Plum Wine - First try

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koko65

Onno
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Oct 3, 2009
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Hello All.
I am new to wine making and have yet to bottle my first kit. The kits seem straight forward enough and I have been in the food industry since '79 so I have a good idea about cleanliness and recipes.
I reviewed about 20lbs of plums from a neighbour and decided to try a plum wine. I found a recipe I liked over the web and had at it. I scaled the recipe to make 12 L of wine. When I added everything into the primary I goofed and added all 12L of water instead of up to the 12L mark. This ended up filling the primary near the 23L mark. I added all the plums I had to compensate for the excess water and increased the sugar till a SG. of 1085 was reached. I tasted the mix it does taste like good juice, though sweet.
My question is that I also doubled the yeast to two packets. Will this affect the final wine or just speed up the fermentation process? Will in need to increase the sulfites to stabilize the wine?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Onno
 
Adding the second packet of yeast will not harm your wine at all as it will all fall out. The bigger the batch the more sulfites and sorbate will be needed. Is it done fermenting? Whats the sg now? Do not add any of the sulfites or sorbate until the wine is done fermenting.
 
My question is that I also doubled the yeast to two packets. Will this affect the final wine or just speed up the fermentation process?

No it will not.
Yeast is a living organism and will multiply under good conditions
just like any organism.
So when you put 1 sachet of yeast in after an hour it will have doubled, after tw0 hours quadrupled etc etc etc .
There is off course a limit to the amount of yeast that can line in a cl juice but that is several millions.

So when adding 2 sachets you did the same as adding 1 sachet and waiting about an hour. It just speeds up the multiplication process a tiny bit.

For the Campden tablets look at the packaging. Mostly it is 1 tablet per gallon, however this might vary.

Depending on the kind of plums I would not let them pulp-ferment for too long. I do mine no longer as 2 days.

And maybe this is a thought: plums take oak well.
http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2009/08/pruimentijd-2009-plums-again.html

Luc
 
Thanks for the responses.
The sg right now is at 1060 approximatley. It's hard to fill up a wine thief when there is all the pupl in the way. I think I mashed it too fine. I only put in the yeast on Saturday, but it is fermenting well. Thanks Luc for the suggestion about removing the pulp, I'll do that tomorrow. Then I can see how much juice I really have.

Nice to see a fellow Dutchman around.

Thanks again

Onno
 
Hello again.

I have removed the pulp through a mesh bag and now it all fits into one primary. I have taken the SG again and it is at 1055. The juice is a soft almost peachy colour and is still fermenting well. so far the progress is;

  • Friday - mixed fruit, water,sugar, acid blend, pectic enzyme, grape tannin, and nutrient. SG @ 1085
  • Saturday - Added yeast
  • Sunday - Checked SG 1060
  • Monday - Removed pulp and transferred to larger primary. SG @ 1055

Now I just need to wait to transfer to a secondary. At what SG should do this, 1020 or so?

Thanks again and dank u zeer

Onno
 
Onno,

Sorry I did not make myself clear.
You could already have transferred to secondary, when removing the pulp.

You can do it now. No need to wait till SG drops
further.

Alsjeblieft, you're welcome :h

Luc
 

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