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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 up their grape and apple "competitors". Plum has its own characteristics, which must be taken into account by the winemaker, but the technology of making homemade wine from plums is quite simple, everyone 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 plum is the high content of pectin in the berry. Pectin makes plum juice or puree gelatinous, making 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;
- harvest the fruits when they are fully ripe, you can learn about this by the appearance of ripe plums on the ground around the tree;
- after harvesting, it is recommended to leave the crop in the sun - after a couple of hours the plums will become sweeter;
- before making wine, the fruits are not washed, so as not to wash off the whitish bloom - wine yeast.
A step-by-step recipe for homemade plum wine
To make the drink 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;
- a 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 such large stages:
- Preparing drains. The harvested fruits are recommended to be slightly dried in the sun, for this they are laid out on a clean surface and kept in this form for 2-3 days. After that, the plums will acquire a special aroma and become much sweeter. If the fruits are very dirty (for example, collected from the ground), they can be wiped off with a dry cloth, but under no circumstances should they be washed. If the fruit is washed, the wine will not ferment. It is better to discard rotten fruits, plums with traces of mold or damage, as they can cause sourness of the wine and spoil the whole product. Fruit seeds must be removed.
- Squeezing out juice. The pulp of the plums is crushed until a homogeneous fine puree is obtained. This can be done with a pusher, blender, meat grinder, or food processor. The resulting puree is mixed with water in a 1: 1 ratio. Such a mixture is left in a dark place with a temperature of 20-22 degrees for at least two days. Three times a day, the wort is stirred by hand or with a wooden spatula so that garbage does not get inside, the container with plum puree is covered with gauze. As a result, the peel should peel off from the juice and rise up. This can 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. It is necessary to prepare a vessel for fermentation in advance - a glass bottle or a jar, where 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 on the winemaker's taste preferences. The minimum 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 disrupt fermentation. In order for the wine from the plums to ferment well, sugar is added in two stages: the first half is added after decanting the juice, stirring well with a wooden spoon or spatula. The wine vessel is filled to 75% so that there is room for foam and carbon dioxide - the products of fermentation. From above, the bottle is covered with a special lid with a water seal or it is built independently (a medical glove with a perforated finger is quite suitable). Homemade plum wine should ferment 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 will end. This will happen, somewhere, in two months. At the bottom of the bottle, by this time, a loose sediment should have formed, it must be left, pouring the wine into a clean container. At this stage, you can add more sugar to taste, or anchor his vodka or alcohol (no more than 15% alcohol from the amount of wine from the plums).
- Maturation. To lighten, plum wine takes a lot of time - at least three months. Bottles with wine from the plums must be filled to the top and sealed with lids. After that, transfer the wine to the cellar or refrigerate. Every twenty days, you will have to filter homemade wine from the plums, pouring it into another bottle through a plastic tube, leaving a sediment at the bottom. The full transparency of plum wine is unattainable, so it is useless to filter it endlessly.
- Storage. After 3-6 months, the wine from the plums is bottled and sent to storage 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 the products for making wine need to be taken the same: plums, water and sugar.
How to make wine from plums at home:
- To let the juice out of the plums, each fruit is lightly cut with a knife and put into a jar, alternating the fruit with layers of sugar.
- A container filled with plums is topped up with clean water (it is better to take spring or well water) and left in the warmth 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 below, and in the middle there will be wort, which must be carefully drained into a clean bottle (it is convenient to do this 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 for each 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 filled into clean bottles. They are kept in a cool place for about 2-6 months - the wine must be aged.
Wine from plums turns out to be amber-red, translucent, slightly thick, has a strong aroma of ripe plums.
Plum pitted wine
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.
Dark plums of the following varieties are suitable for winemaking: Canadian, Renclode, Mirabelle, Hungarian. You can also take yellow fruits: Altai, egg, white honey.
The ratio of ingredients is the same as in the traditional recipe for plum wine, but you need to prepare the drink a little differently:
- The collected plums are sorted out and pitted. Half of the bones are broken and the nucleoli are removed from them. Plums are thoroughly kneaded with your hands.
- Transfer the mashed potatoes from the plums into a saucepan or basin, dilute with half of water. For each liter obtained, add 50 grams of sugar, and peeled bones are poured there. All are 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 so that it does not sour. Each time the wine is tasted, if the taste seems almond enough, some of the seeds can be fished out so that there is no excess bitterness. After 10-12 hours, the wine should ferment, which will be indicated by hissing, sour smell and air bubbles.
- When the wort ferments, it is drained, the pulp is strained, and the juice is poured into a clean bottle, filling it to 34 volumes. Add 50 grams of sugar for each liter, mix.
- Cover the bottle with a water seal of any design. Transfer to a dark and warm place for fermentation.
- Six days later sugar is added again in the same amount. Fermentation will continue for another 50-60 days.
- The young wine is drained from the lees from the lees, sweetened or reinforced with alcohol (optional). It is poured into bottles, closed with lids and taken to the basement for 2-3 months for aging.
- Regularly inspect bottles for sediment, decant the wine until sediment stops appearing.
Making plum wine at home is a simple and straightforward process. In order for everything to work out, you need to follow the technology and adhere to the specified proportions. It remains to choose a cooking recipe and get down to business!
