out pretty good once it cleared. Soooo, it's plums this time..

DO I have to remove the pits from the plums in order to ferment? It's going to be such a bear to get all those pits out, and these are clingstone plums...

Any advice?


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## St Allie (Jun 25, 2010)

I wouldn't bother removing the pits..

just chop fruit roughly and leave them in.. as long as you are not breaking the pits open or crushing the fruit in a press, they'll be fine .. just bag the fruit in the primary. The pulp is only in there 7-10 days-ish anyway.

Allie


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## destroyer-of-fruit (Jun 26, 2010)

*Plum Wine - the new year*

Well I mashed up 44lbs of plums for 6 gal of wine. The pulp was in the bag for 24 hrs, and I just added yeast tonight.

I saw what looked like yeast already in the bag before I added yeast, and now wonder if some yeast got in the must that wasn't killed by the campden.

Is that possible? Sanitation was good on my part, except maybe there was some yeast on the fruit itself?

How soon will I know if I have wine or vinrgar?

Thanks


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## Wade E (Jun 26, 2010)

Yeast is on everything and thats why we sulfite it. How big a batch and how much k-meta did you add? I remove the pits myself.


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## St Allie (Jun 26, 2010)

did you add any campden tabs/k meta in the first 24hours?


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## destroyer-of-fruit (Jun 26, 2010)

I used three oz per gal of metabisulfide on everything that the must touches. But, I didn't sulfite the fruit itself.

I used 6 campden tabs since it was 6 gal in the container. I added these at the time I added the other ingredients, per the recipe.

My concern is maybe there was some on the fruit (?)

Maybe I'm wrong and everythings ok...maybe pre-wine jitters.

I didn't smell anything, and there are no bubbles coming up from the must.

I added the yeast (there was no turning back at this point) about an hour ago.

I left the pits in. It would have been a bear to get all the pits out.


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## mmadmikes1 (Jun 26, 2010)

the strongest yeast mwill win. Hope you had a good starter and all will be fine. BTW plum can be a bear, check the PH


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## St Allie (Jun 27, 2010)

if you added the campden it'll be fine,


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## destroyer-of-fruit (Jun 27, 2010)

It looked good this morning, like the yeast I added is working. 

Thanks for the replies.

What do I need to look out for on PH, and why is this going to be a bear? 

The peach wine last year was a bear too, I thought.


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## Wade E (Jun 27, 2010)

You should be ok but in the future always sulfite the must right in the very beginning as wild yeast is on everything and in the air at all times and then waith 24 hours before adding the yeast to the bucket with the lid off the whole time to let the sulfite disspearse.


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## destroyer-of-fruit (Jul 10, 2010)

How do I know if I have a stuck fermentation?

I racked the must of the sediment (after a week) and after 12 hrs or so, there are no bubbles in the wine. It looks like its just dormant. 

It was bubbling before the racking.

An identical batch from one week earlier is still producing lots of small bubbles..

DO I need to wait a length of time to determine stuck fermentation?

Any advice? 

And - thank you for all your recommendations from last year and this year.


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## Wade E (Jul 10, 2010)

Sg reading? This happens all the time when racking. What you have done is rid the wine of a lot of the trapped C02 and also have left a lot of viable yeast behind leaving your wine with a lot less yeast to do the job so much less activity will be present. It will take some time like a day or there abouts for signs of ac tion in the airlock to become present again but this leaving much yeast behind is usually how a fermentation gets stuc so when making a wine that I really want to go dry i usually finish in primary and when making a wine that Id actually prefer some residual sugar Illrack over to carboy at around 1.015 and see what hppns. It still usually erments dry bu once in a great while it stops early and I never have this problem when fermenting till completion in bucket.


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## destroyer-of-fruit (Jul 10, 2010)

SG is 1.005. 

I have not fermented to completion in the bucket on the lees. Man, that would be a lot easier!

Well, what's done is done now. I will go to the finish line in the bucket next time with the peach wine that is coming up in a week or so.

What do you recommend comsidering where I am now?


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## destroyer-of-fruit (Jul 10, 2010)

Hey Wade - Seeing some very sporadic amount of little bubbles coming up to the neck now.

Whew!! 

Thanks for keeping me calm...


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