Hi. This is my first post on the forum. I made wine a number of years ago; technically I guess it was mead because it was just fermented, diluted honey. This was before internet. I has some books and a hydrometer and that was about it. I diluted the honey to 24% sugar, threw in some yeast, did a primary ferment in a polyethylene trash can and then a secondary fermentation in a 5 gallon water bottle. It came out pretty good. I tried making wine with peaches and it came out terrible. I don't recall if I had any recipe to work from.
So now I am trying to make plum wine. I have a single plum tree and it produces a huge number of nice, purple, tasty plums. I get so many plums, I can't even give them all away so I decided to get back into wine making. I found some recipes online. So far I have picked three, 5 gallon buckets and its barely made a dent.
So am following this recipe
https://homebrewanswers.com/simple-easy-plum-wine-recipe/
I bought EC-1118 yeast and all the additives listed in the recipe. The recipe calls for 5 pounds of plums and 1.2kg of sugar per gallon of water. I made a total of using 25 pounds of plums and 5 gallons of water split between two pails. The initial SG was a little lower than I wanted (1.074) so I added some more sugar and brought the SG up to 1.094. I happen to own a pH meter and the must without any additives was about 3.45 and with the acid blend added, it came down to 3.22. When I look up what pH should be, I see a range of 3.0 to 3.5 so pH seems OK.
The instructions say to just sprinkle the yeast into the must so that's what I did. It's been 24 hours since I added the first packet (half packet into each of the two 5-gallon pails. This morning, I didn't see much activity so I added another half packet per pail so each pail now has one full packet. I am seeing some signs of mild fermentation but nothing like I got back when I made mead where there was a lot of foam and the fermentation was very obvious. I just don't know what to expect with EC-1118. Should the fermentation look more obvious? Does it just take more than 24 hours to get going?
I have seen some discussion about directly adding yeast vs rehydration. I understand the rehydration must be done exactly as direted on the package. I can certainly do that going forward but didn't so far. Maybe that is the problem?
This is also the first time I have used something to kill the wild yeasts. Rather than actual Campden tablets I bought powdered potassium meta-bisulphate. The papckage said to dose 1/4 teaspoon per 6 gallons. I am close to that in each pail between the plums and added water/sugar so that's how much I added per pail. I waited 24 hours before adding the yeast. Maybe that wasn't long enough? I read up on EC-1118 and it does claim to be low foaming but what I am seeing is almost no foaming at this point.
Is slow, subtle fermentation normal for EC-1118?
Should I have rehydrated the years?
Was my kMBS still active and killed the first packet of yeast?
Thanks for any insight.
So now I am trying to make plum wine. I have a single plum tree and it produces a huge number of nice, purple, tasty plums. I get so many plums, I can't even give them all away so I decided to get back into wine making. I found some recipes online. So far I have picked three, 5 gallon buckets and its barely made a dent.
So am following this recipe
https://homebrewanswers.com/simple-easy-plum-wine-recipe/
I bought EC-1118 yeast and all the additives listed in the recipe. The recipe calls for 5 pounds of plums and 1.2kg of sugar per gallon of water. I made a total of using 25 pounds of plums and 5 gallons of water split between two pails. The initial SG was a little lower than I wanted (1.074) so I added some more sugar and brought the SG up to 1.094. I happen to own a pH meter and the must without any additives was about 3.45 and with the acid blend added, it came down to 3.22. When I look up what pH should be, I see a range of 3.0 to 3.5 so pH seems OK.
The instructions say to just sprinkle the yeast into the must so that's what I did. It's been 24 hours since I added the first packet (half packet into each of the two 5-gallon pails. This morning, I didn't see much activity so I added another half packet per pail so each pail now has one full packet. I am seeing some signs of mild fermentation but nothing like I got back when I made mead where there was a lot of foam and the fermentation was very obvious. I just don't know what to expect with EC-1118. Should the fermentation look more obvious? Does it just take more than 24 hours to get going?
I have seen some discussion about directly adding yeast vs rehydration. I understand the rehydration must be done exactly as direted on the package. I can certainly do that going forward but didn't so far. Maybe that is the problem?
This is also the first time I have used something to kill the wild yeasts. Rather than actual Campden tablets I bought powdered potassium meta-bisulphate. The papckage said to dose 1/4 teaspoon per 6 gallons. I am close to that in each pail between the plums and added water/sugar so that's how much I added per pail. I waited 24 hours before adding the yeast. Maybe that wasn't long enough? I read up on EC-1118 and it does claim to be low foaming but what I am seeing is almost no foaming at this point.
Is slow, subtle fermentation normal for EC-1118?
Should I have rehydrated the years?
Was my kMBS still active and killed the first packet of yeast?
Thanks for any insight.
