Wild Plum Wine

[WineyTexan]

This is my first batch of wine and I am following a recipe I found on line from Jack Keller. It is Wild Texas Plum Wine. I am making 5 gallons instead of 1 gallon. I am also using honey instead of sugar and replaced the raisins with Welchs White Grape Juice Concentrate. I did this after reading his blog about his preference for using the Grape Juice Concentrate instead of raisins. According to the recipe the primary fermentation should take 7-10 days. When it reaches 1.020 I should strain the pulp and return the juice to the pail and ferment another 2 days. Any ideas why the recipe calls for this? I have read several wine recipes and haven't seen this step before.

My primary is now at 1.020 after 5 days and I'm wondering if an extra 3 days is going to hurt it. I've read about oxidation and I want to be very careful.

 

[Wade E]

If you are referring to the fact about returning to the bucket Im not really sure. Myself I usually ferment to dry in the b ucket unless its a fruit that is very susceptible to browning or oxidation. This lets the C02 escape much easier and also keeps all the yeast cells available to help finish fermenting. There is also the idea of racking off early to get it into carboy so the wine produces some C02 into the carboy to blanket the wine for protection. I myself dont really find this very useful as it really makes the wine very hard to get the gas out later in which needs to be done so that the win e will clear properly.

 

[Tom]

He didnt say to remove the must just the pulp.
Next time add the fruit to a straining bag. When its time to remove all you need to do is pull the bag out. Now I am guessing you didnt. So, get a kitchen strainer and remove as much pulp as you can. Then let it ferment dry..

Now how many #'s of plum did you use and what was the starting gravity.

 

[Sirs]

I normally leave my crushed fruits loose in fermenter, always seems to help speed up the fermentation if it hasn't gone dry by 14 days I strain and put in secondary. I always seem to get plenty of flavor and good color doing that, we all got our own things we normally do.

 

[WineyTexan]

I used 30 pounds of plums. I have taken gravity readings throughout the entire process. So I'm not sure which reading is "Starting Gravity". If it's the Gravity right before I added the yeast the reading was 1.060.

What does ferment to dry mean exactly?

 

[Tom]

Dry means ferment till no sugars left. You reach this at .990
If you have any plums left make a f-pac and back sweeten.
I just bottles 1 of 2 Plum batches.

 

[mmadmikes1]

Plum is a pain to clear. Have patience, it will get there. I have waited as long as 7 months for plum to clear. Current batch is 4 months old and is just starting to clear.I was told it is because of all the natural wax on plums.

 

[WineyTexan]

I'm appreciate all the advise and posts. I am learning so much. I strained the pulp from my primary yesterday using a large mesh bag into another plastic bucket. Whew! That was a messy job and I learned so much from just that one step. Next time the pulp will go into the primary in the mesh bag to begin with. Now the primary is sitting (covered with a towel) until dry. Now a question about f-pack and back sweetening. Two terms I have not heard of until reading this post. (eye roll) I'm very new.

With the plums I had left over I boiled them down with a little water and strained the juice. I have it in my freezer. My intent was to make jelly but can I use this for the f-pack? I am assuming I will add a sweetner to this. I used honey originally and have some left over. How much sweetener do I add?

Do I back sweeten after the fermentation stops and when I transfer it to my secondary? And am I doing this because my starting SG was 1.060? Is that low? Yikes! I'm making myself confused. Please help!

 

[Tom]

Sure that will be a nice f-pac. Use it all. After you stabilize the wine w/ Meta and SORBATE. wait a week then add f-pac. Then add clearing agent. Back sweeten to your task

 

[mmadmikes1]

People like plum sweet, I dont. I fermented it dry then backsweetined to .98 SG seems to be a good flavor.

 

[WineyTexan]

My must has been in primary fermentation for 2 weeks now and the SG is 1.028. It has been this reading for the last 3 days. You mentioned to ferment dry but I'm concerned it is sitting in the primary too long.

 

[Tom]

What is your gravity reading?
Time is not important. Gravity readings are.