Contents
About the drink
Hand on heart, plum is not the best raw material for homemade wines. Its chemical composition does not allow the preparation of low-alcohol drinks from natural juice.
Thick, almost jelly-like substance, which is plum juice, must be diluted with water. Hence, the capriciousness and instability of the resulting drink, sour with or without reason. In addition, cloudy plum wine – and there is simply no other in nature – is not able to make even the most thorough cleaning transparent at home.
They also make plums: liqueurs, liqueurs and tinctures
Tips before starting
Keep in mind that plum wine requires special attention and time when preparing the fruit. Plum fruits contain a large amount of pectin, protein and mucous substances, because of this, plum juice is poorly clarified.
For better juice yield, it is recommended to heat the fruits in a small amount of water to 80-85 ° C and hold until the skin cracks. The fruits are then crushed and pressed. The resulting juice can be used to make a sweet wort and fermented in the usual way.
Instead of heat treatment, fermentation of the pulp on yeast can be used with the addition of 60 g of sugar per 1 kg of crushed berries (do not remove the seeds).
The pulp must be fermented in a vessel with a closed fermentation shutter, and after 7–10 days, press it and separate the juice.
Prepare a sweet wort from juice by adding 0,3 l of water, 200 g of sugar, nitrogen nutrition per 1 liter of juice.
Then add yeast dilution (3%) and put in a dark place for fermentation under a water seal. Fermentation lasts 8-10 weeks, while on the 4th, 7th and 10th day add 20 g of sugar per 1 liter of must.
The readiness of the wine is determined by the cessation of carbon dioxide emission and the clarification of the wine.
Plum classic wine
The main advantage of this recipe is its versatility. When adding the minimum amount of sugar indicated below, the output will be dry wine, with the maximum amount – dessert, and various kinds of intermediate variations will allow you to get semi-dry and semi-sweet drinks.
Ingredients
Ripe plum – arbitrary quantity
Water – 1 liter per 1 kg of plum pulp
Sugar – 100-350 g per 1 liter of must
Method of preparation
Carefully sort the plum and leave for three days in direct sunlight. Then grind into a smooth puree.
Mix the resulting mass with water, place in a fermentation container, cover with gauze and determine for a couple of days in a dry, dark place with a temperature of 18-25 ° C.
At this stage, the future wort must be stirred 3-4 times a day with a wooden spatula, drowning the pulp that floats to the surface.
If signs of fermentation appear (foam, hiss, sour smell), the wort should be filtered through cheesecloth, poured into a clean container, add half of the expected amount of sugar, tightly close the lid with a water seal and return to a dark, dry place.
On the fifth and tenth day of fermentation, another 25% of granulated sugar should be added to the substance.
It is best to first dissolve it in a small amount of future wine (2 parts of sugar to 1 part of must), drained for this purpose through a straw.
As a result, the container should be filled no more than three-quarters.
After about 2 months, the fermentation process should be completed; which means that the future drink should be filtered or drained from the sediment and placed in a glass jar for decantation.
At this stage, you can make the last changes to the composition of the wine: fix it to increase the shelf life and thicken it with something forty degrees in the proportion of 15% of the total liquid volume, or add sugar to taste.
In the latter case, in order to avoid unpleasant surprises associated with after-fermentation, the jug should be kept under a water seal for a week.
The maximum possible clarification and final ripening of the wine, which is in a tightly sealed glass container filled to the top, is carried out in a dark, cool room with a temperature of 6-16 ° C.
At the same time, you should not even puzzle over how to clarify plum wine at home. Its chemical composition and dense consistency will almost nullify any ingenious manipulations with protein, gelatin, skim milk, fish glue or white clay.
Best of all, rely on the natural lightening process. To do this, the drink needs a period of two or three months to two or three years. It all depends on your patience, as well as the presence or absence of aesthetic prejudices in you.
The main thing is not to forget to periodically remove the sediment with a straw and your wine will turn out excellent!
Plum Jam Wine
Making wine from fermented or candied jam has become an ingrained tradition these days. And plum jam in this case is by no means an exception.
Ingredients
Plum jam – 1 kg
Water – 1 L
Granulated sugar – 150 g
Method of preparation
Transfer the jam to a three-liter jar, add water and 100 g of sugar there, then mix everything thoroughly.
Pull a medical glove pierced on one of the fingers over the neck of the jar and put this uncomplicated structure in a dark, warm place.
As soon as the cake appears on the surface of the substance, immediately remove it and add the remaining 50 g of sugar to the future wine.
We strongly recommend that you regularly try the jam that continues to ferment and, at the first hint of sourness, immediately add more sugar to it.
At the end of fermentation, the wine should be filtered through a thick gauze and placed for 3 months in a cool, dark room for relative clarification.
The result obtained is filtered and bottled again.
Of course, this wine cannot boast of crystal clearness, but given the secondary nature of its origin, no one will blame you for this.
Plum compote wine
This also happens. We made compote for some family celebration, but it remained unclaimed. So, why not dispose of it in a similar way?
Ingredients
Plum compote – 3 liters
Granulated sugar – 100 g
Water – 1 L
Raisins – 55 g
Method of preparation
Strain the compote, separating its liquid component from the fruit.
Take 200 g of liquid. Heat it up to 30°C and add raisins mashed with 50 g of sugar.
Hold the resulting sourdough for 4 hours under gauze. After the start of fermentation, mix it with the main liquid in a large glass container.
Close the vessel with a lid with a water seal or pull a rubber medical glove with a puncture on the finger over its neck.
Send the container to a warm dark place and take care of the plums.
Wipe the fruits that were in the compote with the remaining sugar, wait until they release the juice and boil the resulting mass over low heat.
Then, cool it to room temperature, transfer it to a separate jar, fill it with water and also leave it in a dark, warm place under a water seal.
When the fermentation in both containers is completed, drain their contents from the sediment, mix, filter and bottle.
Easy Plum Wine Recipe
Ingredients
Plum – 5 kg
Water – 3 L
Sugar – 500 g (for every 2 liters of juice)
Method of preparation
Remove the pits from the plums, crush the pulp, place in a barrel or bottle and add 4 liters of hot boiled water for every 3 kg of pulp.
Cover the bowl with cheesecloth and leave for 2 days. Then drain the liquid, and squeeze the pulp through gauze in 4–5 layers or press it.
Drain the resulting liquids into a barrel or bottle and add 2 g of sugar for every 500 liters of juice.
1/5 of all the stones taken out of the plums, crush and add to the wort.
Put the dishes on fermentation under a water seal. The process of fermentation and self-clarification of this wine can last up to 12 months.
Plum wine
Ingredients
Prunes – 7 kg
Granulated sugar – 1 kg
Water – 1 L
Method of preparation
Take a good ripe prunes, peel them, put them in a 10-liter glass dish, pour warm boiled water on top and leave to ferment.
After 5 days, squeeze the pulp, add granulated sugar to the liquid and stir 2-3 times a day with a wooden stick.
When fermentation stops completely, strain.
After 2-3 weeks, you will get a dark-colored sweet-sour wine.
plum wine recipe without water
Ingredients
Ripe plum – arbitrary quantity
Sugar – 200-300 g per 1 liter of must
Method of preparation
Carefully knead the sorted unwashed plum without removing the seeds, and place the resulting mass in a container, covering it with gauze and placing it in a warm, dark place.
In this state, it should be until the start of fermentation, i.e., about 4 days (at the same time, one should not forget about the periodic mixing of the substance).
Further, the wort formed in the vessel should be filtered very carefully and sugar should be added to it (depending on personal preferences and the level of acidity of the fruit, from 150 to 250 g per liter of the resulting liquid).
Then, pour the wort into a large saucepan and put on a slow fire.
Stir the substance until the sugar is completely dissolved, without bringing its temperature to 40 ° C (otherwise the yeast will die for a long time).
Cool the wort to room temperature, pour it into a clean glass fermentation container, tie the neck with gauze and leave for 20 days in a dry, dark place at a temperature of 18-25°C.
After the specified period, the fermenting liquid is carefully drained from the sediment with a tube into a new clean glass vessel.
After that, another 50 g of sugar per liter of must must be added to the future wine (it is best to use the method indicated in the previous recipe).
Close the sweetened substance tightly with a lid with a water seal and relocate again to a dry, dark place.
At the end of fermentation (after about 35-40 days), the young wine is very carefully removed from the sediment and bottled.
The final ripening and decanting of the drink takes place in a cellar or refrigerator at a temperature of 6-15°C.
A few practical tips
If you decide to deal with plum wine, you should take into account several important points related to its production and use.
Plum wine turns sour: what to do?
Sour, or rather, sour plum wine can be processed into vinegar of the same name.
To do this, the drink, together with the sediment, should be mixed with water in a ratio of 1: 3, add granulated sugar to it at the rate of 100 g per 1 liter of water and leave the resulting mixture to ferment under gauze for one and a half to two months.
Strain the finished vinegar and bottle it. It can be used both as an exotic dressing and for medical purposes (in particular, to improve bowel function).
Attention! Sour wine is not recommended for distillation. The distillate from it will turn out sour and no amount of filtration will help you fix things.
Plum wine is bitter
To avoid the appearance of bitterness in plum wine, you need to carefully monitor how much the drink ferments.
If the period of intensive fermentation exceeds 50-55 days, the liquid should be drained from the sediment and transferred to a clean fermentation tank to complete the process.
If you missed a moment, try to correct the situation by further cleaning the drink by adding egg white or gelatin to it.
After settling, we remove the sediment with a straw, the bitterness should decrease significantly.
Plum wine smells like acetone
If the drink smells like acetone, then you are out of luck. The fruit you used turned out to have a special variety of acetone-producing yeast.
If you feel sorry for throwing out a defective batch of drink, find an experienced home brewer who will be able to make moonshine from plum wine, separating all the acetone from it along the way.
What do you drink plum wine with?
Dry and semi-dry plum wine goes well with meat dishes.
Sweet and semi-sweet varieties of it will serve as a good addition to the dessert.
In addition, the mentioned drink, in view of its digestive properties (see: below), can also be used as an aperitif or digestif.
Plum wine: health benefits and harms
The use of a low-alcohol plum drink is very appropriate for hypertension, anemia and minor vision problems.
In addition, the mentioned wine improves the functioning and restores the intestinal microflora, and can also help to eliminate pain in the stomach.
However, as in cases with other alcohol, the main thing here is not to overdo it. And we sincerely hope that this will not happen.
Relevance: 07.09.2020
Tags: Wine and vermouth, Wine recipes