Make Greengage Wine

We had a glut of greengages (small green plums) this summer so I decided to turn them into booze.

Greengage Wine recipe

• 1 heaped standard sink washing up bowl of greengages (see photo above)
• 2 lemons
• 8kg caster sugar
• 1 tsp wine yeast
• 1 tbs pectolase (optional)

How to make Greengage Wine

This recipemade 6 gallons of plum wine (about 30 bottles)

First I had to de-stone the greenguages (can I call them plums from now on please, it is shorter to type... thanks). After about half an hour with a knife I discovered the best method was actually to crush them on the side of the fermenting bucket I was dropping them in to and then just holding on to the stone as the flesh fell in. The whole de-stoning took a good hour to complete. I also chopped lemons and added them too.

I then added water (boiled) to the sugar, made a syrup and poured it over the fruit. After it had colled I added some pectolase to ensure the brew wasn't going to end up too cloudy, although this step is entirely optional.

After 8 hours I added cold water to bring the level up to the to 6 gallon mark on my bucket..

Now I add the yeast directly onto the juice/fruit/water mix . I loosely covered with a lid and left it alone. The next morning it was clear that fermentation was in full swing with lots of fizzing and froth.

After four days I transfered it to a big contianer with an airlock. In doing so I got rid of all the solids so I now just have a cloudy juice undergoing fermentation. I tasted it for sweetness and flavour, and although not good yet, it tasted as though this may well be a massive success.

Fermenting homemade wine

The second fermentation will take about 8-10 weeks. After four weeks, I will transfer to clean sterile container to continue fermentation, leaving the plummy, yeasty sediment that might impart a bad taste in the bottom of the first container.

After a further 4 weeks, as long as the fermentation has finished, It will be racked off into wine bottles and left for a further 6 months minimym before drinking as a young wine.

With so much I fully expect to leave some for a couple of years or more to see how the flavour changes and hopefully improves over time.