5 stretched to 7?

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

WAC4504

Junior Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2016
Messages
56
Reaction score
14
Started a new patch of wine yesterday, plum this time, calls for 20 lbs. of plums for 5 gallons. I thought I had it made, I checked off all the ingredients as I put them in the bucket, then I moved it to the spare bathroom where I do the initial 7 day fermentation, and since the last 2 batches of wine lost about 1/2 gallon of head space when I transferred it to the secondary fermentation< I decided to top up early and added 1/2 gallon extra water. After doing so I realized I forgot 1 of the ingredients, the sugar. So now, my 20 lbs. of plums is supporting 7 gallons of wine. My idea is to add 1 gallon of juice to it when I transfer it to the secondary. does any one have a better idea? the SG is 1.1101, so there will be alc. I just don't know about flavor.
 
SG is fine if you want a strong wine. Plum is a good one for a High ABV but the flavor is the question. 4 lbs per gallon is OK with some fruits but not strong on flavor. Unfortunately now you have 7 gallons with just 20 lbs and that's the bigger issue than a high ABV.
 
grab 3 frozen plum juice in the frozen aile and dump it in, or blackberry, you can go several ways to increase when i'm told how much fruit to gallon i now double the fruit per pound to to the water, more fruit more fruity taste
just my 2 cents
DAWG
 
Thanks guys, I appreciate the advise. Since most of the plums were pluots/plumcots (apricot plum) I might try apricot. I used EC1118 yeast so hopefully it will ferment out and all I have to do flavor it. One of these days I'll get it right, but till then I'll just keep fixing-up my screw-ups. :ft
 
You might want to check your s.g. again. If you just added the plums and no sugar if you got over 1.100 they had to be mighty sweet plums. I am thinking the s.g. is probably closer to 1.010. If so, you are going to have to add some sugar to get the s.g. up some. Arne.
 
No the SG is correct. What happened is that I was in a hurry and not paying attention to what I was doing. After realizing what I did I scooped about 2 gallons of must off into a new bucket (that I had to go to Home Depot to get' cause my others were being used), and being in such a hurry, was not thinking clearly when I added the sugar syrup and it kept reading 10%. By the time I thought about stirring it, it was too late.
 
Back
Top