Homemade Plum Wine Food

HOMEMADE PLUM WINE

Steps:

• Throughout the wine-making process, it is important to sanitize EVERYTHING that comes into contact with the plums. (See the section above for more information).
• Wash the plums, remove the stems, and put them in a large pot. Then use a potato masher to roughly break the skins.
• Bring the water to a boil. Then pour the boiling water over the plums. You can do this in batches with an electric kettle. The boiling water is to help kill off any mold or bacteria that might be on the skin of the plums.
• Put a lid on the pot and stash it in a quiet corner of your house to cool.
• After 24 hours, add the lemon juice and sugar to the plums and give them a good stir. Follow the instructions on the yeast package (mine involves re-hydrating before use), then stir the yeast into the plums. Give everything another good stir after one hour to make sure it is well mixed. If you want to calculate the alcohol levels, remove some of the liquid at this point to measure the specific gravity (see section above for details).
• Cover the pot and leave it somewhere warm to ferment for 4-6 days. Give the mixture a good stir once or twice a day.
• After the initial ferment, filter out the solids and move the liquid to your carboys. It's better to leave some of the liquid behind in the solids than to have solids in your carboys. I usually use a siphon to get out most of the liquid. Then I strain the rest through a mesh brewing bag and bottle it right away for a bit of plum cider. It carbonates very quickly, so stash it in the fridge right away and use a bottle that can handle the buildup of carbonation. It should be carbonated and ready to drink after 2-3 days in the fridge.
• Top the carboys with an airlock and leave them to ferment for 2 weeks.
• After 2 weeks, rack the wine into a clean jug for another round of fermentation. (This is to remove the spent yeast, which really doesn't taste good. Skipping this step will result in a not-so-tasty wine.)
• After two months bottle the wine. The wine needs to age for at least 10 months to develop a nice mellow flavor. I'm often tempted to sample it early, but it's always a disappointment.

PLUM BRANDY

Steps:

• Make sure the plum halves are clean and dry, then put them in a large sterilised glass jar. Add the sugar, brandy, cinnamon stick and star anise. Seal and gently rotate the jar to help dissolve the sugar.
• Continue to gently shake or rotate the jar (trying not to bash the fruit too much) every day for a week.
• Once the sugar has dissolved, leave it in a cool dark cupboard for another 2 weeks to infuse.
• Strain the mixture through a sieve lined with muslin, kitchen paper or coffee filter paper. Discard the plums, any fruit pulp and the spices, and pour the strained brandy into a bottle. Will keep for two months.