How to make sparkling plum wine
Sparkling plum wine is a delicious and refreshing drink that’s perfect for summer parties or anytime you want to enjoy a glass of something special. While you can find premade plum wine at many liquor stores, it’s easy to make your own at home with just a few ingredients and a little bit of time. Here’s how:
Ingredients:
-1 bottle (750 ml) of dry red wine
-1 pound of ripe plums, pitted and halved
-1 cup of granulated sugar
-1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice
Directions:
1. In a large glass or ceramic bowl, combine the wine, plums, sugar, and lemon juice. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel or a piece of cheesecloth secured with a rubber band. Let the mixture ferment at room temperature for 3 to 5 days, stirring once a day.
3. After fermentation is complete, strain the plum wine through a sieve into a clean glass bottle. Be sure to press down on the solids with the back of a spoon to extract as much liquid as possible.
4. Seal the bottle with a cork or screw cap and store it in the fridge for at least 2 weeks, or up to 1 year.
5. To serve, pour the plum wine into flute glasses and enjoy!View now
Canning plum wine
You can make a delicious wine from plums, and it is not as difficult as you may think. There are a few things to consider when canning plum wine, however, to ensure a quality product.
The type of plums you use will affect the flavor of your wine. If you want a sweeter wine, use yellow or red plums. For a tart wine, use green plums. And for a more well-rounded flavor, use a mix of all three plum types.
The second consideration is how ripe the plums are. Riper plums will yield a sweeter wine, while less ripe plums will result in a tarter wine. You can experiment with different degrees of ripeness to find the flavor profile you prefer.
Once you’ve selected your plums and determined their ripeness, it’s time to get started on the wine-making process. You’ll need about 2.5 pounds of plums for each gallon of wine you wish to make.
Wash the plums and remove the stems. Place the plums in a large pot and add enough water to cover them. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
After simmering, remove the plums from the pot and mash them with a potato masher or similar tool. Return the mashed plums to the pot and add one pound of sugar for each gallon of wine you’re making.
Again, bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. At this point, the sugar should be dissolved and the liquid should be starting to thicken.
Once the sugar is dissolved and the liquid has thickened, remove the pot from the heat and let it cool. Once cooled, strain the liquid through a cheesecloth or coffee filter into a clean container.
You can now add yeast to your plum wine. The amount of yeast you’ll need will depend on the temperature of your liquid. A rule of thumb is to use one teaspoon of yeast for each gallon of liquid when the temperature is between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
If your liquid is cooler than 70 degrees, you can still use the one teaspoon per gallon rule, but you’ll need to let the mixture ferment for a longer period of time. If your liquid is hotter than 80 degrees, you’ll need to use less yeast.
After adding yeast, stir the mixture gently, then cover it with a clean cloth and set it in a warm, dark place to ferment. The fermentation process will take about two weeks.
Once fermentation is complete, transfer the plum wine to clean bottles and seal them with corks or screw-tops. If you plan to age your wine, you can do so now. Otherwise, enjoy your homemade wine immediately!
We used howtomakewinefromgrapes.com to write this article about make plum wine. More information.