Plum & Sultana Wine

[dr-robien]

Hi guys - new to this - so could people let me know what they think?

Thanks Wade, I used a bit of a mashed together recipe, let me know what you think....

1kg of Plums, 1.8kg Sugar, 500g of Sultanas, Pectinase Enzyme (3tsp), Citric Acid (1½ tsp), 2 Campden Tablets, Juice of 1 Lemon.

1kg of Tesco Value plums were used (rest frozen), and washed, cut into rather big chunks and mashed with a potato masher. I kept all skins on.

Washed out 25l Fermenting Bin/Demijohn with sterilizing solution.

Added fruit plus sultanas to bin and boiled 4l of water with 1kg of sugar in it to invert it and sterilize it.

Added to bin and stirred vigorously. Didn’t have citric acid until later, so I added the juice of one lemon. Left until cool. Added the pectinase, citric acid and 2 campden tablets.

Yeast --> Into one sterilised wine bottle put a good 1-2cm of sugar. Added boiling water until nearly full. Leave to cool to just being slightly warm. I then halved between two bottles and added some of the must to each. Added yeast nutrient. Left for a while.

I added the bottles to the primary fermenter and left for 5 days, fermentation was going very well.

Added to two demijohns with airlocks - and SG was 1.1... just leaving it to do it's business now. It's a peachy colour and is still lightly fermenting... checked again today, now SG is 1.0. The wine is in 2 demijohns, fermenting away nicely.

I'm rather unsure of how to proceed or when to proceed! Does anyone have any good advice or, better still, improvements on this technique/recipe?

David

 

[proksy]

Hi doc. I think I might have read that lemons and limes should be avoided in most wines, at least during fermentation or something like that, I don't know, I'm still a newb. I am making a 5gal batch next week that will contain plum but of course 2/3 of the recipe is grape. I am interested in how your batch comes out because I have been wanting to make some plum wine because my girl friend's father makes plum brandy that is out of this world good and I want to rival his brew so to speak

 

[Torch404]

Adding lemons or limes works in a pinch if you do not have any acid. Just avoid all pith, the white part of the rind as it is super bitter. In the future you might want to add more fruit 2.5-3kg is a good range for most fruit.

And now you can hurry up and wait. It is finishing up fermenting and will begin dropping solids out and becoming clear. This can take a while, I shine a bright light through dark wines and when I see no particulates I call them done. clearer wines I just hold up to a light. To speed up the process you can degas. Sterilize a long stir rod, glass, or plastic preferred. Then stir the wine to help degas. Do this till the bubbles seem to have slowed down. It takes a while, you might have to make some head room first.