Basic Plum Wine Recipe (One gallon recipe)

I think this recipe looks pretty good and you should be able to use any type of plums. The plums should be good and ripe but not rotten. Good Luck and let me know how it turns out and any changes in the recipe you may have changed.

3.5 qt. water
2 lbs sugar or 2 lbs. light honey
4 lbs. ripe sweet plums or 3 lbs. wild plums
5 tsp. acid blend (Do not use with wild plums)
1/8 tsp. tannin
1 tsp. yeast nutrient
1 Campden tablet (recommended)
1/2 tsp. pectic enzyme
Champagne or Montrachet yeast

Boil water and sugar/honey. If using honey, skim the scum.
Wash, stem, and pit the plums. Cut into small pieces saving the juice.
Put in straining bag in bottom of primary fermenter and mash.
Pour hot sugar water over fruit and fill up to 1-gallon mark.
When cooled add acid, tannin, nutrient and Campden tablet. Cover and fit with air lock.
After 12 hours add the pectic enzyme.
24 hours later add yeast and stir.
Remove straining bag after a week.
When must reaches Specific Gravity of 1.030, rack to secondary fermenter.
Rack again in 2-3 weeks.
Rack again in 2-6 months.
After it ferments out, stabilize with Campden tablets or stabalizer and add 2-6 oz of sugar to sweeten if needed.
Bottle and age 6-12 months.

Easy Plum Wine Recipe (one gallon recipe)

3 1/2 lb ripe plums
4lb-granulated sugar
1 pack yeast
1 gallon boiling water
Wash plums and pour on water.
Stir and mash with wooden spoon.
Leave for ten days.
Remove mould carefully. Strain off into another bowl and add sugar, yeast and stir.
Cover and stir daily for three days.
Ready to bottle use demijohn or gallon jug here.
Ready in six months. Better after nine.

My only real concern with this recipe is that the wine would not be done fermenting when bottled. It may be a good idea to put on an airlock for a while to make sure it is done fermenting before final bottling and aging. Also, with no chemicals used, I wouldn't store too long before drinking. I would probably add a Campden tablet at final bottling to kill off any stray bacteria.
Let me know how it works out if you try it!

Versatile Plum Wine Recipe
(per gallon recipe, adjust as needed)

You can use these recipes for any plum-type fruit -- home grown or store bought; Italian, Damson, Yellow, Greenage, or any sweet plum. With wild plums, which are generally high in acid, use acid tester or cut down to 3 lbs. per gallon.

4 lb Plums, pitted
6 pts Water
2 lb Sugar
1/2 tsp Acid Blend
1/2 tsp Pectic Enzyme
1 tsp Nutrient
1 Campden, crush
1 pkg Wine yeast

Wash, drain and remove stones. Chop into smaller pieces.
Put in nylon straining bag, crush and squeeze juice into primary
fermentor. Keeping pulp in bag, tie top, and place in primary.
Stir in all other ingredients EXCEPT yeast. Cover primary.
After 24 hrs., add yeast and cover primary.
Stir daily, check Specific Gravity, and press pulp lightly to aid extraction.
When ferment reaches S.G. 1.040 (3-5 days) squeeze juice lightly from bag.
Siphon wine off sediment into glass secondary and attach air lock.
When fermenting is complete (S.G. has dropped to 1.000 -- about 3 weeks) siphon off sediment into clean secondary and reattach air lock.
To aid clearing siphon again in 2 months and again if necessary before bottling.

To sweeten wine, at bottling add 2 tsp. stabilizer, then stir in 1/4 to 1/2 lb. dissolved sugar per gallon.

Some explinations of chemicals used in wine making.

Ammonium sulfate or "yeast nutrient", is necessary with most fruit wines.

Tartaric acid adjusts the acidity to a pleasant level for reasons of taste, much as you use salt to bring out flavor in foods (not exactly the same, but the analogy will do.)

Pectic enzyme is needed to break down something in the fruit that is good for jams and jellies, but you don't want that consistency in wines. You often add more pectin when making jelly. You don't want any when making wine.

The Campden tablet (1/16 tsp. sodium bisulfite) is "sulfite", added at the beginning to kill off weak wild yeasts and prevent bacterial growth. You add this at the beginning, wait 24 hours, and then it is safe to add your winemaker's yeast, as the sulfite should have dissipated into the air as sulphur dioxide, which prevents anything from spoiling your wine. Some people add more at each racking and again at bottling time.

Good Luck and enjoy.