Plum Wine Recipe

Plum Wine RecipeHow to Make Plum Wine

If you’re reading this article it’s a safe bet that you’re interested in fruit wine making, more specifically plum wine making. An equally safe bet would seemingly be that I, your illustrious unnamed author, am also interested in making wine from plums. And you would be correct, but that wasn’t always the case...

I was once a happy homebrewer with nary a thought to home wine making. Then as fate would have it my progenitors, in their infinite wisdom (love you guys), purchased a home with a plum tree. All seemed well at first. “Oh for fun,” they said. “PLUMS!” they said. But as the long days of summer gradually gave way to the bonfire lit evenings of autumn, it became apparent to my birth-givers that their yard was being invaded, invaded by the purple menace, PLUMS. My mother did what any self-respecting Midwestern defending her home from invading plums would do. She started baking…..and canning…..and saucing…...and ultimately, defeatedly, freezing. Enter: me.

My mother, being the good mother that she is, was aware of her son’s attempts to master the fermentational arts. As such, she, in all her Midwestern motherliness, bestowed upon me many, many...many pounds of frozen plums. As I accepted two igloo coolers full of frozen plums. I gave my mother a slightly bewildered look and asked, “What am I supposed to do with 25lbs of frozen plums?” She replied, “Make plum wine of course!'' Plum Wine? I thought dumbly. I have no idea how to make plum wine.

So, I learned. I was surprised to find that making any fruit wine is incredibly easy. If you have brewed your own beer, your are incredibly overqualified to make your own wine. Don’t believe me? Check out the recipes below.

How to Make 1 Gallon of Plum Wine from Ripe Fruit

Note: This recipe can be scaled up if you have more fruit on hand. We recommend using only one pack of Wine Yeast per 5 gallons of wine.

I based this recipe on a recipe from a book titled Winemaking Recipes

Ingredients

Instructions:
  • All equipment used should be cleaned using a no rinse cleaner like One Step or Potassium Metabisulphite can be used to make a cleaning solution
  • Heat 3 liters (96 oz) of water to boiling and add sugar. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved
  • Allow sugar mixture to cool
  • While the mixture is cooling, wash and cut up fruit removing and discarding stones.
  • Add fruit to a Nylon Strainer
  • Once cooled combine sugar mixture with fruit in the fermenter
  • Crush and add 1 Campden Tablet
  • Close the fermenter and seal with a Rubber Stopper and an Airlock
Wait 24 Hours: After 24 hours have passed the metabisulphite in the campden tablet will have killed all of the wild yeast and bacteria, it's time for you to add the yeast!

5 Gallon Plum Wine Recipe

  • One 96 oz can of plum fruit wine base
  • 6 cans warm water (4.5 gallons)
  • 12 lbs. White Table Sugar
  • 3 tsp. Acid Bland
  • 4 tsp. Yeast Nutrient
  • 2 1/2 tsp. Pectic Enzyme
  • 1/2 tsp. Wine Tannin
  • 5 campden tablets
  • 1 packet of wine yeast
  • 2 1/2 tsp. Potassium Sorbate

3 Gallon Plum Wine Recipe

  • One 96 oz can of plum fruit wine base
  • 3 1/2 cans of warm water (2.6 gallons)
  • 7 lbs. White Table Sugar
  • 1 tsp. Acid Blend
  • 2 1/2 tsp. Yeast Nutrient
  • 1 tsp. Pectic Enzyme
  • 3 Campden Tablets
  • Package of Wine Yeast
  • 1 1/2 tsp. Potassium Sorbate

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