wild plums are ripe now

[wood1954]

i just picked 24 pounds of wild plums. they were just about falling offf the trees. I plan on pressing them whole, hope there aren't too many worms in them. The skins are very acidic,,almost like a lemon. So i think i will blend them with some Mount Royal plums. I'll freeze and press them seperately and throw away the pulp and skins from the wild ones, keep the mt royal ones for the color. I'm hoping to find 24 lbs of mt royal plums but the early spring hurt every orchard around. I'll post an update with an acid report next month, it seems everyone who makes wine from wild plums has an acid problem.

 

[oldwhiskers]

Sounds good, I remember eating wild plums growing up, I just wish there were some around here.

 

[Gowers Choice]

We did wild plums last week. Got 5 gal bubbling away. It actually bubbled/foamed through the tube.

 

[Poormanfarm]

Good luck with your plum wine. I did not think about plum until it was too late this year. Probably just as well, I am starting to run out of room and also equipment and my muscadine vinyard is loaded this year. I guess I am a little reluctant to try plum right now. This is my second year doing this and I have heard that plum was a challenge to get right. Maybe I need to wait a while.

 

[UBB]

Wild plums make excellent wine. We have approx 150 various plum trees planted around our orchard. Unfortunately the early thaw and subsequent frost prevented many plums from growing this season.

One thing I will say though is of all the wine I have made plum has taken the longest to naturally clear.

 

[wood1954]

Did you leave the skins and pulp in the fermentation bucket?

 

[UBB]

Did you leave the skins and pulp in the fermentation bucket?

Yes, I put them in paint straining bags during fermentation.

I thawed in a couple of fermenters. Mashed/squeezed to extract the juice then poured into the straining bag in another bucked. Very minimal water is added other then to invert my sugar and you wouldn't even need to do it that way.