Plum wine

[BeeWine]

I have had issues in past years with my plum wines lacking flavor
due in part to the high malic acid content,

Has anyone tried melo-lactic fermentation to tone down the malic acid some.

John

 

[Turock]

Lack of flavor is not due to acid, altho high acid can seem to over-power the flavor. The first thing you should consider is to use more fruit. When we make plum, we always consider 10# per gallon. Second, we use no water in this wine because plum is kind of a delicate flavor. Freeze the plums first--cut them in half and remove the stone before freezing. The freezing process extracts a lot of juice.

Third, you need to be able to take an accurate PH reading of the must. A fruit wine maker needs a PH meter. We set the PH on plum to 3.3 to 3.4

Forth, if you use a malic metabolizing culture like 71B, you won't need to consider MLF(malo-lactic fermentation.) We've never MLF'd plum and probably wouln't consider it because it might not taste like plum anymore. 71B is a great culture for malic fruits that deliver harshness. The only malic fruit we don't use 71B on is peach.

Scott Labs recommends that you rehydrate 71B with Go-Ferm or Go-Ferm Protect because this culture is sensitive to dominant wild flora and competitive factors.

 

[BeeWine]

Thanks Turock

I am using 71B and my PH was 3.4. I am a little light in the fruit department though. I will add more fruit next time around.

Also I do not use Go-Ferm but will give it a shot some time. I have always made a yeast starter with water,a small amount of the must, some yeast nutrient and yeast energizer. I let this ferment for 12 hours and then pitch.

John

 

[Turock]

OK--then you have done all you can do to control the acid and that should be very successful. Our plum has alot of flavor and we backsweeten enough to balance the remaining acid.

 

[BeeWine]

Thanks for your advise Turock. It will come in handy for future batches.

John

 

[Turock]

Don't forget to divide your nutrient dose into 3 batches--you should pitch nutrient thruout any fermentation in order to prevent the yeast from being stressed and producing excessive amounts of H2S. First dose, at beginning, 2nd dose on about 2 days, last dose on 4th day. This also prevents stuck ferments.

 

[Stressbaby]

Turock or others,
I have 3 2 gallon bags of wild plums, frozen. The pits were not removed. These are smaller than store-bought plums, roughly olive sized.
What is the best way to get the juice from this fruit?

 

[drumlinridgewinery]

I just did 6 ice cream pails into 3 gal. batch looking for lots of flavor. This is what I did. I pitted then froze and thawed. When thawed I put the potato masher to it added pectic enzyme waited 2 days and put in the nutrient and the energizer. Had to add about 1 qt of water to get it to 3 gal. Also added sugar to get S.G. up to 1.085. It was just below 1.080 before sugar using 71b-1122. Acid is at 3.4. Its been rolling for 2 days added more nutrient tonite. I have never made this before but couldnt resist all the plums in the road ditch that I drive by everyday. Smells great right next to the 5 gal of pear thats going also,

 

[ckvchestnut]

Hi everyone! Another serious newbie here! Just wondering about the yeast nutrient. I didn't divide mine into 3 doses, is it possible to still put more in a few days or is it not necessary? I'll be doing elderberry blush in a week with 71B when my red is done fermenting with EC-1118. Wondering if the 1118 left over in the fruit will just take over the fermenting or can both strains work together? Thanks! Carolyn

 

[Stressbaby]

drumlinridgewinery,
"drumline...?" If so, where and when? We have a family full of drummers, one with 4 years at Purdue.
Anyway, my question to you is do you now have 3 gal of juice? Or 3 gal of juice/pulp/seeds?
If it is the latter, how much wine to you expect?

 

[Turock]

Carolyn--The 1118 will take right over so no need for another culture. Just be sure to give the ferment 3 divided doses of yeast nutrient thruout the ferment. You MIGHT get away with only pitching nutrient one time. But in the future, always divide your doses. You will never have a stuck ferment from lack of nutrient or have H2S issues doing it this way.

Stressbaby---Why not just ferment the whole plum? Not necessary to juice. You lose something when you don't include the pulp. These are so small too--you won't have much juice to make wine with!

 

[Stressbaby]

So the process is freeze > thaw > mash them up > adjust sugar and pH and pitch the yeast?
Then just strain the pulp when I move to secondary?

 

[ckvchestnut]

Thanks Turock! And sorry for hijacking the thread didn't mean that! Just so much important info in so many threads!

 

[drumlinridgewinery]

drumlinridgewinery,
"drumline...?" If so, where and when? We have a family full of drummers, one with 4 years at Purdue.
Anyway, my question to you is do you now have 3 gal of juice? Or 3 gal of juice/pulp/seeds?
If it is the latter, how much wine to you expect?

I have the pulp in a mesh bag and if I pull the bag out I have right at 3 gal of juice left in the bucket. Pretty happy with it.


And sorry no drummers in the family. I live on the ridge of a glacial drumlin just outside of Madison WI. GO BADGERS!

 

[jamesngalveston]

even when i juice i use the pulp, not sure if it is recomended, but i do it.
i think that all pulp is , is flavor....juice is great, and i use as much as i can, i hate adding water...but i let the pump, skins,etc, sit in the must for a few days...just my way....not advising.....

 

[Turock]

Stressbaby---Yes, once they thaw some, you can squeeze them with your hands to mash them if you want. Get some pectic enzyme on them while they thaw, along with a dose of meta.

You can always bag fruit too--then you don't have a messy cap to deal with. I think that bagging fruit gives you a cleaner result and less debris over in the secondary. Adjust PH, brix, then add the culture.

James---I agree with you. I think that's good advise. We leave the pulp in thru the entire ferment. When we remove the bags, all the pulp is gone and into the wine. All we have left is a bag of skins/seeds.