Plum Wine

Step 2 Plums: preparation

Examine your plums, remove stalks, leaves and any which you would not eat (i.e. under ripe or mouldy)

Add plums to a food-grade bucket, and cover with boiling water (~ 5 pints or ~3 litres). This cleans, sterilises and softens the fruit. When cooled pour off the water.

Fun-part:
Wash your hands and squeeze out the stones, this will leave you with plum-mush and sticky-fingers.

Comments

[AnnKenny]

Thanks - I'll know for the next batch. I poured the water off for this one. Actually as the plums had been frozen and I didn't check that they had completely defrosted the water unfortunately wasn't all that hot on the plums for all that long. I had cleaned and washed the plums before I froze them though. I am up to the stage where I have added the yeast and nutrients and stirring 2x a day - which I started about 24 hours ago. It didn't bubble and froth yesterday, but this morning there was a red frothy layer on top which I stirred back in. Should I keep the snap-on lid slightly off, if I have an air lock set up in the top?

[lemonie]

The air-lock will do, or just don't snap the lid completely.

L

[AnnKenny]

As a complete newbie to winemaking, with a surfeit of plums I don't have room for in the freezer, I am a little confused with the water thing. Can you tell me why you need to pour off the boiled water and pour away all the lovely juice that has come out of the plums by pouring boiled water on them and steeping them until it is cool?

[lemonie]

You don't need to pour the water off, but I treat this as a "hot-wash" in with the cooking / sterilisation.

L