Those unripe plums ...

[MKG]

For those of you who didn't read my "Oh Bugger" posting, our plum tree collapsed totally a couple of days ago, leaving me with a host (nay, a plethora) of green plums. Disaster!!! After a day of tooth gnashing, I've decided to make of it what I can. So - wine from unripe plums. I'm giving it a go and I'll keep you posted on the results - you never know when it could come in handy.

A lot of the plums were beginning to show patches of redness amongst the green, so I picked up 16 lbs of those and soaked them overnight in metabisulphite solution - that was to kill off anything I didn't want, but it seems to have softened the fruit a little as well. At the moment, they are sitting in a syrup of 2kg of sugar and a couple of gallons of boiling water. When that's cooled later, I'll chuck in some yeast and nutrient and, after a couple of days, get my hands in there to squeeze the fruit and extract the stones.

According to what I can find on the web, there's not a great deal of chemical difference between an unripe plum and a ripe one apart from sugar and water content (and a bit of tannin and colouring in the skins). WARNING - EXTREME OPTIMISM AHEAD If that's so, then this stuff should turn out just like any other plum wine as long as I adjust the added sugar correctly END OF OPTIMISTIC FORECAST.

So, right now I'm debating with myself whether or not to add some apple juice and orange juice, both to improve the acidity balance (the plums are surprisingly unsour - not exactly yum yum edible, but not as bad as I thought) and to add a "fruity character" which the plums may not have developed yet. I think I'll almost certainly add some raisins/sultanas (depending upon what I can find in the recesses of the cupboards).

If this works, I have some great ideas for those unripe windfall apples and pears

Mike

[frozenthunderbolt]

i watch with bated breath - our plumbs are flowering already this year due to crazy amount of sunlight, unfortunately the wind hasn't been told that spring is early so i nervous about howmany ripe plums we will end up with . . .

[MKG]

Right - Update 1 ...

I had another look at the plums lying around the orchard, and a lot of them have developed a certain "redness" (oh alright, a vague pink tinge) since yesterday, so I think that the plums were just on the cusp of ripening when the tree exploded. I'll take this as a good sign. Anyway, I retrieved another 4lbs of them to go with the 16 lbs I'd already got - that should be enough for 5 gallons of wine. At four pounds per gallon, I think that should be body enough, so I've decided against the raisins/sultanas and I've added two litres of orange juice (the amazingly cheap one imported from Poland by Tescos). I've made wine with that before, and it was on the nice side of OK. Anyway, that's acidity taken care of, and orange has a nice habit of forcing early maturation.

Nothing cooled down enough yesterday, so I added yeast, nutrient and pectic enzyme this morning. No obvious action yet, but a very positive "on the go" smell is developing (ah - just thought - I forgot the Vit B. That's an absolute must, so in it will go later). The extra 4 lbs of plums will also be added this evening. That lot can then ferment away for four or five days (with frequent visits to keep crushing the fruit and extracting plum stones). Then it's strain, add the remaining 3 kg of sugar and top up to the five gallon mark, light the blue touch paper and stand well back.

The fruit already in the bin has softened remarkably, all smells are as they should be - I haven't tasted anything yet because it would only be sugar syrup. I still think it may work, but I'm starting to worry as there are now several large branches with plums attached sitting on the lawn and possibly ripening. What on earth am I going to do with another 30 lbs of these things? (One good thing - one solitary branch is still fully attached to the tree, and it has, probably, a further 20 lbs of plums on it. At least they'll ripen properly and I can hand over responsibility to the kitchen queen.

However, I'm panicking. As I wrote in another thread, my elderberries are ripening now (some are already black) and the pears and apples aren't far behind. That means, I suppose, that I really should go and look at the "secret" sloe site - I can't really see them hanging around until first frost. I don't have an endless supply of fermenting vessels, and the freezer is already packed to the gunnels. Having a positive microclimate is usually fine - but this year, it looks as if it may be too much all at the same time.

Mike

[frozenthunderbolt]

sell it at a farmers market or give it away

[MKG]

Update 2 (last for a few days)

I've been rooting around for every plum recipe I can find and just about all of them add grape concentrate or raisins/sultanas, so I think I'll backtrack on my previous decision. The fermentation is now going strong (and smelling perfectly alright), and I've removed most of the plum stones floating around. Apart from frequent stirring, that's it for the next two days or so, at which point I'll strain the liquid off the pulp.

That'll give me time to work out the sugar adjustment - ripe plums are 11% sugar, so there's going to be about 2lbs of missing sugars to worry about. A couple of pounds of raisins will give me approximately half (or more) of that. I suspect that tannins may be very low in the non-red skins, so I'll add some strong tea at the same time.

At the moment, then, what I've got in the bin will give me a crisp but flat-tasting liquid at around 4.5% alcohol, and I'm aiming for a medium-bodied, full-flavoured white (or tawny) wine at about 13-14% alcohol.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Mike

[Peggy Sue]

Mike you're inspiring, ever thought of doing wine making masterclasses- you could earn enough for a new freezer so you'd have less of a panic on your hands

The farm opposite our allotments has a long avenue of wild plum trees, all of which are completely wasted. I've been on a mission to save them all (get real as the fishermen drive their vans over a carpet of windfalls). Finally I am resigned to the fact I couldn't possibly even pick all teh easy to reach ones let alone use them all. Oh I do hate waste though but I am torn with coping with the excess marrow, vegetable spaghetti, french beans, orach so I guess the stuff I planted must be priority

Let me know when those masterclasses start and I'll be there, I really want to be brave enough to make wine (not sure when exactly as I ahve zero time left in a day!!)

[MKG]

Right, here we go again. I left everything on the pulp for five days, strained some off and tasted it. I was wrong about most assumptions. The body seemed OK (not heavy, but not non-existent) and the taste seemed fine - unsurprisingly, I suppose, it tasted of plums. The only thing I didn't like was the colour or, rather, total lack of colour. So, I strained all of it off and added nothing except a 3/4 litre bottle of blackcurrant and apple cordial (complete with sorbate preservative) and the final three kg of sugar (dissolved). Topped it up to 5 gallons, and out to the summerhouse the whole lot went (very handy when mowing the lawn).

It's in the final final final stages of fermentation now - just a bubble every minute or so - so I've tasted it again. Quite a large taste, actually. It's not going to win any prizes, but it's eminently drinkable. Just a hint of sweetness and a very pale pink tinge. And I'd challenge anyone to identify from the taste that it's anything other than just an average plum wine.

I'll let it clear and then we'll see how long it lasts - not long, I suspect.

So, there you go. Unripe plum wine is not only possible but maybe desirable (to use up the thinnings-out to prevent the catastrophe which struck my plum tree). All in all, a worthwhile experiment.

Simples. xxxxx

Mike

(@PeggySue - now you've gone and given me an idea)

[Peggy Sue]

(@PeggySue - now you've gone and given me an idea)

Well even a tasting session sounds a fun night out I'm booked in!!

[CyberPaddy66]

Wish I'd seen this earlier

If you want to ripen any fruit stick it near a Banana and it'll ripen faster then a whippet with diarrhoea going to the loo ;)