If you could describe the essence of this summer for you, what would it look like? For me this year, it’s drinking plum wine at the beach.
We picked some wild plums last month, and quickly turned them into an easy wine. And on every sunny evening available to us, we have been packing up a picnic dinner and driving the short 45 minutes to Felixstowe Ferry. It’s like having our own private beach– there is rarely anyone else there. We eat dinner, go for a raucous swim (again, no one to watch our antics, so it’s extra-fun!). After we dry off, Jeff and I pour ourselves some plum wine and smile at each other and the waves.
I’m excited to share how to make this homemade wine, because it is so simple, quick and good. Most country wines require patience– but not this one! Using cider yeast really sped things up for me, and although not such a refined or strong wine, it’s completely delicious. For ratios, I used this recipe as a guide– but my actual method for making it is different.
Quick & Easy Plum Wine
This plum wine is quick and easy to make, not requiring the months of aging that other country wines need. Most importantly, it is very, very delicious.
Ingredients
- 5lbs (2.25 kilos) of plums– I used little red wild plums, but any kind will work
- 3lbs (1.35 kilos) of sugar (I like to use raw sugar/ sucanat)
- 1 gallon of water
- 1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice
- 1 packet cider yeast (ask at a local brew shop, or this one should work well)
In terms of supplies, there are a few basic items you should have. You can often find these on craigslist, and definitely at a brewing supply store, or you can order them on amazon.
- Fermentation bucket
- Demijohns
- Airlocks with rubber stoppers
- Siphon hose
- a funnel
- Wine bottles (we usually just sanitize our old ones), corks, and a corker, OR swing-top bottles
- Sterilization solution
Instructions
- Give your plums a good wash in water, discarding any that are overly bruised or moldy. Add them to a sterilized fermentation bucket, and bash them up a bit with a potato masher or a (clean) wine bottle. Note: The important thing with brewing whole stone fruits is to not crack the pits in the process. Including the seeds is a controversial topic, since they contain cyanic glucosides– which can convert into cyanide. The biggest cause of cyanide leeching into the brew is broken seeds. I like to keep the pits in because it gives the wine a nice almond flavor, but if you are at all concerned, just take them out.
- Bring your gallon of water to the boil, and pour over your crushed plums. Put the lid on your bucket, and leave it for a few days (3-4) and swirl it around every day.
- Add the lemon juice and sugar to your fermenting plums, and stir to mix. Then sprinkle the yeast on top. After an hour or so, give it a good stir. Cover and leave someplace warm for four days, stirring once or twice a day. (Sometimes I just grab the bucket and firmly swish it around.)
- It’s time to move it to some demijohns. I like to do this by just using a siphon hose in the bucket, with a funnel topped with a small sieve in the mouth of the demijohn. Keep the hose a good inch away from the bottom of the bucket, so you don’t suck up all of the yeasty sediment. Once you have the wine in the demijohn(s) top with an airlock.
- After two weeks, rack the wine by siphoning into newly sterilized demijohns, being careful to leaf the sediment in the bottom of the old ones.
- Taste it after three weeks, and see how you like it. We basically started bottling some of it at this stage, leaving the rest to age and racking again over the next couple of weeks. It is ALL good! The longer you wait to drink it, the drier and more clear it becomes, so it’s really up to you. I just finished bottling the last of it, about six weeks after starting it.
- If you are not planning on drinking it quickly, then leave it in the demijohn longer. What you don’t want is a lot of young, active wine in bottles for a long period of time. They could keep fermenting and build up too much carbonation. So, if you’re in it for the long haul, just keep it in the demijohns for a few months, racking monthly, before bottling. But you can definitely drink this wine young, as we have.
Enjoy!
This process is really simple, and would be a good one to start with if you are a little intimidated about home brewing. I am in the middle of another batch, this time wild yellow plums, and just using the natural yeast on their skins. Will report back on that! [Update: All of the plum wines we have made have turned out great!]
Nice! I really love the taste of plum, and although my plum tree did not produce at the old place, I am hoping to put in some nice tart ones here. We also have some native varieties that I would like to put into a hedge that will be a great source of wild wine.
Does anyone know why cork with airlock keeps shooting off? Just siphoned into demijohn. Is the rubber stopper, too big?
After 3 days of the plums soaking in the boiled water, there was spots of white mold on top of the juice. This didn’t surprise me because what would stop the mold from growing?? Can I just scoop out the mold & continue the process?
If you leave fruit in water for 3 days at room temperature eventualy some wild yeast will start to grow. You could add the commercial yeast and lemon juice at day 1 and wait for 7 days to filter the most. This helps because acidic enviromnent and alcohool will preserve the most against mold or bacteria. I’m making blueberry wine right now and it is working fine…I also punch the fruits down twice a day.
It’s look good
Excellent recipe. May require back sweetener. Depending on the plums
★★★★★
Um, “drinking plum wine at the beach”? Sign me up!
So do you add more water after u get the mix started..otherwise it woudn’t make much wine?
Yes I would like to know what to do after this step also. After adding 1 Gallon water then what?
Hi Shelley and Wendy! The amount of water is correct, but the recipe will make more than one gallon, as you have added juice from the fruit and the sugar. I think it was about two gallons in the end, but could have been a little less.
Wendy, the step after adding the water is to let it sit, for the plums to infuse the water, and then adding yeast and letting ferment before siphoning out. Hopefully all of this is explained clearly above!
I made this recipe with a few tweaks from the wine experts! It turned out every bit as good as the store 😉 I tripled the recipe of plums and water and added just one package of yeast! I added sorbate to kill it at the end and put in a super clearing agent (natural) and it’s awesome. What a crafty fun thing to do with all my extra back yard plums. I would do this all over again 😉 <3
That’s great to hear! Thanks for reporting back!
Shelley I am interested in your recipe as I am looking at putting on the usual amout as a wine kit which I think is around 22liters. Could you please share??
At what point did you add sorbate?
What is the ” natural clearing agent” please.
why [put in the sorbate? Is that necessary? What is the natural clearing agent? that sounds like a good idea.
Hi I’ve made this plum with 6 punnets of tesco plums at 79p each plus 3 and half bags of sugar.
Citric acid pectin and turbo yeast 4gallons turned out a treat
The recipe is for 1gallon
Don’t the pits of plums have natural traces of cyanogenetic glycocides, the primary compound found in cyanide. The author also mentions an almond flavor. I would just discard the pits…
The cyanide it produces is actually healthy for you….known as B17 (not a real classified vitamin) and has been known to kill cancer cells leaving healthy cells alone.
I have heard this also and heard it comes from the nut in the shell
Amygdalin (from Ancient Greek: ἀμυγδαλή amygdálē “almond”) is a naturally occurring chemical compound best known for falsely being promoted as a cancer cure.
God made the pits Josie so don’t worry about them!! If you worry about these little things Josie you’re always be down in the pits
Jim…i.e.”down in the pits”…..you are a screw ball! :>))
This is a ridiculous assertion. If you believe God made everything, then he also made every other poison and toxin on the planet. Does that mean we should just go around eating anything without any knowledge of it? Of course not. People should definitely avoid poisons and toxins no matter where they come from or how they got there. This is a good question and I’d love to see some well cited answers.
James, you made me laugh!
I love how you mentioned God in your comment. It seems in today’s world people are afraid to say his name so thank you for making me smile.
Can’t be all that much. The mice around here crack the pits open and eat them like nuts. I find little piles of neatly halved plum pits when I clear the weeds in the yard.
How large is “one packet” of yeast? I.e. what sort of weight are we talking?
Steve, it’s about 5 grams.
Mines too dry. Can I add sugar to sweeten it up a bit?
Ray, you sure can. Just give it some time after adding the sugar to make sure fermentation has stopped (no bubbles in airlock, no effervescence) before bottling.
How many plumbs and sugar in lbs for 20 litres of wine ?
Just did a double batch of this. It started naturally fermenting before I put the yeast, lemon juice and sugar in. Looks really hopeful at this stage.
That’s great, Tony! Hope it comes out nicely for you.
Just got a batch on the go with a couple of buckets of plums from my tree – really excited to see how it turns out! Thanks for posting the recipe 🙂
Just moved my wine to big half gallon mason jars fitted with airlocks, and there is soooo little bubbling going on! It started fermenting before I even added the yeast, kept going nicely for 4 days in the bucket, but has all but stopped in the jars. It tastes tart. W going on? I used white wine yeast. Thanks
Help I think I’ve done something wrong it all went great till I put it in th demy thing and closed the lid it started to creak from too much air. Is this normal?
This is awesome thanks for posting it I have made peach wine aswell can’t wait to taste
I have a great video on how i made Plum wine here:
I have a great video on how i made Plum wine here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvjMKoWMGZw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_ZIHwdtD54
Hi, what strength did people get,?? How can it be made stronger.
It was my impression that any “natural” fermentation (i.e. prior to adding the wine yeast) should be prevented … hence the addition of boiling water at the start of most wine recipes. So what’s actually going on in the first four days of the above process? Is there any harm or benefit to adding the yeast as soon as the initial mixture cools (or 24 hours after adding pectolase, if used)? Thanks for any help.
Thank you for sharing this user-friendly process for making wine. I just sampled my Chinese plum (we have a tree) wine and it is delicious! I can’t wait until we harvest our muscadines and scuppernongs in Alabama this fall. Also, I enjoy your expat blog. My husband and I are both retired Army and occasionally talk about living abroad again.
So glad to hear that your wine is shaping up nicely– it’s so much fun to make! Thanks for stopping by to let me know.
Ariana I love your blog and I love telling your story about how you guys made it to Spain after an email snafu!!!
We foraged wild plums in time before all the wild critters got to them and I am making my first batch. I have 2 girls so there were constant interruptions—I was trying to do too many things at once. I boiled the water with the sugar–ugh!! (I was also making elder flower syrup) then added it to the plums. Then the next day I added the yeast. Hope it all turns out, looks like they started fermenting in one day–we shall see in a few days. Thanks for all your foraging tips-love it!
Thanks for this note! I’ll bet your wine will be just fine– it’s very forgiving. And I have to confess a little envy about the elderflowers. I miss them!
Hello, have just seen your wine blog, am wondering how alcoholic this can be? Thanks. Sally
I am excited to make this recipe I have a TON of golden plums on my tree this year! You mentioned that the golden plums have natural yeast? What would I do differently?
Hi Sheila,
They do have a natural yeast, so you could make a completely wild wine. Do everything exactly the same, except don’t wash the plums (as long is they are basically clean, coming off of your tree) before you do this, and set a few aside when pouring over the boiling water, then add them. The yeast should begin to develop naturally, just sitting in the fermentation vessel. It might take a couple more days, but not necessarily. It will smell yeasty/ beery. Carry on with all of the same instructions, and know that because all yeast strains are a little different, your timeline might be different than when using a commercial cider yeast. It will be a fun experiment!
Hi I have a spare pack of red wine yeast would this be ok to use or dose it have to be cider yeast?thanks.
Sally, I think its preferred. The wine yeasts are more alcohol tolerant and continue to ferment beyond a lot of cider yeasts. Go for it.
i made 2 gallons from my plum tree… I used to give them away for a couple jars of plum jam. The wine came out fantastic!!!! I like this recipe because it’s natural. No chemicals. My local brew store kept trying to sell me chemicals. A neighbor allowed me to pick his plums. Just put 40lbs into wort, froze 40lbs more.
Hello, would love to know how you made your wine Natural. would you share? do not have alot of what some of theses call for.
This is an awesome recipe and I can’t wait to try it! One thing concerns me: stonefruits, including plums, contain cyanide in their pits which is that “almond” flavor you’re getting. Cyanide is poisonous, so from now on, removing the pits would be a good idea!
Help! I am a newbie and just juiced 10 litres of purple prune plums since I never knew to ferment them practically whole. I am hoping to just use the juice for this batch and am wanting to make a full carboy of wine (22l) Basically I have the juice and want to get it into the primary fermenter with the juice to water ratio as well as yeast/sugar amounts. I sliced up my hands and made my job way more complicated but O well live and learn. haha Really looking forward to following the directions using the natural yeast on the next batch!!
Hi, I have just started this with my greengages from back garden. When do you think I should bottle them, for drinking at Christmas? And how many times should I rack them?
Hi Lee,
I would just rack enough times until they come out nice and clear. I would guess about three times, but it varies. This wine was good to drink as soon as fermentation stopped and it clarified. If you are using a cider yeast, then I would think bottle it by November and enjoy at Christmas– but it could be ready earlier, and we have saved ours for up to a year and it also tastes great. Basically, it’s hard to go wrong!
My gallon jug just exploded! I couldn’t get the airlock/rubber stopper to stay on so I used a screw on lid and after 4 days it blew up. It sent broken glass all over my kitchen and livingroom. I have another batch in the demijohns with the metal clasps so I hope there are no other blow ups. My cat is scared to be in the house. Live and learn!
Please use airlocks! So glad no one got hurt!
I just stick it in an empty 5 litre plastic mineral water bottle with a screw on cap. If pressure builds up you can feel it by pressing your finger against the outside of the bottle. unscrew bottle top & release.
Simples.
Can I put it in bottles and put ballons on tell ready?
Hi Diane, I have not tried this myself, but others have said that it works. If you do try it that way, please report back on how it went!
I know that you need to put a pin hole in the balloon. I
t won’t bring air in because there’s no pressure coming in..just going out.
How much yeast do I add ,i made 5 batches how much do I add to each batch?one pack to each?
While one pack would eventually be enough for the whole batch, to keep things on schedule I would add at least three packets.
Just opened a carboy, fortunately I was outside and pointing it into the garden as the top blew off with a loud bang shot out like a bullet and I lost half of the wine as it bubbled over.
Yes, this is why it’s really important to use an airlock that will allow the CO2 to release and not build up.
I bought all the things on your list, but I didn’t understand the terms I guess. When you said put the airlock on the demijohn I didn’t realize that was the top that allowed CO2 to pass through. I had purchased it but didn’t use it. I looked at the picture of the carboy and used that with the metal braced top. Live and learn!
This plum directions gets 5-star review by me !! 😀
The fermentation bucket you linked seems to have a pretty tight seal…is it safe to have the lid on tight after adding the yeast, or should I just set it loosely on top of the bucket to keep it from exploding?
Jochen, I would put it on more loosely. You want to keep most stuff out, but definitely allow for some breathing during this stage.
Fantastic, thanks!
Hi,
After letting the plums ferment for 4 days there was a layer of white globby stuff.
Is this normal?
Hi Betty,
Yes, that’s probably yeast– a good thing. Does it smell yeasty?
Hi. Was just wondering. I have a boiler type juice extractor. Can you just start this recipe with just the juice?
Hi Sam,
It would certainly be worth a try! I haven’t done it that way, but I have made cider from just the juice, plus some sugar. I would do a google search for instructions that are for that method, though.
Hi, I’ve had my wine sitting for two days so that the water can absorb the plum juice (nothing added yet) and this morning there was mold growing on a few of the skins that had floated to the top of the bucket!!! It’s definitely black mold and not yeast. Can I scoop out and continue or is it completely contaminated and I should start from scratch? 🙁
Hi Meg,
I would scoop out the mold and keep going and see how it goes. Once you add the yeast, it should take over any bad bacteria. Just pay attention to the smell and how it looks– you can usually tell by smell when it’s a serious problem.
OK- I’ll give it a shot! Adding the yeast and sugar tonight. 🙂
I have tried this method with plums, kiwis, and blackberries. AMAZINGLY EASY!!!! Thank you so much.
Awesome, Melissa! So glad you have used this method for other types of wines, and thank you for stopping by to let me know! 🙂
This was so easy and fun! Even my wine-snob relatives (including my dear wife) loved it. There’s only so much plum jelly one can eat in a year, and this wine is by far the best way to make use of the rest of the crop. I used a champagne yeast that gives the wine just a bit of taste of the bubbly. As for the equipment, $10 will buy you everything you need: a big ol’ water bottle (3 gallon / 11.4 litre; drill a hole in the lid for the airlock), the airlock, and siphon hose.
Like you, I repurposed used wine bottles but also decided to make some splits (375ml) because they make good gifts and it’s just right for my wife and me on a summer evening, no leaving anything in a larger bottle to oxidize. Also, a great flexible, low fuss racking option is BPA free “bag in box” beverage containers (for example, search on Amazon for “Juggage BIB Bag”) that come with a spout for controlled pouring. This way you can extract virtually all the air no matter how much wine you have.
I chose this recipe over all the others because
a) it looked fun and this site is all about embracing Life! (the picture of your daughter makes me laugh)
b) it is simple, straightforward, and unpretentious;
c) it’s clear that you don’t need a lot of fancy stuff to make it all work. Humanity has been making wine for millennia without modern sterilization methods, so I used just the basics and it’s worked out well, even just using a good ol’ fashioned boiling to sterilize everything, no sterilization solutions or nothin’!
Ariana, thanks for posting this and bringing joy to us all!
Thank you for this great note, Robert!
Is there any issue with doubling or tripling a recipe in a 5 gallon bucket? Or should I do one recipe per bucket? Obviously a newbie here ? I’m so excited to make it, looks amazing. Thanks for sharing with the world! ?
Make it as big as you want! Have fun!
When racking the wine – leaving the sediment behind, this leaves a lot of air in the carboy – is this ok? I thought the intent was to keep air out?
Hi Wendy,
Having air in the carboy is fine– the reason for the airlock is so that no outside air comes in, with new bacteria.
How many Demi johns do you need for the basic recipe? This is my first time making wine so I have a lot to learn.
I would get three one gallon demijohns. This recipe will make over a gallon, and you’ll need at least one spare empty one for when you rack it. So, if you have two full (A and B) take demijohn A and rack into demijohn C, then wash A and rack B into that one. Then you can have B empty for the next round of racking (if needed).
Thank you, I have now put the liquid into the Demi johns minus the fruit but they only fill the Demi John half full and the liquid is very cloudy, when you rack it does it become clearer or should I add something else?
When you refer to a gallon is it an imperial or US gallon?
A U.S. gallon.
can I use this recipe with concord grapes
Hi Raynnie, I would really recommend looking for a grape wine recipe– there are plenty out there!
Hi I am making a batch using organic prune plums. I want to use the natural yeasts of the fruit. Do you have a recipe for 5 gallons or did you just multiply by 5.
Just multiply times 5! Good luck, let me know how it comes out! 🙂
thanks for the recipe, started making this a fortnight ago with a deluge of plums given to us. Havn’t used yeast, just didn’t overwash the fruit and it seems to be doing wel, good flavour so far. I’ll let you know how it finally tastes in a couple of weeks.
Did you use hot water? or did you just use regular water so as to not kill the natural yeasts?
I have rhubarb in a 1 gallon glass demijohn waiting for clsrity from its siphoning and 15litres of plum in a brew bucket. We haven’t tried it yet but I’m starting to collecte blackberries to try them
I really want to try this! We have plums everywhere and great prices right now!
I have heard mixed reports about sorbate. or campden tablets. Are they a must? A lot of folk say it can taste the wine?
Thanks
Hi there, thanks for sharing your wine making recipe! I have about 9 kilo of plums 4 times the amount stated however I do not have a large enough vessel to boil the 4 gallons of water needed and wondered if I boiled it by the kettle and poured it in the ferment ion bucket 2l by 2l would this affect the wine?
Thanks!
Hi there, thanks for sharing your recipe! I have about 9 kilo of plums to make wine with however do not have a large enough vessel to boil the 4 gallons of water needed , I was just wondering if I could do this by the kettle (1.7l) step by step or if this would affect the wine? Also I wondered if I would need to use 2 fermenting buckets or if one 5 gallon would be suffice? Thanks!
Just getting ready to try this plum wine just so I’m clear you seal the bucket with an airlock or no airlock until it goes into demijohns
Si couldn’t use demijohns as they have come out of style in Argentina, so I bottled the wine once I withdrew the pits and all into 2,25 lt. bottles and I have a lot of carbonation still. So I unscrew the top and let it out everyday. I’m in the 10 day stage. What to do or what went wrong. I used the yeast that grows normally on the plums and didn’t have to add yeast at all. Thank you.
I open the bottles slowly unscrewing the top to let the carbonation out slowly.
Natural yeast is less predictable compared to the packets. Just keep letting out. Its meant to be in the demijohns for a month, so you might have another few weeks of yeast activity to go yet.
Would using a ginger bug work for this, instead of the store-bought yeast or will the natural yeast from the ginger not make it alcoholic enough for wine?
Hi
Making this on Friday 🙂
Can I add universal wine yeast instead 🙂 I have that in my cupboard
https://www.wilko.com/homebrew-accessories+equipment/wilko-gervin-universal-wine-yeast/invt/0060004
Appreciated
Chris
Ariana, I made the rookie mistake of adding the sugar with the hot water. Should I discard it and start over?
Hi Kim,
I’m really not sure, and it may be too late. If it were me, I’d watch and wait, and see what develops over the next couple of days. Some dubious yeast will have more power to take over with the added sugar, but that might not be so bad if you are willing to work with a wild yeast. I have a very curious attitude about these biology projects, and since you’ve already started, you might as well wait and see what develops. If it smells bad or gets a funky layer of mold, then throw it out and start again. But you might have something unique and good on your hands!
Hi, I enjoyed your article and plan on trying this with all of the plums we have. One question, where did you get the clear wine bottles with the spring top stopper?
Hi Justin,
I believe we got them at a local shop in England. But Amazon has a variety. Start here and see what else you can find: http://amzn.to/2sAu0J7. Another way to look is to by sparkling lemonade from a place like Trader Joe’s or another gourmet food shop– those are usually in bigger bottles with a swing top.
I’m confused at step 6-7. The point of racking again and again is to remove sediment? Why bottle some and rack the rest? Do I always need to exclude air? I have 6 gallons and the airlock is done bubbling several days ago. Wouldn’t I want to just bottle it, regardless of when I planned to drink it?
Do you not add yeast nutrient, or camden tbls or any equivalent?
Camden tablets will kill the yeast. Camden tablets are used to kill off wild yeast before you add your yeast to the brew and allow a few days to allow the Camden tablets to work and disipate before add your purchased yeast. You can also use crushed camden tablets to sterilize your equipment.
Where did the recipe part go? It’s gone! I was using it to make wine! Help!
I saved the recipe if you still need help. I started it on the 21st and have just went into the secondary phase. This will be my first batch of home wine. I’m hooked already.
I just followed the first stages and put the wine in demijohns. However fermentation seemed to stop or become extremely slow after about three days. Should I just leave it or add a bit more yeast?
Hi Davr, yes, exactly the same has happened here. I am just waiting for my hydrometer to be delivered so I can measure it before thinking of next action! Hopefully someone might tell us what to do!! My wine is in demijohns with airlocks so hopefully OK to leave i t for a few more days.
Hi I have made the plum wine and decanted it into demijohns 10 days ago and absolutely no activity whatsoever. It does not taste yeasty or overly sweet. When I try to test it with a hydrometer (just purchased one) it sinks and not quite floating so is reading over 990. What should I do now?
Couldn’t spell my name properly last time. The hydrometer reading is about 1000 but the wine tastes a bit bitter. Just debating whether to try restarting fermentation, but not sure how to go about it
When the gravity reading is that low, it normally suggests that the fermentation has finished. But, if you saw no activity (bubbles, foam etc), other possibilities present themselves. With no yeasty taste and no sweetness, did you actually add sugar and yeast? Another test would be to drink some. If it tastes like fruit juice rather than wine, then maybe you should add some sugar until the gravity reads 1090 to 1100 and put in some yeast.
We are trying to siphon it into a large demijohn, but the crushed plums keep getting in the way! It is blocking it and we have wine all over the floor…is there a way to take out the plums or how do we do this accurately? thanks!
One thing missing from the recipe is the point where we should strain off the liquid and discard the solid stuff. The simplest way is to pour the must from one container to another through a sieve. Having an assistant makes this easier. I use old tights (panty-hose) stretched across a wide funnel and it works well. Let the juice drip through and what is left will have only the fine particles remaining and they will settle eventually.
I was browsing for a wine recipe to use 2017’s colossal crop of myrobalan plums and I saw the name “Felixstowe Ferry”. (Rub eyes in disbelief) For me, it’s a 2-mile walk from home across the Kingsfleet Marshes. Small world, eh?
Meanwhile, back to the topic. I have made approx 40 litres from the myrobalans and I am about to begin work with the biggest crop of Victorias I have ever seen in my garden. Then there was the strawberry, raspberry, blackberry…and my pears will be ready soon. I will have enough wine to float an aircraft carrier.
Thanks for the recipe!
I’m on my second day in the fermenting barrel and all the plums are floating to the top and i can’t tell if the yeast is working should i just wait a siphon into the demijohn in 4 days
Note to everyone: airlocks are a must! The fermentation buckets i use have them. I use them even before i add the sugar and yeast, it’s better to be safe than sorry 🙂 the recipe used here is awesome! I’m going to end up with 5 gallons of wine from the 1 wild sand plum tree that grew at the edge of my front yard 🙂
After you dump the hot water on the mashed plums and seal it with the bucket lid, are you supposed to make sure there it is airtight? My bucket has a hole for an airlock, but you don’t mention anything about an airlock until you rack it into the demijohn.
The fermenter bucket cover does have a hole, as some people will use this bucket throughout primary and secondary fermentation and will put an airlock on it as the fermentation takes off. If you are not going to put an airlock on it, just cover it with a paper towel, tea towel, coffee filter anything to keep the pesky fruit flies, or foreign matter from getting into the “must.” Then in a week or two when you remove the fruit residue and put the liquid into the demijon or carboy, to continue the fermentation you can just put an airlock on it until fermentation finishes. It really is not rocket science, just a matter of fermenting and converting sugar to alcohol. Just remember to never seal it up tight until all fermentation has stopped, the CO2 will explode tightly sealed containers until all fermentation has stopped. Best of luck.
Thank you for the recipe, this is my first batch with Italian plums and I am so happy to find a unique way of using them up! I will be bottling some up for Christmas gifts. Yesterday I removed all the skins and floating fruit and put the liquid through a sive into the dimijohns and placed an air lock. This was so much fun and very happy with the end result. Please share more ideas and recipes, Linda.
So I’m at step 6 and there’s been no bubbling in the airlock for at least a couple weeks. If I plan to keep racking for a another couple weeks or months, do I need to add any more yeast and/or sugar to keep fermentation going?
Wow,I like plum.Great idea thanks for sharing it!
I love plum! I can’t wait to make this. It sounds so delicious. I’ve never made my own wine before but I’ve made beer – super excited to give this a go the next time I head to the grocery store! Thanks for sharing!
I just started my primary fermentation. I am a little confused about step six. Does it mean three weeks after primary fermentation starts, or three weeks after I rack it in step five, which would then total about five weeks of fermentation?
I can see the confusion! Yes, taste after about five weeks of fermentation. Have fun!
Hello do you need to use pectolase is it called do you know it’s just that it’s not mentioned
Regards
Martyn
Hi Martyn,
Pectolase is optional. My wine cleared alright by just racking, but using pectolase will improve the clarity, for sure.
Thank you Ariana
Hi Ariana, are swing top bottles just as air tight as corked bottles for wine? When I look for wine bottles they never show the swing top bottles used for wine. I am in the early process of making your plum wine! Brent
Hi Ariana, Do you ever use cheesecloth to strain your wine or just a fine strainer?
Hi Brent,
I actually don’t know if swing top bottles are just as air tight as corks. But I DO know that I have used them without any problems, even storing bottles of wine for years with swing tops.
Also, I have use layers of cheesecloth to strain the fruit from wines, and it should work well for you. Have fun and good luck! 🙂
I’ve tried this twice and it’s not turning out. First time it stopped fermenting immediately upon transferring from the bucket to the demijohns and it smelled badly. Second time it fermented oh boy how it fermented into something so alcoholic as to be undrinkable. I had tasted it as various points but it seemed like it went really fast. I am sad to dump out two gallons and it was a fun experiment with backyard plums but I won’t be trying this again.
It did inspire me to try to use other fruit that was around. Making some blackberry wine from some berries from a pioneer cemetery nearby, and also trying your cider recipe, which seems to be going much better, about 1-2 weeks to go. Still pretty sweet but has that fermented taste.
Can I use universal wine yeast if so will the wine mature as early as with the cider yeast? Thanks
Hi Sophia,
Yes, you can use a universal yeast, but it will mature differently and take longer.
Hello and thank you for the recipe and steps! Used 3 gallons of rinsed/mashed wild plums with roughly 2 gallons of semi-boiled water to 6.5 gallon bucket with airlock. Went to stir on day 2 and noticed activity starting (wild yeast?). Nothing smells or looks off but now unsure if I should continue with adding sugar and additional yeast in few days. Thoughts? Thank you!
It’s really up to you how you would like to proceed… Since you didn’t really boil the plums, then there is bound to be some wild yeast in there. You could just let it go with that and see what develops, you could add campden tablets and kill the wild yeast before adding new yeast, or you could add the cider yeast to what you have going and get a sort of hybrid. All three are very legitimate ways to go about the job, it’s just up to you how much control you want to exercise over the process. If you aren’t so open to the unpredictable nature of the wild yeast, add a couple of campden tablets, wait for 24 hours, and then add the yeast and sugar.
Thank you for the quick reply! If I leave the wild yeast do I still add the sugar? If I add yeast does it matter if I use Ale yeast or I also have Blanc wine yeast.
Yes, still add the sugar! And I have never used ale yeast, just cider yeast for this particular brew, but white wine yeast will also work– it will probably just take longer for the wine to be ready to drink.
Hi Ariana, I have been drinking plum wine using your recipe. I made the wine following your steps. I used plums from my tree in the backyard. I did add sugar to make it a little sweeter after the process of finishing the wine. It tasted great!! Thanks for the recipe. I am excited to make more!!! Can you use your wine recipe for other fruits such as apples, rubarb, peaches, and etc?
Hi Ariana, when you rack the wine it seems like you have quite a bit of wine left over in the demijohn in the yeast. Can you still filter that wine using a cheescloth into the demijohn or just discard the left over wine sitting in the yeast. What do you do and how do you do it?
Hi Brent,
I’m so glad to hear that you have been enjoying the results of this recipe! I would say that it’s good for other stone fruits, but that I haven’t used it on things like apples. I do have an excellent recipe for rhubarb wine here on my site, though!
Also, I would just discard the wine remaining at the bottom. This is old yeast sediment, and clearing it out of your wine is worth the small loss in volume.
Our plum trees went crazy this year and produced more than they normally do. We made plum jam, liqueurs, and then finally this recipe for plum wine. We just racked the wine and tasted part of it. I do not drink wine often but it smells/tastes like wine and has a nice fruity after taste. We are going to transfer some to bottles in two weeks to give as Christmas gifts. I really enjoyed learning to make wine and appreciate you providing this.
I do plan on making this again next year, making a larger batch. This year we just did purple plums but for next year we will also do green gage. I think I may only use one pack of yeast.
Hi Amanda,
I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed the process of making this wine, and that it turned out so nicely for you! I’m sure your friends will really appreciate the bottles they receive as gifts. Thank you for taking the time to stop by and let me know how it went!
Just wanted to give an update. The wine tastes even better now that it has been able to sit a few months. We always get out a bottle when we have people over and they love it. I am running out but will be making more this year.
Thank you so much for taking the time to give us this update! It makes me very happy to hear how much you and your friends have been enjoying this wine, Amanda!
What is a demijohn??when I make wine I put one cup of sugar and quash the fruit and let it sit for at least 2weeks then strain it in a cloth And bottle it. The taste is great Thank you for sharing the correct way
A demijohn is a 5 litre Glass vessel with a short neck for use with a rubber bung and an air lock, hope this helps or Google.
Hi thinking of doing similar recipe with pineapple+adding a jar of pineapple chili sauce, any thoughts?
Using this recipe, I got enough to fill two 1 gal demijohns about 3/4 full. Is it ok to fill the remaining headspace with water?
Hi Matt,
I don’t recommend adding water, as that will just dilute your wine. Just put in your airlock and let it ferment! It’s OK to have air in the jar, the Co2 will push it out soon enough.
I double the quantities into the 5 gal bucket. please tell me if the contain will over flow when cider yeast packets are put in. Thanks!
That was my novice question and the answer is “just find”. However, it became quite heavy to swish the bucket around. After reading all the previous discussions, I decided to strain the bucket contents before moving to the demijohns. I used a piece of leftover sun shade fabric covering a new bucket and scoped the contains into the new one slowly. It was rather time consuming but it prevented clogging the siphon hose and yielded more liquid. I got three full gallons of fermenting wine bubbling thru the airlocks. will report on how the wine turn out later.
Hi Ariana: My wine doesn’t test good 4 weeks after the second demijohn. It is a bit sour. Could it be the straining process I took removed too much yeast?
I love the use of the sun shade fabric! as strainer I am planning to use washed linen curtains that were sun rotted as my strainer! DIY!!
I’m making this yummy looking wine and just learning. At what point do I strain the fruit from the juice? Do I strain the fruit before adding the yeast? Or before moving the wine from the fermenting bucket into a carboy??? Thanks!
yes. before moving the wine from the fermenting bucket into a carboy. check my post.
We have wild sand plums here in Oklahoma. Are these comparable to your unripened yellow plums. Our are yellow until they are ripe….then red.
Hi Lisa,
I don’t know much about those plums, but I can assume that they should make good wine once ripe!
Hi, I was just looking over this and I just wanted to put in a word of caution because that Almond flavour described, coming from the pits, sounds like cyanide. Be careful when dealing with pits and seeds.
If you leave out the lemon. And use honey instead of sugar. Then you have the viking-drink called Mjød! 😉
Love form Denmark.
Finally getting to chime in, having first used this recipe a couple years ago. My first batch was quite strong, not sure why, but my family affectionately called it “plumshine”. It was best cut with some seltzer water or my (too sweet) homemade rosé. Anyway, I’m embarking on this plummy journey again and hoping for the best. If anyone knows how I can keep it a little lighter and sweeter, please let me know. Thanks for the recipe!!!
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Hi! Planning on starting this recipe today with backyard Italian plums! I’m confused what to do after the first round of fermentation in the demijohns, between steps 5 and 6, when the wine is racked into clean jugs, and it’s supposed to ferment for another round – is this still with the fermentation lock in place? Is the purpose of racking mid-way through just to get rid of some sediment? If at the end of the process I find it not sweet enough and I add more sugar, will the yeast continue to work and explode my bottle? Thanks!
Let us know if you added sugar in the end and how it went.
I also tried the recipe and it was not that sweet, very strong wine. Thanks Ariana, it’s a great recipe just wanted to make it lil sweeter.
Hi Ariana,
I was just wondering if you have measured the approximate alcoholic content?
I’m currently following your recipe and at first demijohn stage. So far it looks and smells great!
I’m using blood plums from my backyard.
Thankyou for the recipe!
Corenna 😁
I just moved into a house with a plum tree in the backyard. I’ve got so many plums on the tree, I decided to try using your recipe to make plum wine, and can hardly wait to get started! Maybe this is a dumb question, but, how ripe do the plums have to be when you pick them from the tree? I know they will continue to ripen after picking them, but I would imagine that for making wine, you want to use them immediately after picking? Thanks!
Hello, I have read this recipe many times ,and others, and watched videos. I m working in an outside laundry room and covered veranda to make plum wine using 30 liters of red plums, sterile 15-liter plastic tubs with lids with small holes drilled through the sealing lids, which I thread food-safe tubing that ends in water in plastic soda bottles, with two small holes in the lids; one for the tubing: homemade arlocks. I’m using winemakers yeast, whole lemons and English Breakfast tea for tannin complexity (which love in wines). My question: Why Step 9? Why transfer from one airock to another? Why not let it stay in the same airlock through fermentation ?
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Just ‘enjoying’ a glass or two of my plum wine as per your recipe, it’s only a matter of maybe a month old but I’m doing a ‘taste test’ to check how alcoholic it is. Definite hint of paint stripper there but I know it needs to mature. Impressed so far. Thanks.
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Happy with this recipe for plum wine. Will the same recipe work for peach wine?
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Love this recipe !!!
I’ll definitely be giving this a go this year.
Could you please confirm what stage of ripeness the plumbs need to be to start the process?
Just ripe? Really ripe where they just drop of the tree?
HI Jessica!
I would just pick them at the ripeness for eating. They don’t need to be falling off the trees. You want both sugar and acid.
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I would just pick them at the ripeness for eating. They don’t need to be falling off the trees. You want both sugar and acid.
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Love this recipe !!!
I’ll definitely be giving this a go this year.
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Hey! I don’t own a fermentation bucket, is it possible to do that step in the demijohn, and at the end of the 4 weeks filter out any yeasty sediment then?
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