Japanese Plum Wine

[Stressbaby]

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.

 

[jamesngalveston]

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

 

[LAgreeneyes]

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.

 

[jswordy]

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.

 

[Sammyk]

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.

 

[Stressbaby]

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.

 

[Stressbaby]

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.

 

[Stressbaby]

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

 

[Stressbaby]

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.

 

[LAgreeneyes]

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.

 

[Stressbaby]

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

 

[Stressbaby]

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!

 

[jamesngalveston]

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...

 

[LAgreeneyes]

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!

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

 

[LAgreeneyes]

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

 

[LAgreeneyes]

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?

 

[Stressbaby]

Sure, you see some of the leftovers above

 

[RhynoMakingWineO]

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......

 

[Stressbaby]

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.

 

[RhynoMakingWineO]

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.