starting fist batch of plum wine, Help!

1) Dont Panic 2) Always know where your towel is 3) That fine, I double bag but hey... Follow the hydrometer and try to keep clear of too much much mud.

Remember what Terry Garey said man... Do your best and don't worry.

My advice. Try to get the acid right, the nutrients right and the sugar right and then you are on planet janet. You just have to wait for the good wine to roll in. I say this cos I got two out of three readings right and last years plum now smells like sewerage

Jim

From Stanley F. Anderson's "The Art of Making Wine", he advises for each gallon of plum wine that you add 2.5 lb. plums, 1 gal water, 1.5 tsp. acid blend, 1 campden tablet, 0.5 tsp. yeast nutrient, 2.5 lb. sugar and 0.5 tsp pectic enzyme. If you keep those items in proportion to the amount of wine you make, it will turn out well, based on my prior experience. Definitely put all the plum pulp in the straining bag. It will prevent a huge amount of lees and sediment in the fermentor.

Best regards for a successful batch.

Gary Flye

update.

plum pulp did not seep thru the strraining bag like i would have guessed. needed to add 1 gallon of water to top up for 6 gall of wine, all is fine.

currently re-reading acid test kit to confirm that i do understand it's method. then the sugar to up the SG, then yeast and yay off we go......!!!

well pitted and readied 30lbs of wild plums, acid tested them and they was waaaaaay off the scale. scanned someof the recipies i had and decided to go with one that needed less plums (I.E. add water) tasted tart to sour. measured SG and calculated needed sugar (THIRTEEN POUNDS!!) found I was short added all i had and got it up to 1.085 and consider that fine for a first batch. tasted again. Much better!! added camden, nutrient, enzyme, and am now waiting 12-24 hours to pitch yeast, as recommended in recipies.

only Issues I have is that I had to add water to reduce acidity(which matched in some recipies) but that means I am trying to ferment 7 galoons of wine in a 10 gallon primary, which if i recall gets you close to foaming over, so I guess it'll sit in the bathtub till I am confident that overflowing issues are resolved.

all in all, everything looks good, finally tastes good, and will probably change somehow over the next 12 hours so i'll have to re- adjust again. not worried. thanks to Gary and Jim for the handholding.

BTW, I had to start this batch today. freezers were getting full, yes plural. plum trees look like they havent been touched, so I'll have to hope that this batch finishes fermenting before the freezers get full again. Might have to buy, borrow, or beg another primary and a few secondaries to keep up with everything. barring any failures will have

100 bottles easy, maybe 200 when done. and i dont like wine much :)

as per spud, I'll keep my questions about this batch on this thread to keep things neat.

as per the other thread, my yeast isn't taking off like i thought it should. i'll hold off as others have mentioned, although i do think i killed my yeast in my too cold freezer(maybe not completely killed it off, so some hope)

anyway, here is data about this batch.

30lbs wild plums water to 6 gallons produced a tartartic acid level of .9%, added approx 1.5 gallons to drop it to .7% (ideal listed on box was .6% but also listed white grape as .75%) decided to let it go as 10 gallon primary looked too full. initial gravity was 1.010. needed 13 lbs of sugar, only had a ten pound bag partialy open dumped that in and got 1.060. bought more sugar and upped it to 1.100. added enzyme, nutrient, campden. let sit for 16 hours. took sample of liquid to mix yeast in. pitched in last night, went to bed. morning no activity, posted about that and waited. at noon very very little activity, possible bubbles could be yeast, could be outgassing of disolved air.

once I know yeast *is* active, i'll probably pull 2-3 gallons into a 5 gallon pail to primary in, until i am sure foam is nto an issue. might put it back then, not sure. sg at 18 hours (about) is 1.095 and temp is 72 degrees

yeast is active in both primaries now, both with big heads of foam. SG dropped to 1.070 and has the fizzy taste expected at this stage.

anybody know when the threat of foaming ends? I'd like to get the two back into one primary. I need that 5 gallon bucket for processing the next batch of plums.

Speaking of which, plum ripening went into overdive. picked enough for another 5 gallon batch, just this afternoon. lucky this weekend i'll be spending on more carboys and maybe another primary. plan on aging in the carboy so I'll need as much big glass as little.

yikes. checked after i got home today and it has dropped to 1.040. still foaming, but i think it had stopped for the most part. will probably rack and airlock tommorrow and clean everything for the next batch.

tastes like fizzy wine. very acidic fizzy wine. any suggestions?