Persimmon wine - formed solids - what went wrong?

[Dédé Philippe]

Hey y'all. I've made muscadine wine many times, but tried persimmon wine for the first time this weekend. It did NOT go well, for reasons that are unclear to me.

I had been gathering and freezing wild persimmons for the past month. They were VERY ripe, so ripe that they would crush if you picked them up, and they seemed very juicy. I thawed them out and started mashing them up in my cheesecloth bag, but could hardly get any juice out of them. The cheesecloth bag filled with must was the size of a basketball, but I could only get about a half inch of juice in the bottom of my primary. I added the dissolved sugar and water mixture. I will admit that this mixture was still warm, but when making muscadine wine I've added it right off the stove top, while still boiling hot, and it never made any difference.

Almost immediately, before I could add the pectin enzyme, I noticed that there were solids forming. This became worse in the next hour; globs of orange-colored jam-like stuff was floating in the juice. The specific gravity was what I wanted, I added a little more pectic enzyme hoping that it would take care of the globs. I waited 24 hours and added the yeast.

This morning when I went to "break the head," I couldn't tell if it was fermenting. It smelled like fermentation but no bubbles were coming out my airlock. There were still solid globs floating in the juice, and the must in the extraction bag had become very firm, to the point that I could hardly squeeze it.

So, where did I go wrong? I got more persimmons and plan to do a second batch, and of course I would like to avoid this scenario.
Thanks in advance,
A

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

Hey y'all. I've made muscadine wine many times, but tried persimmon wine for the first time this weekend. It did NOT go well, for reasons that are unclear to me.

I had been gathering and freezing wild persimmons for the past month. They were VERY ripe, so ripe that they would crush if you picked them up, and they seemed very juicy. I thawed them out and started mashing them up in my cheesecloth bag, but could hardly get any juice out of them. The cheesecloth bag filled with must was the size of a basketball, but I could only get about a half inch of juice in the bottom of my primary. I added the dissolved sugar and water mixture. I will admit that this mixture was still warm, but when making muscadine wine I've added it right off the stove top, while still boiling hot, and it never made any difference.

Almost immediately, before I could add the pectin enzyme, I noticed that there were solids forming. This became worse in the next hour; globs of orange-colored jam-like stuff was floating in the juice. The specific gravity was what I wanted, I added a little more pectic enzyme hoping that it would take care of the globs. I waited 24 hours and added the yeast.

This morning when I went to "break the head," I couldn't tell if it was fermenting. It smelled like fermentation but no bubbles were coming out my airlock. There were still solid globs floating in the juice, and the must in the extraction bag had become very firm, to the point that I could hardly squeeze it.

So, where did I go wrong? I got more persimmons and plan to do a second batch, and of course I would like to avoid this scenario.
Thanks in advance,
A

I've never made wine with persimmons but I'll ask a couple questions to see if there is any place I would have done something different.

1. Are you making a Dragon Blood variation?

2. Do you do your primary ferment in a bucket? You mentioned a airlock but I wanted to confirm.

2. Do you add potassium metabisulfite before fermentation? When I make Dragon Blood from home grown fruit, I always add 1/4 tsp and wait 24 hours before pitching the yeast in case there are some wild yeasties hanging on.

3. Have you checked the gravity since it smells like it's fermenting?

I always end up with foamy solids on the top of my wine while it's fermenting but have never seen it form before fermentation even started. Do persimmons maybe react to lemon juice (if you're making Dragon Blood) like dairy does?

What does it look like today since you posted several days ago?

 

[hounddawg]

persimmon , did you add any liquid, persimmon dose not have much juice but tons of flavor, and needs about 3 to 4 times the peptic enzyme, and with that so you can get a SG reading? again did you add liquid, say 5 to 6 pound persimmon to the gallon liquid,,,

first i never heat nothing, no f-pac's, i never use simple syrup. and i never use a yeast starter, with persimmon, you'll need to add liquid, your choice white grape juice, apple juice, water, i'd go with water on persimmon, 6 pound to the gallon, add lots of pectic enzyme , dump fruit and liquid into ferment barrel, i stir with a drill and stirrer daily getting as much oxygen as possible into your must, take SG add dry sugar and mix to the sg that obtains the ABV you want, pitch yeast, and stir , now the way i make my country wines is very hard when it comes to the end of ferment, separating cake from wine, then pressing the cake to get the rest of your wine, others use much neater ways, but the messier and harder the work the better the end product, then airlock rack every 2 to 3 months use 1/4 k-meta per 6 gallon, at each racking, unless you run up your ABV like i do, but the higher the ABV the more per pound fruit you need, i like my wine as smooth as candy and kicks like a mule, one thing about it is their are more ways to make wine then they are people making wine, lol,,,
Dawg

 

[wiebergt30]

My persimmon wine did the same thing. There is just a chunk of persimmon in the bag. I have been trying to break it up. I am nervous about how it will turn out.

 

[pproctorga]

The prior comments are all good. I smash my persimmons then add water and sugar as the sugar content is not high. I leave it all in the primary about five days before racking to secondary. I haven’t had any problem with high solids.

 

[hounddawg]

The prior comments are all good. I smash my persimmons then add water and sugar as the sugar content is not high. I leave it all in the primary about five days before racking to secondary. I haven’t had any problem with high solids.

how is your persimmons going?
Dawg