Plum Wine 1

Started 22nd June 2012

I had a bag of last year's plums in the freezer, so thought it was best to get these turned into wine. The plums are a mix of Czar, Victoria and cherry plums. Local trees are full of cherry plums, so will be making loads more plum wine very soon.

Plums have a high sugar content so we don't need to use as much sugar as with other wines. Unfortunately I started this wine without realising how much sugar to use, so it started with a very high sugar content.

Plums also have a high pectin content which seems to cause a pectin haze. There seem to be various ways to prevent the pectin haze. One is to use extra pectolase before the yeast is added to the bucket. Another (apparently) is to start the wine with cold water, rather than boiling water.

Whichever methods we choose, mixing the ingredients makes wine. I like dissolving the sugar in warm water before adding it to the fruit pulp, so I've done that again, but waited until the sugar water had cooled before adding it to the bucket.

NOTE - I started this wine before considering the quantities of ingredients. The recipe is "wrong" so needs adjusting as I go along. I will make more plum wines

Plum Wine 1
Ingredients: *
3lbs plums (after stones removed)
3lbs sugar
5 pints water
2 teaspoons pectolase
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
1 teaspoon Youngs wine yeast

* This was just a "random" start - there is too much sugar and not enough liquid in this - it was enough to fill the small bucket to the 1 gallon / 4.5 litre mark - adjustments will be made during the various steps.

Step 1:
Stone the plums and put in bucket
Dissolve 3lbs sugar in 5 pints water and allow to cool
When cool, add to bucket
Add pectolase to bucket
Stir well, cover, leave for 24 hours

Step 2:
Add yeast nutrient and yeast to bucket
Stir well, leave for 6 days

Step 3:
Strain liquid into clean, sterilised demijohn
Measure SG