Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Eating and Drinking => Homebrew => Topic started by: yamandmole on August 17, 2010, 22:53
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Anyone got a good recipe for Wild Plum wine? Have just discovered a source of these whilst on holiday, and would like to convert them to something useful!
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Think Grannie Annie is making some at the moment so hopefully she will be along soon to let you know her recipe :)
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Aha! Something else to use my little plum glut for!
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All I did was dissolve 2lb of sugar in 6 pints of boiling water, cut up the plums discarding the stones, put the plums in the water too with a teaspoon of cream of tartar to act as the tartaric acid my recipe called for, when it had cooled to lukewarm, in added a teaspoon of yeast and a teaspoon of yeast nutrient. Oh and I mashed the plums up a bit with my potato masher too!
Stirred it all up and am now waiting for 4-5 days for the yeast to start before seiving into my demijohn.
I'm afraid I do my own thing quite a lot, I don't rigidly follow recipes, after all, it's only me has to drink the stuff! :lol: :lol:
I've now got a gallon of carrot on the bubble, 2 gallons of blackcurrant and apple, 1 gallon of apple juice and a gallon of orange juice!! That'll do me for Christmas!!!
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Hi GrannyAnnie
Many thanks for your recipe. We'll give it a try, since the more we travel around on our holiday, the more of these plums we are coming across. Your brews will guarantee you a happy Christmas! We currently have 7 gallons of rhubarb on the go, are about to start another 5 of blackcurrant, plus of course, the plum. We are also eying up the local hawthorn berries, but are a bit wary of these......... Have you had any experience of them?
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Hi GrannyAnnie
Going to try your recipe this weekend - only thing is what sort of weight of fruit (after stoning) would you typically look to use for your 6pt water, 2lb sugar jollop? I've made all the usual fruit wines afore but this is the first year I have had enough of my soor little plums to even consider doing very much with 'em and I haven't tried any stone fruit in the past.
thanks
HBG
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I know this is an old thread ... but I've made some of this wine and it smells absolutely gorgeous :D
just a quick question, because I used 6 pints my 5 litre demijohn is not quite full and has a biggish gap at the top ... is it OK to leave it like that or should I top up with water or something?
thanks
xx
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Tried a couple of bottles of the stuff I made last year from Grannie Annie's recipe and it is super stuff. Slightly petillant on opening which was a surprise and with a subtle hint of sourness. Very refreshing on a hot day (ha!) but sneaky - didn't take a huge amount for me to feel the effect which came as a bit of a startler. Luckily wasn't planning on driving anywhere at the time.
However the way my cherry plum jam went down last year I just used the entire crop (which was smaller than last year's in any case) in several batches of varied jillies which so far appear to be as popular as last year.
As to topping up demijohn's I tend to leave quite a gap for the first week or so then subsequently top up to just below the neck with boiled water mostly with sugar dissolved in it, depending on whether I can be bothered......
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OK thanks for that, I was worried it would send it bad or something ::) but I think I'll leave it for now and see how it goes.
thanks
x
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Glad to see that you have all had a go at this one! As an update to our original post, we have started to drink the fruits of our labours; slides down like silk, and has your legs from under you by the second glass - Lovely! We have since found a source of Mirabelles (small greengages) which make a similarly good wine.
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Hello
It's only been a week but my plum wine has stopped fermenting already, it's totally changed colour from a quite bright orange/peach to a rich red/pinky colour ....you think its finished?? Its definitely stopped glugging
Do I have to add a crushed campden tablet before bottling??
Do i need to add potassium sorbate as well??
??? ???
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Hello
It's only been a week but my plum wine has stopped fermenting already, it's totally changed colour from a quite bright orange/peach to a rich red/pinky colour ....you think its finished?? Its definitely stopped glugging
Do I have to add a crushed campden tablet before bottling??
Do i need to add potassium sorbate as well??
??? ???
do you have a hydrometer? if so whats the reading if not taste some if it tastes dry then all the suger has been fermented if not then either the alchol toilerance of the yeast has been reached (may or may not be the case depending on what type of yeast was used)
or the ferment has stalled this could be down to the temp of the wine (too hot will kill the yeast and too cold will slow it right down) or you might not of airated it enough to start with try shakeing it up a bit
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Hi thanks for the reply
I cannot find my hydrometer, my OH has took down to the garage to use and now I can't find it :( I'm guessing he been doing something car relates and oily with it so I will have to buy another.
I've had a taste though and it is nice and dry and smells lovely.
The temperature round here has dropped over the last day or so, but the plum wine was in the cupboard with the others that are still slowly glugging.
And for good measure I've given it a good shake.
I'll see what happens :)
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ok sounds like its fermented out all its sugar had a quick look at my hydrometer conversion tabels and if you used 1lb of plums then you have an alchol content of arround 13% which isnt bad :D of course this depends on how sweet the plums used were
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OK thanks ...
I used about 2.5lb of plums, and everything else was the same as GrannieAnnies recipe, I just used all the plums I had and hoped for the best.
You think it's done then? It seems a bit quick.
Should I do the usual ... put it in a cool place to settle and then add a campden tablet before bottling?? or you reckon it's best off left in it's warm place in case it decides it hasn't finished after all??
Can't you tell I'm new to this, anything out of the ordinary makes me dither :wub:
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leave it where it is for a week or 2 it may decide that its stalled and wants to restart if in 2 weeks it has started to clear then move it to a cool place to settle for a month or sodifferent people have differnt views on camden tabs i wait untill racking off the first lot of sediment and put a crushed camden tab into the vessel im racking into before i start
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hi
a few days later and it's still just sat there, it's a lovely colour but no bubbling whatsoever :( but ... I've just been in there and stir something else that I have fermention in a bucket and it suddenly dawned on that I had fermented the plums in the same bucket but for some reason had made the lid air tight ::) could this be the reason? would this have killed the yeast?
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All I did was dissolve 2lb of sugar in 6 pints of boiling water, cut up the plums discarding the stones, put the plums in the water too with a teaspoon of cream of tartar to act as the tartaric acid my recipe called for, when it had cooled to lukewarm, in added a teaspoon of yeast and a teaspoon of yeast nutrient. Oh and I mashed the plums up a bit with my potato masher too!
Stirred it all up and am now waiting for 4-5 days for the yeast to start before seiving into my demijohn.
I'm afraid I do my own thing quite a lot, I don't rigidly follow recipes, after all, it's only me has to drink the stuff! :lol: :lol:
I've now got a gallon of carrot on the bubble, 2 gallons of blackcurrant and apple, 1 gallon of apple juice and a gallon of orange juice!! That'll do me for Christmas!!!
You're obviously a thirsty lady Anne so what about boxing day ;)
HF
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hi
a few days later and it's still just sat there, it's a lovely colour but no bubbling whatsoever :( but ... I've just been in there and stir something else that I have fermention in a bucket and it suddenly dawned on that I had fermented the plums in the same bucket but for some reason had made the lid air tight ::) could this be the reason? would this have killed the yeast?
not too sure i wouldnt think so the co2 would of pushed the lid off have you got a demijohn to rack it into? if so i would do this youve said that it was quite dry to taste so i would assume that it has fermented out
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Thank you for being so patient Mike :) I've put it into a nice clean demi-john, so I guess I will just sit back and see what occurs.
x
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im not that paitent lol most of my homebrew gets drank well before the year or 2 i would like it to mature lol
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Plum Wine
4lb Plums
1.5kg sugar
1 tsp citric acid
1 tsp pectolase
Yeast nutrient
Red wine yeast
wine Tannin, 1tsp or as directed on packet
These fruits don't have much flavour but don't boil or soak them too long or they can release too much pectin and the wine will be cloudy. Pour 2 pints boiling water over the fruit and leave overnight. Next day add 4 pints cold water, and everything else.
Leave 24 hours and strain off. Do not squeeze too much!
Pour into a demijohn add another 1/2 teaspoon of pectolase
Leave until it stops frothing (about 2 days) and fill up with cold water to the shoulder of the demi john.
Ferment out as normal, when it stops fermenting (bubbles stop) siphon off into a clean demi-john and add a campden tablet and a potassium sorbate tablet.
Leave about a month if it doesn't clear, add finings and another campden.
Mind didn’t clear as much as I like so I siphoned it into a bucket, added finings and bentonite, after 4 days it was like a ultra clear deep rosé after returning it to a demi john for another couple of weeks I then bottled it (5 bottles and a half 70cl bottles)
In total it took three months from getting the plums to having a drinkable wine.
I got this recipe from the internet, (it said add grape concentrate but I didn’t.)
So far I’ve only had positive results, the wine itself tastes like a strong port, and it’s almost like liquor in look, not at all thin and watery. Quite sweet without tasting like a desert wine.