Hi,

My parents have plum juice pickeled (cooked and sealed) from last
year. They can't drink any more and wish to give it to me for wine
purposes. Can wine be made from this juice? It tastes good, kind of
sweet as they added some sugar before 'pickling' it.

Thanks,

You can make wine from just about anything so long as there is nutrients,
air, and sugar to consume. I dont see where you would have anything to lose
if they are not going to use the juice anyways. Adjust your sugar to get
enough to make in the area of 11-12% alcohol. Also consider an Acid
addition. A good reference site is Jack Keller's which has a lot of country
wine recipes. A search of Google should point you there.
The biggest drawback I see is that the juice has been cooked and may
give a "cooked" taste. Think of fresh apple juice from the Orchard, and then
think of Pasteurized Apple juice from the Grocery store. Neither is
unpleasant to drink and good wine can be made from either, but not cooked is
normally preferred. Another factor is whether or not they processed the
juice with any skin contact. Plum wine has a very distinct flavor and color
that only comes from the skins. I would make the wine if it was me, but just
bear in mind wht you are making it from as a reference. HTH
John Dixon
> wrote in message
...
> Hi,
>
> My parents have plum juice pickeled (cooked and sealed) from last
> year. They can't drink any more and wish to give it to me for wine
> purposes. Can wine be made from this juice? It tastes good, kind of
> sweet as they added some sugar before 'pickling' it.
>
> Thanks,

> wrote:

> My parents have plum juice pickeled (cooked and sealed) from last year.
> They can't drink any more and wish to give it to me for wine purposes.
> Can wine be made from this juice? It tastes good, kind of sweet as they
> added some sugar before 'pickling' it.

It depends what they added. The term "pickling" usually refers to adding
some sort of (salt and vinegar) brine to preserve the product. If that were
the case, it's not going to make a very good wine, if you can even get it to
ferment. On the other hand, if all they did was add sugar as a preservative,
and then process it in a water bath or steam pressure canner, you can
probably make wine from it.

Here is a recipe that you might be able to adapt to your plum juice:
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques12.asp.

Since there is already sugar added to the juice, you will want to measure
the sugar content with a hydrometer, and add sugar to an SG of 1095-1100,
rather than adding the amount specified in this (or any) recipe. If this is
your first attempt at wine-making, you will want to read (at least) "Getting
Started" and "The Basic Steps" at the aforementioned site.

Good luck.

> wrote in message
...
> Hi,
>
> My parents have plum juice pickeled (cooked and sealed) from last
> year. They can't drink any more and wish to give it to me for wine
> purposes. Can wine be made from this juice? It tastes good, kind of
> sweet as they added some sugar before 'pickling' it.
>
> Thanks,

I have always found plum wine a little difficult to clear. Anyone have a
similar problem?

- the >cooked< taste, I usually use the steam juice extraction method
which makes an excellent wine but I agree it is not as crisp as a cold
extraction method. I would certainly give it a try though as long as no
preservatives have been added.

"firefox45" > wrote:

> I have always found plum wine a little difficult to clear. Anyone have a
similar problem?

Do you use a pectic enzyme? It's a good idea to add pectic enzyme before
fermentation, especially if you have heated (or steamed or cooked) the fruit
to extract flavour.

In article > ,
"J Dixon" > wrote:

> You can make wine from just about anything so long as there is nutrients,
> air, and sugar to consume. I dont see where you would have anything to lose
> if they are not going to use the juice anyways. Adjust your sugar to get
> enough to make in the area of 11-12% alcohol. Also consider an Acid
> addition. A good reference site is Jack Keller's which has a lot of country
> wine recipes. A search of Google should point you there.
> The biggest drawback I see is that the juice has been cooked and may
> give a "cooked" taste. Think of fresh apple juice from the Orchard, and then
> think of Pasteurized Apple juice from the Grocery store. Neither is
> unpleasant to drink and good wine can be made from either, but not cooked is
> normally preferred. Another factor is whether or not they processed the
> juice with any skin contact. Plum wine has a very distinct flavor and color
> that only comes from the skins. I would make the wine if it was me, but just
> bear in mind wht you are making it from as a reference. HTH
> John Dixon
> > wrote in message
> ...
> > Hi,
> >
> > My parents have plum juice pickeled (cooked and sealed) from last
> > year. They can't drink any more and wish to give it to me for wine
> > purposes. Can wine be made from this juice? It tastes good, kind of
> > sweet as they added some sugar before 'pickling' it.
> >
> > Thanks,
>
>


Well, I think the "cooked" taste may be different than fresh, but that
doesn't necessarily mean it is a bad taste. I think it would turn out
great!

--
Greg Cook
http://homepage.mac.com/gregcook/Wine

(remove spamblocker from my email address)

Thanks to all for the input. I will give it a try. I have made plum
wine in the past but have used fresh (ripe) plums and the result has
been very good. As someone mentioned, there is nothing to lose. The
pickling I mentioned, meant added sugar as a preservative. I will be
careful with the sugar content though.

Thanks again!

On Fri, 3 Oct 2003 04:03:03 -0700, "Negodki" >
wrote:

>"firefox45" > wrote:
>
>> I have always found plum wine a little difficult to clear. Anyone have a
>similar problem?
>
>Do you use a pectic enzyme? It's a good idea to add pectic enzyme before
>fermentation, especially if you have heated (or steamed or cooked) the fruit
>to extract flavour.
>

The only time I've had trouble clearing plum wine was when I used hot mix
sparkloid as a fining agent. I used pectic enzyme & it was clearing nicely,
but I got impatient & wanted to speed the process up. When I added the
sparkloid the wine developed a definite haze. I think the heat from the
sparkloid activated some of the pectin that was still in the wine.

> wrote in message
...
> Thanks to all for the input. I will give it a try. I have made plum
> wine in the past but have used fresh (ripe) plums and the result has
> been very good. As someone mentioned, there is nothing to lose. The
> pickling I mentioned, meant added sugar as a preservative. I will be
> careful with the sugar content though.
>
> Thanks again!
>
> On Fri, 3 Oct 2003 04:03:03 -0700, "Negodki" >
> wrote:
>
> >"firefox45" > wrote:
> >
> >> I have always found plum wine a little difficult to clear. Anyone have
a
> >similar problem?
> >
> >Do you use a pectic enzyme? It's a good idea to add pectic enzyme before
> >fermentation, especially if you have heated (or steamed or cooked) the
fruit
> >to extract flavour.
> >
>