Plum gone wild (spontaneous Fermentation)

[csmithbass]

So, I am living in OR, and blackberry season is approaching. I was working on making a berry/fruit press for fun (see attached photo). It went well, and only required a few minor alterations during my initial pressing. If anyone is interested in my process on building this simple press, I'll post a thread with more info.

Now onto the main reason I am starting this thread:
I picked almost 30lbs of fresh, ripe, sweet, delicious plums from a tree at my g-parents church. They are delicious, so I decided to press them now that i built this above mentioned press. (as opposed to boiling water over halved plums, such as is mentioned in recipes I have read: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques12.asp ) Now I have done a few wines from concentrates, from frozen fruit, and a few meads (currently have my 'Super Mead' going in the basement) , but have never experienced a wild fermentation. I have always done crushed campden tablet per gallon. However I realized saturday night (after crushing) that I did not have enough campden tablets for my desired volume. *uh-oh* I added what I had (4.5 gallons worth), airlocked my primary, forgot to check yesterday, but this morning it is foaming and fermenting. heh

I have read up on some information I could find considering wild fermentation (this thread gave me alot of info: http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f45/strawberry-wild-yeast-37627/ ). I was initially going to try and halt my wild fermentation, and start a new controlled fermentation in a day or two... yet now I'm thinking I will let it start the fermentation, and add the Lalvin Labs yeasts once I reach about 3% alc/vol.

My ingredients:
~29 lbs plums (miniature variety, not much larger than a large cherry)
~12 c. sugar
water filled to 23 L (i know this is more volume/plum-weight than most recipes)
[initial gravity = 1.070]

I will keep people posted as things go, and please feel free to leave me any comments and/or suggestions of how to keep from losing this batch to wild yeast strains....I don't need 23L of Plum Vinegar!!!

I plan on adding Yeast Nutrients today, as well as Energizer when I add the Lalvin Labs yeast later.

To be continued...

 

[csmithbass]

7/22
Initial Gravity: 1.070
Today's Gravity: 1.066
Probably 2nd day of Wild Fermentation

added Yeast Nutrient

 

[jswordy]

Is that a homemade press? Cool!

Please add that pic and some build details to the "Quirky and quickie fruit presses" thread here:

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f5/quirky-quickie-fruit-presses-39430/

Thanks!

On your wine, you might consider adding some more sugar to the mix, as 1.070 may be too low a SSG to reach the 10% alcohol threshold for preservation when the ferment is finished. Usually 1.080 is considered a minimum starting point.

I think adding yeast to an established wild fermentation probably will not gain you much, as the stronger lab yeast will overcome the weaker ones. In fact, it may cause off-tastes. I'd probably focus on making sure there is enough sugar in the mix and providing a good environment for the wild yeast to do their thing.

 

[Arne]

Like Jim says above, I believe I would just let it ferment out. Maybe bump the s.g. a bit, but if you are going to drink it shortly you should be ok with it where it is. It will probably be a bit weak on the alcohol for long term storage. Good luck with it, Arne.

 

[salcoco]

some yeasts are considered killer yeasts, that is they will overcome the wild yeast in the fermentation. I would continue with idea of adding a commercial yeast to insure fermentation goes to completion. adding sugar and yeast nutrient are also good ideas. wild yeast may get stressed providing the wonderful off odor of rotten eggs.

 

[csmithbass]

Alright, well updates and concerns, here we go:

7/24
Initial Gravity: 1.070
Today's Gravity: 1.032
which brings me to Concern #1:
When attempting to get an accurate reading of my initial gravity, the pulp/slurry for my wine was so thick, that I was doing my best to get an accurate reading. Now, however, it is at a much more liquidous consistency and my Hydrometer is behaving as I'm used to. Is it really possible for my gravity to have dropped so fast? Or did i just f*** up my initial reading? ha.

- and as for the 1.070 being low for an initial: I had not realized the 'magic number 10%' for storage, i was actually shooting for 9%. This being said, I also ran out of sugar. Getting more today to spike it.

Fermentation Status:
The primary is at a vivacious fermenting (air-lock bubbling every 1-2 seconds). As for a 'rotten-egg' smell, I am trying to keep a nose out for it but am not totally convinced I will be accurate in my aromatic detections. I have always felt the fermentation smell was a little off, but worth it, as I like wine...
Concern #2:
Would the oxygenized acetate (what I'm assuming causes the rotten-egg aroma) be an overpowering aroma? Or should I be concerened at it's first hint?
In other wines, I have thought i smelled something funny yet it dissipated as the wine was racked; this example is with cultured yeasts.

...my plumb bomb is gurgling away...

 

[chrisjw]

H2S (hydrogen sulfide) produces a rotten egg smell, sometimes due to stressed out yeast. If it is not too bad, aeration can help, otherwise, there is a copper cure.

Cudos on your fruit press.

 

[ShawnDTurner]

Way to go! Ambient fermentation.........I love it! If you have yeast nutrient I would add a touch perhaps 2- 4 grams to finish out. Understand it may take 3 - 4 weeks to finish and that is o.k. Ambient....generally takes longer to ferment. Rotten egg smell is common with Ambient fermentation, the yeasties are struggling a little bit. Add the Nutrient and the stir really well. If you still smell H2S, after 12 hours add couple more grams. If I am going for an ambient fermentation. I typically will add nutrient in the beginning and part way through. My fermentation complete with no issues. Keep us up to date. Cheers

 

[csmithbass]

Alright! Thanks so much for all the great input and advice regarding my wild plum. So here is the current state of affairs

7/25
Initial gravity: 1.070
Today's gravity: 1.007

I took the advice provided about spiking the potential alcohol with more sugar and adding some yeast nutrient again.
After adding the yeast nutrient, and making some sugar weight to gravity adjustments I decided to add about 5 c granulated sugar

After sugar, gravity: 1.026 (an addition of .019)

So... I believe that:
Adjusted initial gravity: 1.089
Today's gravity: 1.026

More good news: I have been stirring and tasting. So far I do not detect any off flavors or smells. My concern about the slight egg smell mentioned earlier seem to have been stirred out, as someone suggested it may (this update is from my mobile, so I can't check while typing)

Thanks again, and I'll keep posting

 

[jswordy]

Wow, been a few days since I checked in on this. Congratulations! Looking good for success. I guess you have racked it over to secondary in a carboy now and have it under airlock. Keep posting. I'll bet it works out great.

 

[csmithbass]

Well the plum wine has been doing great. Over the last month or more I've been just too busy to think about it, but now have found a lil time to come back.

Right now I'm looking at 4.5 gallons of good clear sediment free plum wine
It has been stable 0.989 spg for the last month, I have racked it recently off the lees and it's tasting pretty groovy. No off tastes or smells that I notice. It's a little on the tart side, as it is a lil dry and I had plenty of skins in primary. It's color is a pinkish yellow...light amber may be a better word for it, with red hues. Plum goodness

as for the abv...i feel these numbers may be a lil off, due to the pulp and slurry effect from my initial plum pressing. Anywho, init spg = 1.070 and after discussion i added sugars to try to spike it, would have brought to an init = 1.096, current spg = 0.989 thus abv of about 15.5%
The math seems to work out, but I am wondering if the density of my initial must may have altered my initial spg measurement. I'll find out next year i guess when i remember to press the plum into a strainerbag... instead of just putting the skins in one post press and pit removal.

fun times, I'll try and post more around bottling
-C