Wild Plum Ideas

[Yeasty Boy]

I picked a big 5 gallon bucket full of wild plums at the end of the season and need to get a batch of wine going with them. Any good recipe's or advice on what do do with them.
I soaked them in water and changed the water a couple times, stemmed and froze them in zip locks. I did not pit them.
I heard it takes about 3 years for these to taste good after bottled so I better get to fermenting.

Thank you!

 

[salcoco]

https://winemaking.jackkeller.net/index.asp try this site for recipes and other info

 

[Yeasty Boy]

I appreciate the link and found lots of recipes but have not spoken to anyone that has made it. I have only seen people make jelly out of these things. I did find a great place to harvest them... Huge patch.

 

[downdraft]

Plum wine from fresh plums makes a nice wine...HOWEVER...Plum wine is also the most cloudy and difficult to clear wine known to man...even if you age it for a few years and patience. It is mostly from its pectic content which is naturally higher in plums.

SUGGESTIONS:

Your recipe will call for Pectic-Enzyme...DOUBLE IT!

Also, from your supplier (EC KRAUS???)...I Ordered some Kitosol 40 which is a fining agent composed of both negative and positive packets that will mate with leas that have opposite polarities. I Ordered some and the wine almost started clearing before I had finished adding it...I now swear by it...my wine is "Crystal clear!

Plums have seeds/pits...I got rid of them during juicing..." pits will taint the taste of your plum wine (ruin it)" I was told...
Bottling in a clear glass bottle will show off your wine
Give your creation time...time to mature...I will crack mine after about 6 months...right now mine tastes OK, but is a "new wine"...and thus has an "attitude"!

 

[Scooter68]

Interesting comment about plum wine clearing. My current plum wine has been crystal clear since about 4 weeks after fermentation finished. It was not from fresh plums but rather from a can of Vintner's Harvest. It contained skins and pulp. I dosed it with PE approx 1 1/2 times normal. In reports of fruits containing high amounts of pectin plums are often not even listed. Traditionally apples are regarded as very high in pectin.

 

[Masbustelo]

I ferment mine on the 'pits'. They are basically as hard as wood and stable. Don't add any water, but you might need to top off early in the ferment with some kind of juice. I used beet juice last time.

 

[E Riehle]

We have several suckers from a non-producing "granddaddy" plum tree that finally started making their own plums this last season. Before the decision to start making wine was made I took a 5 quart harvest and prepped it for jam, which means I have around a half gallon of frozen, unsugared, pitted and cooked-down slurry. After the initial "success" of my first ferment (chokecherry), I'm really tempted to try this next. We expect a much larger harvest this next season...