Wild Persimmon Wine

[RandyB561]

5 pounds of wild Persimmons that I literally fought Black Bears and yellow jackets for. 5 days ferment on D47 yeast. Punching the Kreuosen down twice daily. As soon as the Kreuosen falls, I'll strain it all through fine cloth and ferment out. Yummy smelling and tasting already!

 

[Stressbaby]

Good luck! I've made persimmon wine no less than a dozen different ways and it failed every time. Could write a book on persimmon wind failures. Nasty dirty sock/gym bag aroma. Hope it works out for you.

 

[RandyB561]

Thanks, I'm not getting any of that with D47. It's a very clean, aggressive yeast.

 

[Stressbaby]

Thanks, I'm not getting any of that with D47. It's a very clean, aggressive yeast.

It's not the yeast. Have used Red Star Champagne, D47, K1-V1116, EC-1118; standard nutrient, Fermaid K/GoFerm, up front and step fed, anywhere from 2#/gal to over 5#/gal, various additives, always the same problem.

I get a couple hundred pounds of persimmons each year from a huge tree right in my front yard. Used to collect 50-100# per year before getting tired and letting the deer have the rest. If you figure it out, I'd like to know your secret.

 

[RandyB561]

The only thoughts I have are, Do you remove All the caps and All the seeds? I Always do. I also always introduce 3 - 10 oz jars of Smuckers "Simply Fruit" Apricot jam to the secondary instead of sugar. I first put the jam in a microwave safe bowl and nuke it one minute. Then I stir it up real good and nuke it again one minute. I then add this syrupy mix to the secondary and then rak the persimmon squeezings on top. stir it up and sit back and watch the Party start. I think the refined sugars may be freaking your yeast out after their peaceful time with the wild Persimmon fruit. You did ask for my thoughts.

 

[Stressbaby]

I always removed the caps. Rarely did I remove the seeds; I might have tried it from pulp once, I'd have to go back and look through notes.

Seems unlikely to be the sugar however, as it was always the same granulated sugar used in any other wine and no other wine had the issue.

Keep us posted on your batch, thanks!

 

[Cxwgfamily]

I started my first persimmon wine batch about 2 weeks ago. I cut out the core and tried to get all the seeds out. the persimmons were very ripe almost mush. I took a spoon to dig out the "meat" and threw away the skins. (I would love to hear others opinion of skin removed verses letting it go through the primary?) Fermentation went off without any problems, like RandyB561 said "fermentation was a party." I racked on about day 9. the solids were not settling very well so I degassed a little and the solids are settling nicely. I tasted the batch after about a week in the secondary and< WOW!!!!, this is the beat wine i have made at the three day in the secondary. I will rack it off the solids in about another week and them bulk age for a while. Quick note, I did not use wild persimmons. A friend has a Japanese persimmon tree and he gave me about forty pounds. I am going to make another batch when I open up some carboy space.
Cxwgfamily

 

[RadRob]

I'm glad to hear it's good without seeds and skins. I have a small batch on day 4 now. I'm using the same homegrown persimmons that were like a smoothie and sweet.

 

[Dkrmwiz]

i'm using the mesh bags this time, last time i didn't and had a heck of a time siphoning that mess into the carboy. i did just one gallon last year, not a lot of wild persimmons. this year, tons! last years was fine, just not the whole flavor i was hoping for. it's a pretty lemonade color. tastes ok by itself, not awesome. i used it as a mixer with sprite. i still have 3/4 of the gallon left, bottled in 1/4 gallons separately, that i'm going to let age up a bit before trying again. i'll be watching this thread to see how Randy's batch turns out.

 

[Scooter68]

Adding any jam, jelly or preserves to a wine batch you are asking for problems - Pectic Enzyme is used to break down natural pectinn which is a natually occurring substance and an additive to jams, jellies to thicken them. Pectin keeps fine particles suspended in your wine must preventing it from clearing - referred to as a Pectic Haze, it's a real bugger to deal with.

Think long and hard before adding any commercial or even homemade jams,jellies or preserves to a wine unless you are fine with drinking hazy cloudy wine or doing a lot of extra work.

 

[RadRob]

Randy, I hope you don't mind me tagging along. I'm not trying to hijack your thread but I didn't want to start another persimmon thread when this one is active. If you do mind I'll move it.

Hey guys, can I get some help/comments on this.

I'm a noobie and this is the first wine I'm making from fresh fruit. First mistake I made was not getting a hydrometer before I started, that's been taken care of but I don't have a starting SG.

I followed a recipe similar to Jack Kellers except it called for all the sugar in the first steps. https://winemaking.jackkeller.net/persimmo.asp

Today is day seven and the SG is 1.030 so I racked/strained into a gallon jug. It taste good but a little weak on the alcohol compared to some juice wines I have going. The flavor is different than I thought it would be but good. The color is nothing like I expected, it seems light to me.

So am I on the right path and is this normal?

Here's a pic from a few days ago

And today, Thanks for the help. Rob

 

[Stressbaby]

@RadRob, are those Japanese persimmons?

 

[RadRob]

Yes, Hachiya with no seeds in these and I scraped the pulp out of the skins. I had plenty and used only the ripest fruits and the best parts of the persimmon. They were so ripe it was like a balloon ready to burst. I'm surprised the pulp didn't change color. About 90% of it did settle to the bottom.

I just picked the rest on the tree because a freeze if "supposed" to be here next week. I'll freeze them when they ripen and make a bigger batch.

 

[Dkrmwiz]

radrob, that's the color of wine i got with the wild ones from up on our hill. looks like lemonade. i'll post a pic when i can.

 

[Cxwgfamily]

RadRob
Your batch looks exactly like mine. Your pics could be my batch. However, I rack out of the primary at 1.01 and allowed the solids to stay with the batch for about 10 days. Then I separated them via filtering. Batch is clearing now via gravity. I anticipate I will have to clear with additives. Although I have not decide what type of clearing agent I am going to use yet. Best of luck!!

 

[Dkrmwiz]

Pic of wine. Don't judge the bottle, it was all i had at the time i needed to get it out of the 1 gallon carboy. I have 3 of these bottles.

 

[RadRob]

Thanks, I'm glad it's working as planned.

I found an old thread and picked up some good info on additions to make the wine better and using isinglass to clear it. Here's the thread/post. https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/persimmon-wine-variations.33510/page-3#post-430709

 

[Stressbaby]

Thanks, I'm glad it's working as planned.

I found an old thread and picked up some good info on additions to make the wine better and using isinglass to clear it. Here's the thread/post. https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/persimmon-wine-variations.33510/page-3#post-430709

Yeah that's my post and my thread.

 

[RadRob]

Good news, it's clearing well, Bad News is I played with it again.

Did I screw up? After reading the thread I posted I added 6oz of honey in the secondary and stirred it up. It's still fermenting from the yeast floating all around and it's still bubbling the air lock, SG is 1.020 and it's been 7 days since I added the honey. It tastes hot but has good flavor. Will this ferment down to 1.000? Is it normal to see this after back sweetening without using something to kill the yeast?

Here's a few pics from today.

 

[sour_grapes]

Yes, it is normal to see fermentation start up if you backsweeten without adding potassium sorbate and k-meta.

Will it ferment down to 1.000? Who knows. What was the original SG, the SG before you added the honey, and the SG after you added the honey? What yeast did you use?