Homemade plum wine: a simple recipe

Often in the gardens of summer residents this berry grows so much that the question involuntarily arises: what to do with the harvest? Plum is a popular raw material for various preparations. Along with jam and compote, it is especially popular. Such a drink has both its pros and cons.

What you need to know before cooking

Note:

• Plum wine is not wine in the usual sense. Wine is the result of the fermentation of juice. And this drink has to be prepared from very dense plum juice, so it will definitely have to be diluted with water. There is also a second version of plum wine, more like making tincture.
• Wine is easy to spoil, it often just sours or the percentage of alcohol that was not intended is obtained.
• Homemade plum wine always turns cloudy, as it requires special equipment, usually used in large-scale production, to clean it.
• With the ubiquity of Asian cuisine, wine has literally flooded the markets of Europe, while in Russia it is still rare on store shelves and in catering establishments.
• There are two options for plums for wine: very ripe and juicy or unripe, green. The cooking technology in these cases will be different. Varieties of plums are also used different: yellow, blue or white.
• If you prepare plum wines according to a recipe in which the pulp of the fruit is supposed to be used, then it is imperative to remove all the seeds, since they contain hydrocyanic acid.

Easy classic recipe

For wine, you need to prepare in advance:

• the required number of plums (it is better to take at least 8 kilograms), they need to be washed;
• sugar;
• wine yeast;
• clean drinking water;
• clean dishes for fermenting plums;
• container for wine.

This classic plum wine recipe is simple and fast in terms of the duration of the fermentation process.

Cooking method

Here is a step by step guide:

• Sort plums: throw out rotten plums, remove moldy plums too. Rotten fruits can spoil the whole batch. The recipe uses 4 kilograms of plums.
• Prepare ripe fruits: wash, peel, remove the seeds.
• Mash fruit until smooth.
• Next, you will need to prepare the starter: dilute a glass of sugar in one liter of hot water.
• Bring water with sugar to a boil, you should get a syrup.
• This plum wine recipe will require wine yeast, which must be dissolved in the syrup in the amount indicated on the package.
• Leave the sourdough for at least two hours.
• Mix 4 liters of cold water with sourdough.
• Pour the resulting liquid into the mashed plum pulp, mix everything thoroughly.
• Everything will be infused for 11 weeks.

After the mixture has fermented and turned into a young wine, it can be poured into bottles and left to mature. When pouring wine into a container, you need to try so that the sediment does not get into it. Before pouring, you can strain the wine through several layers of gauze.

Classic recipe without yeast

In this option, yeast will not be used, therefore, the manufacturing process will be longer. This is a simple recipe. Homemade wine from plums is obtained as a result of the fermentation of fungi located on the skin of the fruit.

To make plum wine, you will need to prepare:

• plums;
• clean drinking water (at the rate of 1 liter of water per 1 kg of plums);
• sugar (we'll talk about the amount below);
• container for fermentation;
• bottles.

A distinctive feature of this recipe is the ability to independently choose the taste: dry or sweet. The recipe leaves this choice to the winemaker. Accordingly, one hundred grams of sugar is required to obtain a dry product per liter of water, and four hundred grams are required to obtain sweet wine.

Sort plums and remove rotten ones. Wipe the berries with a dry towel, but do not wash, otherwise all fermentation fungi will be washed off. Next, you need to put it in direct sunlight for three days. Then cut the berries and pull out the seeds, crush to a homogeneous consistency. Dilute the pulp from the plum with water. Leave to wander in a dark room. After the mass begins to ferment, it should be filtered through several layers of gauze and poured into a container with a lid, put half of the sugar in the wort. Leave to wander on. After the fifth day, add half of the remaining sugar. On the tenth day, put the remaining sugar.

In two months the wine should be ready. Readiness is defined as follows: if the product has stopped fermenting, the drink can be consumed. The resulting wine from the plum is carefully poured into bottles through gauze, trying not to pour the sediment.

Japanese recipe

In the land of the Rising Sun, plum wine is prepared more like a liqueur. For wine you will need:

• plums;
• fermentation tank and bottles;
• strong alcoholic drink;
• fruit sugar to taste.

Plums can be chosen any. In Japan, green fruits are usually used, but ripe ones are also used. The color is at the discretion of the winemaker. In Japan, yellow plum grows in large numbers.

Making Japanese plum wine at home requires less effort than a classic recipe. Plum berries are sorted, tails and leaves are separated, cracked fruits are also not taken. Plums are placed in pre-sterilized containers and filled with alcohol. Ideally, sake or soju. But you can use any alcohol you like: brandy, gin, and so on. Everything is covered with a lid.

Such a product is infused from two to four months. The period depends on taste preferences. After infusion, fruit sugar is added to the wine to taste and bottled. Japanese homemade plum wine is ready to drink.

The strength of such a drink is on average 12-15 degrees.

Wine from jam

This simple recipe is especially popular due to its ease of preparation. The output is a drink more like a brew:

• plum jam;
• bowl and bottle;
• water per kilogram of jam one liter of water;
• raisin;
• sugar.

Cooking method:

• Put the jam in a bowl, add warm drinking water. If the jam is sour, then add sugar to taste.
• Add raisins (amount to taste). Raisins should not be washed before adding. Its skin contains mushrooms necessary for the fermentation process.
• Pour the whole mixture into a glass jar or bottle and close the lid, making a small hole in it.

The jar needs to be put in a dark warm place for ten days for fermentation. After that, the drink is filtered and poured into a jar with a tightly closed lid. The resulting wine ferments for 45 days. It is filtered and bottled. You can drink.

Plum compote wine

Situations are not uncommon when there is so much compote that it is not possible to drink it before it goes bad. A good option would be to make wine.

Below is a great homemade plum wine recipe. It turns out especially tasty. For a drink you will need:

• clean bowl and bottle;
• plum compote - 3 liters;
• sugar - 120 grams;
• water - 1 liter;
• raisins - 60 grams.

Compote is filtered through gauze. Plums are taken out. You can add raisins by grinding them with sugar, or just add sugar. Heat the liquid a little on the stove. After heating, cover the vessel with compote with a rag. Leave it to wander for four to five hours in a warm and dark place. At this time, the plums from the compote are ground and heated. They are left to ferment in a warm place. After the activation of the fermentation process, the components are mixed and poured into a bottle with a water seal. Future wine is left for three months in a warm place where sunlight does not fall. After that, the liquid is filtered and bottled. The young wine is ready, you can leave it to mature for some time.

spiced wine

The spicy and rich taste of this wine will surprise anyone. In general, the preparation is not much different from the classic recipe. Except for the added herbs.

Ingredients:

• plums - two kilograms;
• cloves - to taste;
• sugar - one kilogram;
• water - three liters;
• Bay leaf.

Cooking method:

Sort the berries and clean from the tails. Plums should not be washed, so as not to wash off the fungal layer. Add half a liter of clean water. Mash the berries until a homogeneous mass is obtained. Pour in the remaining water, add bay leaf, cloves and granulated sugar. Put on the stove to heat. The mixture is boiled until foam is obtained. The foam is removed immediately after the appearance, and the wort is removed from the fire. Let cool. The mixture is squeezed or filtered through gauze. The cake is separated and poured over again with water (one liter), after which it is mixed with the filtered liquid. This mixture is placed in a barrel for four days. After that, the liquid is poured into a bottle and left for twelve days in a dark place.

Wine is drunk within one month, as over time it loses its taste and deteriorates.

Cooking without water

For wine you will need:

• plums;
• sugar at the rate of two hundred grams per liter of the resulting plum must.

Cooking method:

• do not wash the plums, sort and leave in a warm place, preferably under the sun;
• after four days, mash the berries until smooth;
• mashed plums are filtered through cheesecloth;
• add sugar to taste;
• the resulting wort is placed in a saucepan and put on fire, heated over low heat (it is better to measure the temperature and not let it exceed 40 degrees, as the yeast may die);
• cool the mixture at room temperature;
• then the mixture is poured into a glass dish and left in a warm place;
• the bottle is tied with gauze and left for twenty days at room temperature;
• then sugar is added to the wort and poured into a new container, avoiding sediment;
• the must ferments for another forty days.

This is the most intense plum wine. At home, everyone can reproduce the recipe, but the taste will turn out to be no worse than that of the factory drink, and maybe even better.

Homemade cherry plum wine

It's no secret that plum and cherry plum belong to the same genus. Cherry plum is even called cherry plum (botanical name). The taste of cherry plum is also similar to the taste of plums. In Russia, they have long learned to grow delicious and ripe cherry plums. Why not use part of the harvest to make wine?

For the recipe you will need:

• cherry plum - 4 kilograms;
• clean water - 2.5 liters;
• granulated sugar - 2.2 kilograms;
• citric acid - 2.5 kilograms.

This recipe is based on natural fermentation, so the plums are not washed. Let it lie in the sun for four days. Next, place them in a bowl and finely grind or crush. The mass must take on a uniform structure. After that, the resulting plum porridge is left to ferment in a dry, warm and dark place for three days. Then the mass is filtered, separating the juice from the cake. The juice is poured into a clean bowl, half the sugar, citric acid, and water are added to it. The future wine is poured into a bottle and sealed with a water seal. After two weeks, drain the wine, while the sediment should not get into the drink. The container with wine is transferred to a cool place and left to ripen. The filtering procedure must be repeated every month.

Cherry plum tastes like a plum. Even an inexperienced winemaker will reproduce a simple recipe for wine at home from this berry.

What dishes are served with plum wine

Heavy meat dishes are more suitable for dry plum and Japanese wine. While sweet wine will complement any dessert. Sometimes wine is served as an aperitif to improve appetite.