Plum and blackberry wine

[Dkrmwiz]

The sand plum tree only gave me 9 lbs of fruit, so i used the 4.5 lbs of blackberries from the freezer we picked in summer and bought 7.5 lbs of red plums at the store. Going good so far, awesome color and the smell from the airlock is yummy! See pics.

 

[Scooter68]

How many gallons are you making? 3, 5, 6 ?

Reason for asking is to help determine if that's going to be a full bodied wine or one with little lighter flavor.

Also any other information about the batch/recipe you used would be of interest.

 

[Dkrmwiz]

5 gallons. it was like 20 lbs fruit, 16 lbs of sugar, 5 gallons of water split between the 2 buckets. each got a pkt of the yeast. i needed to be able to pick them up and slosh them around twice a day, which is why i split it between the 2 buckets. i rack next monday, 2 weeks after going in the carboy. then every month after that until it clears, then bottle. i think i ended up bottling in january last time, but it could have been february. i'll have to check.

 

[Scooter68]

Remember the time to rack should be based on the SG not visible activity. Hopefully you have a hydrometer. Choices vary but most folks seem to wait until the SG gets down to 1.010 or lower. That's the general rule of thumb I use - UNLESS I'm still seeing a lot of foaming activity. In that case I will wait until foaming has subsided and the wine appears to have fermented as far as it's going to go. (3 days without an AG change) As far as future racking - Nothing wrong with the 2 week and on month rackings but thereafter I would wait at least a couple of months between racking. Give the finer particles time to settle. With colder weather coming on (Depending on where you live. Chilling the wine down sometime in that first 2-6 weeks after fermentation ends, can also speed up the settling/clearing process - letting it get close to freezing for a couple of weeks then gradually bring it back to the temps in your aging location. Many ways to get there. Keep us posted on the progress.

 

[Dkrmwiz]

i've never used a hydrmeter, i kind of just "use the force" lol. i've had good luck so far with the last batch of sand plum wine 2 years ago and the persimmon from last year. the blackberries are going to add an interesting flavor i think. i'll keep this thread updated.

 

[Scooter68]

The hydrometer is pretty important to keep track of where your wine starts as far as 'potential alcohol' as well as finding out when the fermentation is over.

Reading them isn't too hard since you aren't trying to thread a needle with exacting starting points.

Look on the top of this forum section for Beginniners Wine Making and the top thread is all about how to read a hydrometer. That will should give you all the guidance to do the job.

Hydrometers are not expensive but they can be broken easily so getting two is really a good idea if you plan on making much wine. Some folks even place the hydrometer in the fermentation bucket to take measurements, and that's fine as long as the bucket is deep enough and there isn't any fermentation bag or large amounts of fruit pulp to inhibit the hydrometers free floating action.

 

[Dkrmwiz]

Here's the color with today's racking. Last racking in December (I missed January) I added sugar to the carboy. Flavor really good. I'll bottle next month.

 

[Dkrmwiz]

All bottled, I'll let it sit until September and give it a try. Tastes good at bottling. 24 bottles.