GreatNorthernLlama
Member
Canada here. I've never seen plum juice. Prune juice of course but no plum. Dunno if that works out to be the same?
Plum Wine Recipe (for critique)
- Thread starter GreatNorthernLlama
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add another 1 tbsp of pectic enzyme. If you add plum juice you need more water. Otherwise your recipe should be good especially with 71B yeast. Plums contain a massive amount of pectin. Adding more pectic enzyme won't detract from the flavour and will help your wine clear faster. Also don't add any tannin. You have enough already in the Italian prune plum skins.Progress update:
Mashed 24 lbs plums and added 2 1/3 tsp pectic enzyme (all I have left apparently. Getting more tomorrow). Poured into paint straining bags I use as brew bags and zip tied. Made a simple syrup with 4.5 kg sugar and 9 liters water. Will mix when room temp along with 6 Camden tabs.
Plan to make yeast starter with my 71B tonight. Calculator tried to say I need 20 g yeast but I think I'll stick with 1g per gallon (6.5g). I'll top up sugar and water to my target volume and SG 1.095. Any tips are appreciated
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GreatNorthernLlama
Member
I'm going to look around for plum juice but I've never seen any around my area before. Can't imagine I could swap for prune juice either lol!
I may pull out another 5 or 6 lbs plums and add them. Would need a third brew bag (paint strainer) but I'm starting to think all the comments about beingore plum forward are right. My current SG as of this moment is a high 1.204. I'm thinking if I add another 6 lbs plums and the maybe half gallon of water left to reach my target initial volume, this would get me to the starting SG I'm striving for. In this case, I'm thinking I'll wait to tomorrow to add the plums and water as I said, and will pitch Camden tablets then along with the extra PE I'm missing. Can start the yeast starter tomorrow too and delay everything by one day. What's in the must now can have that extra time with the short amount of PE I had on hand
Ohio Bob
Senior Member
Yes you can. I’ve always added prunes to my blackberry wine/ports. It’s just like adding raisins to kits, it’s just a tweak.
GreatNorthernLlama
Member
Hmmmm. I'll start with the real thing and water. Prob going to fight to get the SG down rather than holds it up, but this is great to know!
Edited:
Agree with @Hazelemere : you could even add 2 or 3 tbsp of pectinase and benefit. Instructions on my pectinase say 1/2 tsp/gal, and some times I triple the dose for high pectin fruits with good success. So 2.5 tbsp in your 5 gallon must would be fine. Just my thought.
Agree with @Hazelemere : you could even add 2 or 3 tbsp of pectinase and benefit. Instructions on my pectinase say 1/2 tsp/gal, and some times I triple the dose for high pectin fruits with good success. So 2.5 tbsp in your 5 gallon must would be fine. Just my thought.
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My pectic enzyme package says 1/2 tsp. per gallon, not 1/2 Tbls.
You are right. My bad. Thanks for the correction.
That said, still, I have found that for something very high in pectin there's little downside to the higher dose except cost.
I edited my above post.
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you can't easily overdose pectic enzyme. I always add a lot to all my fruit wines. Adding more will give you a better, clearer plum wine with less sludge. I won 2nd place in a wine competition for dry fruit wines using drumroll......Italian prune plums vs ~15 other wines.
PS Italian prune plums make killer sherry if mixed with dried figs and sultana raisins, oaked, allowed to bake in an attic with enough alcohol so it won't ferment such as - demerara rum (best you can find), Grand Marnier, Drambuie or Metaxa. I like dried Turkish figs that I get from a Greek deli together with Turkish sultanas. California sultanas and dried figs are equally good. The Turkish Calimyrna figs are lighter than the California Mission figs but they both work. You can even add sliced over-ripe bananas and ferment with EC-1118 yeast. Trust me if you bake this wine in a hot attic after it stops fermenting with medium toast American oak you can get a spectacular wine that can age for 10 years plus that can develop a gorgeous creamy, caramel and nut flavour and smell. If I had Italian prune plums which I don't I would absolutely make this recipe. I've done it in the past and always got something really good from it.
PS Italian prune plums make killer sherry if mixed with dried figs and sultana raisins, oaked, allowed to bake in an attic with enough alcohol so it won't ferment such as - demerara rum (best you can find), Grand Marnier, Drambuie or Metaxa. I like dried Turkish figs that I get from a Greek deli together with Turkish sultanas. California sultanas and dried figs are equally good. The Turkish Calimyrna figs are lighter than the California Mission figs but they both work. You can even add sliced over-ripe bananas and ferment with EC-1118 yeast. Trust me if you bake this wine in a hot attic after it stops fermenting with medium toast American oak you can get a spectacular wine that can age for 10 years plus that can develop a gorgeous creamy, caramel and nut flavour and smell. If I had Italian prune plums which I don't I would absolutely make this recipe. I've done it in the past and always got something really good from it.
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GreatNorthernLlama
Member
I think you commented on one of my first posts here with this recipe for a sherry. The left over plums I have are absolutely going to use on this. What did you bottle in? I've got tons of wine bottles but thinking something strong like this might be better bottles in smaller quantities?
Update tonight. Added another 6.3 lbs plums for a total of 31.3 lbs. Added a few liters of water and saw no difference in my SG (1.104). After this reading is when I added my plums and a bag of 35g oak chips for tannin. Next reading was 1.06! Took it twice and made sure to mix to confirm. No idea what's going on and I'm quickly running out of headroom (estimate 7 gallons in this 6.5 gal primary). Pitched 7 Camden tablets and starting yeast starter now. I'm going to take sg readings tomorrow and VERY slowly and carefully add another homemade syrup to get to the SG I want. I didn't think the SG needle would move so fast. I'll let the plums leech more of their sugars before I overreact. If the needle really did move so quickly and easily I should be able to get it back into range theoretically with very little added fluid.
Would anyone recommend adding more wine tannin in addition to the oak chips used here?
