Plums

[danbriant]

I have 5kg of the most awesome sweet Victoria plums fresh picked from a fruit farm over the weekend.

It's all going in a big barrel and then will be split into two demijohns.

I'm thinking of doing like a nice sweet plum wine in one
Then a more spicy style in another demijohn (After it's all racked out of the FV)
What could I use to make it more warming? Would star anise work with plums?

Also would an Ale yeast be better for this, as I don't want to loose the delicate favour of plums.

Plums have been washed, cut mashed and boiled. No sugar has been added yet.

In 1kg of plums there's 100g of sugar
I will be also adding 1kg of sugar per 2kg of plums. So i have 4kg plums so 2kg sugar? That sound about right? (Kept 1kg for baking )

As I'm in the UK the only real available yeast I have to hand is Wilko's Gervin ale or Gervin Universal wine Yeast

Gervin Ale yeast = Nottingham Ale Yeasy by Danstar I believe.

Any ideas are welcome.

 

[bernardsmith]

Not sure why you boiled the plums. Fruit ain't grain and boiling fruit is good for jam but not so good for wine. If plums contain pectin - and they do - then boiling sets the pectin. Not terrible but setting pectin creates haze. Better would have been to freeze the plums and then thaw them to break down the the cell walls and extract the juice.
I would look for wine yeasts t o ferment plums. You might look for 71B or Premier Cuvee.
When fermenting fruit better is to extract and use the juice rather than dilute with water. How much juice did you extract? The amount of juice should determine how much sugar you may want/need to add. IMO you want a gravity of about 1.090 which is equivalent to about 1 Kg of sugar in 1 US gallon. You might want/need to add pectic enzyme to help break down the pectins.

 

[danbriant]

I don't exactly know how much juice I extracted. I do plan to use pectolase to stop the haze and aid fruit juice extraction. As I just mashed everything up in a big pot then simmered it for 5-10 mins

I mashed up 4KG of plums and put them into the FV with currently 1.5 Gallons of water. I'm going to be adding the other half gallon with my sugar mix later today.

I know plums have acid in them and as a result can be a bit sharp I assume this mellows out over time.

I will leave the fruit on the pectolase for a few days before pitching the yeast.

So 2KG of sugar per Gallon.

Will bear the freezing method in mind for next time.

 

[danbriant]

Also have just ordered some 71B Yeast and should have that by tomorrow