Too dry

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Old Philosopher

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I finally got another opinion on my 1st batch of plum wine. SWMBO says, "Too dry. Don't know if I can taste any plums, or not."
Sweetening it is no problem. Anyone have an idea on rejuvenating the plum flavor? I doubt seriously there is any plum syrup on the market. If I sweeten it with a simple syrup, is the flavor going to improve with age?
 
You can do one of two things or BOTH.
1 make a f-pac
2 backsweeten with simple syrup
Is it still in a carboy?
 
You can do one of two things or BOTH.
1 make a f-pac
2 backsweeten with simple syrup
Is it still in a carboy?
Yes, it's still in the 2nd fermenter. The SG stabilized 5-6 days ago. I'm not going to "fine" it, just add the minimum chemistry to permanently stabilize it, and bulk store it.
What I really need is advice on an f-pac for plum.
 
Here it is !....

F-PAC

How to make a F-PAC


Add 20-30% of what used in the primary in a large frying pan or pot. Simmer to extract all "flavor" and reduce the water from the fruit. Strain thru a kitchen strainer and add AFTER you rack and after the wine is DRY ( .990) You MUST have added k-meta and Sorbate before adding the f-pac. Once adding the f-pac you can add clearing agent. You will have to rack at least 2+ more times. Then
back sweeten to YOUR taste using simple syrup.

Tom

Home of the
MOON RIVER BREWERY
and
DELANCO VINEYARDS
 
Here it is !....

F-PAC

How to make a F-PAC


Add 20-30% of what used in the primary in a large frying pan or pot. Simmer to extract all "flavor" and reduce the water from the fruit. Strain thru a kitchen strainer and add AFTER you rack and after the wine is DRY ( .990) You MUST have added k-meta and Sorbate before adding the f-pac. Once adding the f-pac you can add clearing agent. You will have to rack at least 2+ more times. Then
back sweeten to YOUR taste using simple syrup.

Tom

Home of the
MOON RIVER BREWERY
and
DELANCO VINEYARDS
Thanks! I'll save this for future reference. The "primary" is long gone. All I have is what's in the secondary at .996 right now. Sounds like I missed the boat.
 
I think he means you should have that much extra in the beggining (reserve). Upper
 
OP .. that means if you used 30# of fruit for the primary then you will need an additional 6-9# for an f-pac. .996 is fine to add the f-pac now just make sure you have stabilized 1st.
 
Try a little sugar syrup (or sugar) in a glass of the wine. Sometimes a little sweetness can bring out the flavour. As if the driness (tartness) hides the fruit flavour.

Steve
 
If you cant find any decent plums in season right now I have used the PlumSmart juice sold at grocery stores befpore and it worked very good. I took 2 quarts of it and simmered it down until 1/3rd the size, let it cool to room temp and then added it to a stabilized wine that had both k-meta and sorbate in it. I then also made up a simple syrup to sweeten it if you feel it needs more sweetness. I do agree with cpfan though as a sweeter win e will reveal hidden flavor.
 
Not trying to hi-jack your thread, but I am curious, do you add any water to the fruit before simmering? Or just toss the fruit in and simmer it down to what?
 
The key word here would be "Reduce".Come on you Foodies...................Upper
 
It would be a Reduction. Yes we usually add a very small amount of water to the fruit to simmer it in, just enough to cover the bottom of the pot your putting the fruit in.
 
If you cant find any decent plums in season right now I have used the PlumSmart juice sold at grocery stores befpore and it worked very good. I took 2 quarts of it and simmered it down until 1/3rd the size, let it cool to room temp and then added it to a stabilized wine that had both k-meta and sorbate in it. I then also made up a simple syrup to sweeten it if you feel it needs more sweetness. I do agree with cpfan though as a sweeter win e will reveal hidden flavor.
Haha! That would be cool! But the only thing I could find was 100% prune juice. :< You gotta remember that I live where the grocery store also sells horse tack. :) I asked the owner about that Marco Polo syrup you mentioned somewhere, and he looked at me like a deer caught in the headlights.
So...if I started with 8# of plums, I would only need 2-3 pounds to reduce. That's do-able. We're only talking a 1 gallon batch, here.

As far as hijacking any of my threads, don't sweat it. The last time a thread got hijacked, I learned all about "wacky mushrooms". :d
 
Okay...47th stupid question:
So I have 1 gallon of wine. I want to sweeten it with a simple syrup. I mix the sugar to water 2:1. Now I have x amount of syrup, and 1 gallon of wine in a jug.
How do I know how much syrup to add to the gallon? I mean, if I pull a bit of the wine, and use the syrup, that doesn't tell me how sweet the entire gallon is going to be. Is there some sort of ratio between this type of sugar syrup, and a given volume of wine? I know it's "to taste", but do I have to experiment with the entire gallon to come close? I can experiment on my own, but I just thought there might be a "rule of thumb" floating around out there.
:a1
 
Take an ounce of wine and add the syrup by the drop.How many drops did it take to get it to your liking?Now add that many drops times how many ounces are in the gallon jug minus 10 percent as it will be sweeter with time.Hope you understand the Verbege or verbage?........ Upper
 
Take an ounce of wine and add the syrup by the drop.How many drops did it take to get it to your liking?Now add that many drops times how many ounces are in the gallon jug minus 10 percent as it will be sweeter with time.Hope you understand the Verbege or verbage?........ Upper
Got it. Thanks for doing the math for me. :h
 
You could just leave it in bulk aging till next year when trees are covered with free, sweet fruit again. It wont hurt to back sweeten and flavor(f-Pak)after 10 months. We know you will be picking more next year for more wine, just pick enough extras for 2 F-Paks
 

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