1st 2 batches 1 kit one home canned wild plum

[Ivywoods]

 

[Ivywoods]

I've been planning to start this project for several months. In the meantime I've been gathering equipment and as much information as my brain can hold at one time. This first batch is a 6 gallon kit of gewürztraminer. I started it last night and soon realized there was more to learn. First off I made a thick, mud clay of my bentonite. My solution was to stir and stir and stir.... It cleared amazingly fast in spite of my rookie mistake. Notice in the picture there are some smudges of bentonite mud near the bottom of the carboy. The next mistake was to add the sodium metabisulfite from the kit INSTEAD of the yeast! My remedy for that is that I will wait till tonight to add the yeast. I have some extra of the sulfite I ordered that I can add later, hopefully at the proper time this time.

The second batch is a 2 gallon batch of wild plums from juice my sisters and I canned a while back. It is so cloudy! To this I have added 2 tablespoons of pectic enzyme and will wait to see if I can get it cleared. I am wondering if I should add a campden tablet to it during this time when I am waiting to add the yeast and how long I should wait after the pectic enzyme before I consider adding the yeast.

 

[Rembee]

For the 2 gals of plum, generally you would add 2 camden tablets first, one per gallon, then wait 12 to 24 hours. Then add your pectic enzyme and wait another 12 hours, then pitch the yeast.

 

[Ivywoods]

Rembee is it okay to go ahead and add the campden after I've added the pectic enzyme?

 

[Rembee]

I would wait 12 hours after adding the pectic enzyme then add the camden tablets.
According to jack keller, the action of pectic enzymes is reduced by high levels of sulphur dioxide. The gases dissipate after the addition of the campden tablets, which is the reason for recommending to wait 12 hours before adding the enzymes. (Whether the enzymes are actually denatured by the sulphur dioxide is somewhat unclear.)

 

[Ivywoods]

Good to know. I will wait till tomorrow to add the campden. I will be adding the yeast to my gewürztraminer later tonight. I'm pretty excited to finally be getting started on this!

I know this plum juice is going to be hard to get clear and will take some time. I wonder if I can repeat a dose of the pectic enzyme after this dose has had some time to work.

 

[Rembee]

After adding the pectic enzyme tomorrow, wait 12 hours then pitch the yeast and let it ferment. In about a month, you will have plenty of settlement to rack off of. I wouldn't add a 2nd does of pectic. Not that it will hurt anything, I just don't think you will see that much of a difference. After the 1st racking, and it has time to stabilize, you can then just let it sit and clear on it's own or you can add some sort of fining agent. It will clear more after fermentation is completed as it naturally de-gases. As C02 comes out of suspension, the fines settle out more.

 

[Ivywoods]

I had already added the pectic enzyme today. I think I will add the campden tomorrow, then wait a day and then add the yeast. Maybe I don't need the campden since this juice had been canned in a boiling water bath. I just don't know. I'd hate to let it go bad.

 

[Rembee]

In that case, no, you don't need the camden. Your plum juice has been pasteurized by the canning process.

 

[Ivywoods]

Great! Thank you very much. I will try to update this thread as I go along. I just did the temperature of my wine. It is frigid cold outside right now but my kit wine is 74 degrees and the wild plum is 76.

 

[Ivywoods]

I just added the yeast to the plum wine. It doesn't look like the kit wine is doing anything. I'm hoping I didn't kill the yeast by having the sodium metabisulfate in there 26 hours earlier. I'll give it more time, but if nothing happens should I just add another batch of yeast? If so, when?

 

[Ivywoods]

I also just realized the bung I have won't fit the 3 gallon carboy the plum wine is in. I taped a latex glove to the top and that is going to have to do until I get something ordered!

 

[Ivywoods]

Well not exactly a rookie mistake but just negligence. It was not sodium metabisulfite I accidently added but potassium metabisulphite/potassium sorbate! I'm afraid this batch may be ruined and I am sick about it. I simply grabbed the wrong package as I went to add yeast to the kit wine. I don't know if there is any way to salvage it.

 

[Arne]

Well, got another pkg. of yeast? Try a cupful of your must, add the yeast. Let it sit, keep it at 75 degrees orso. If it starts fermenting, add another cupful. Keeps fermenting, add some more. This might take a couple to a few days. Keep adding til you get a quart to a gallon, then pitch into your wine batch. Might stir and keep stirring occasionally while you are waiting for the starter to take off. Bet you can save it. Arne.

 

[Ivywoods]

While I'm waiting to get more juice to hopefully salvage my kit wine, my wild plum wine is starting to take off. It's bubbling faster than when I took the video. SG is 1.096. I may have overshot my point of aim a little with the sugar. The pH is 3.41 without anything to adjust it. I'm a bit mesmerized by watching this thing bubble.

 

[Ivywoods]

The video won't post but its bubbling once every 2.5 seconds.