Content
In the East, plum wine began to be made a very long time ago, but in Russia, plum wines are only gaining popularity, gradually pushing their grape and apple “competitors” forward. Plums have their own characteristics that the winemaker must take into account, but the technology for making homemade wine from plums is quite simple; anyone can do it.
How to make homemade plum wine, as well as the best recipes for such wines, can be found in this article.
Subtleties of plum wine
The main characteristic of a fruit such as a plum is the high content of pectin in the berry. Pectin contributes to the gelling of plum juice or puree, which makes it very difficult to extract pure juice from the fruit. But plums are very sweet, and this is a big plus for winemaking.
When preparing homemade plum wine, you need to know some of its nuances:
- plum wine can be semi-dry, semi-sweet or sweet - it depends on the amount of sugar that the winemaker added to the plum juice;
- semi-dry plum wine goes well with meat, and sweet varieties can be served with dessert;
- All varieties of plums are suitable for preparing an alcoholic drink, but for a beautiful color it is better to take dark fruits;
- they collect fruits when they are fully ripe, this can be recognized by the appearance of ripe plums on the ground around the tree;
- After harvesting, it is recommended to leave the harvest in the sun - after a couple of hours the plums will become sweeter;
- Before preparing wine, the fruits are not washed so as not to wash off the whitish coating - wine yeast.
Step-by-step recipe for homemade plum wine
In order for the drink to be moderately strong and moderately sweet, you need to follow the technology of its preparation. For traditional plum wine, the following proportions must be observed:
- 10 kg plums;
- one liter of water for every kilogram of plum puree;
- from 100 to 350 g of sugar per liter of juice obtained.
Making homemade wine consists of the following large steps:
- Preparation of plums. It is recommended to slightly dry the collected fruits in the sun; to do this, they are laid out on a clean surface and kept in this form for 2-3 days. After this, the plums will acquire a special aroma and become much sweeter. If the fruits are very dirty (for example, picked from the ground), they can be wiped with a dry cloth, but under no circumstances should they be washed. If you wash the fruit, the wine will not ferment. It is better to discard rotten fruits, plums with traces of mold or damage, as they can cause the wine to sour and spoil the entire product. The seeds must be removed from the fruit.
- Squeezing juice. The plum pulp is crushed to a homogeneous fine puree. This can be done with a masher, blender, meat grinder or food processor. The resulting puree is mixed with water in a 1:1 ratio. This mixture is left in a dark place with a temperature of 20-22 degrees for at least two days. Mix the wort three times a day with your hands or a wooden spatula to prevent debris from getting inside, and cover the container with plum puree with gauze.As a result, the peel should peel off from the juice and rise up. This can also be judged by the appearance of air bubbles and foam, which indicate the beginning of the fermentation process. The wort is filtered through several layers of gauze or through a sieve, separating the pure plum juice. You need to prepare a vessel for fermentation in advance - a glass bottle or jar into which to pour the plum juice.
- Fermentation stage. It's time to add sugar. The amount of sugar depends on the natural sweetness of the plums, as well as the taste preferences of the winemaker. The minimum amount should be about 100 g per liter of juice, and it is better not to exceed the dosage of 350 g per liter so as not to disturb fermentation. To ensure that plum wine ferments well, sugar is added in two stages: the first half is added after decanting the juice, stirring thoroughly with a wooden spoon or spatula. The wine vessel is filled to 75% to leave room for foam and carbon dioxide - fermentation products. The top of the bottle is covered with a special lid with a water seal or you can construct it yourself (a medical glove with a hole in the finger is quite suitable). Homemade plum wine should be fermented in a dark place with a temperature of 18 to 26 degrees. The remaining half of the sugar is divided into four parts and added gradually, after 4-5 days. When the glove is deflated, or no air bubbles are visible in the wine, fermentation is over. This will happen in about two months. By this time, a loose sediment should have formed at the bottom of the bottle; it should be left, pouring the wine into a clean container. At this stage you can add more sugar to taste or secure its vodka or alcohol (no more than 15% alcohol of the amount of plum wine).
- Maturation. To clarify, plum wine needs a lot of time - at least three months. Bottles of plum wine must be filled to the top and hermetically sealed with lids. After this, move the wine to the basement or put it in the refrigerator. Every twenty days you will have to filter homemade wine from plums, pouring it into another bottle through a plastic straw, leaving sediment at the bottom. Full transparency of plum wine is unattainable, so it is useless to endlessly filter it.
- Storage. After 3-6 months, the wine from the plums is bottled and stored in a dark and cool place (cellar or basement). Wine can be stored for no more than five years.
Another recipe for homemade plum wine
This simple recipe is slightly different from the previous one, but you need to take the same ingredients for making wine: plums, water and sugar.
How to make wine from plums at home:
- In order for the plums to release juice, each fruit is lightly cut with a knife and placed in a jar, alternating the fruit with layers of sugar.
- The container filled with plums is topped up with clean water (it is better to take spring or well water) and left in a warm place or in the sun for about a week.
- During this period, the contents of the vessel will stratify: there will be pulp on top, sediment on the bottom, and in the middle there will be wort, which must be carefully poured into a clean bottle (this is convenient to do using a tube from a medical dropper).
- Three times, with an interval of three days, sugar is added to the wort at the rate of 50 g per liter of liquid. The bottle should be covered with gauze.
- The pulp remaining after decanting does not need to be thrown away; you can add fresh cut plums and sugar to it, and put it back in a warm place for fermentation. After a week, the wort is cleaned again and poured into clean containers. The pulp can be squeezed out.
- When the wine stops fermenting, it is drained from the sediment and left for a couple of days to clarify. This is done with both wines.
- Both filtered wines are mixed and bottled into clean bottles. They are stored in a cool place for about 2-6 months - the wine should age.
Wine made from plums is amber-red, translucent, slightly thick, and has a strong aroma of ripe plums.
Plum wine with pits
Plum wine with seeds has a special aroma - it is a light almond flavor with a slight bitterness. This wine is especially appreciated by lovers of homemade alcohol.
The following varieties of dark plums are suitable for winemaking: Canadian, Renclod, Mirabel, Hungarian. You can also take yellow fruits: Altai, egg, white honey.
The ratio of ingredients is the same as in the traditional plum wine recipe, but you need to prepare the drink a little differently:
- The collected plums are sorted and pitted. Half of the seeds are broken and the nucleoli are extracted from them. Mash the plums thoroughly with your hands.
- Transfer the plum puree into a saucepan or basin and dilute it by half with water. For each liter received, add 50 grams of sugar, and add the peeled seeds. Everything is mixed.
- The container is covered with gauze and left in a dark place at a temperature of 18-26 degrees for three days. Stir the wort three times a day to prevent it from souring. Each time the wine is tasted, if the taste seems sufficiently almondy, some of the seeds can be fished out so that there is no excess bitterness. After 10-12 hours, the wine should ferment, as evidenced by hissing, sour smell and air bubbles.
- When the wort has fermented, it is drained, the pulp is filtered out, and the juice is poured into a clean bottle, filling it to 34 volumes. Add 50 grams of sugar for each liter and mix.
- Cover the bottle with a water seal of any design. Transfer to a dark and warm place for fermentation.
- After six days, sugar is added again in the same amount. Fermentation will last another 50-60 days.
- The young wine is drained from the plums and the sediment, sweetened or fortified with alcohol (optional). They are poured into bottles, capped and taken to the basement for 2-3 months to age.
- Regularly inspect bottles for sediment and strain the wine until sediment stops appearing.
Making plum wine at home is a simple and straightforward process. For everything to work out, you need to follow the technology and adhere to the specified proportions. All you have to do is choose a recipe and get to work!
