On 31/07/2011 02:02, john smith wrote:
"Adrian wrote in message
...
HI John

No particular tips - but we used to make wine with the Mirabel plums that
grew in the hedgerows when we lived in Suffolk, and very nice it was too..

ISTR that it was worthwhile measuring the Specific Gravity of the 'must'
(= mashed up fruit before fermentation) and adding sugar to a specified
SG - as some years the plums were sweeter than others, and adding a set
amount of sugar wasn't the right way....

Simpler the recipe the better - 4lbs of fruit to 1 gall water, some
pectolytic enzyme helps the fruit to break down and release the juice.
Sugar as above, yeast to get things started.

After a week transfer from covered bucket to glass demijohn with
fermentation lock - ferment until it stops bubbling.

Rack off into bottles or clean demijohn. Not sure if it improved with
age - ours never lasted that long!g

Adrian

On 30/07/2011 20:36, john smith wrote:
Hi there!

We have a surfeit of plums this year - and very nice they are too! - but
rather than letting them go to waste. I was wondering how easy it'd be to
make plum wine? I've found a few recipes online but was wondering if
anyone
here had any first-hand tips they could pass on?

Thanks in advance!





Thanks for the help, Adrian! That advice was so concise, even a fool like
me can't go wrong...


g
I don't know - we've produced the occasional 5 gallon batch of fruity
drain-cleaner in the past!

I forgot to mention cleanliness - you want to make sure that
'everything' is clean before it touches your wine - including the
containers, anything you stir the wine with, airlocks, siphon tubes...
everything. Half an hour's soak in a proprietary brewing cleaner does
the trick.

Have fun!
Adrian