Jam Wine

[valleydaz]

I had a look in my cupboard today and seen all the home made jam that I still have over from the pre-winemaking days, they include;
Strawberry, Raspberry & Red Currant
Strawberry & Red Currant
Raspberry & Red Currant
Strawberry
Raspberry
Gooseberry
Plum


Is it a good wine you can make out of these or should I just pack them in for Christmas prezzies?

If I do proceed is the recipe below the done thing?

Jam Wine (from first steps in winemaking CJJ Berry)
1.5 kilo fruit jam
750g sugar
225g raisins
5g citric acid (1 teaspoon)
5g pectolase (1 teaspoon)
5g grape tannin (1 teaspoon)
GP yeast
yeast nutrient
water to 1 gallon

Pour boiling water over the jam, in a plastic bucket, leave to cool then add the pectolase and acid and leave for 24 hours. Next add the raisins (minced)sugar, tannin, yeast and nutrient . Stir well to dissolve the sugar, then cover and leave to ferment for five days or so, giving it a stir each day. Then strain through a nylon sieve or muslin into a glass demijohn, fit an airlock, and leave to ferment out. When it is finished and the wine is clear, rack into a clean jar for six months storage, adding a crushed campden tablet or stabiliser to prevent further fermentation. Bottle as required, preferably after another two or three months.
Note that the use of the pectin destroying enzyme (pectolase or pectinol) is most important in this case, as the jam contains a high level of pectin which may otherwise prevent the wine from clearing.

Cheers

[Aristaeus]

Good ones for sure...

Do the jam wine...this was an annual late Spring event at my Grandparents house. Making wine or mead with remains of last years canning; then make this years canned fruit and veg's. The pectin acts as a fining agent. Do steep the jam with some honey or sugar. Three minutes with the small bubbles forming on the bottom of your pot (stainless), 150 to 170 degrees. Since we do not can anymore, I never miss a sale at the market.

Four cases of Plum jam at a bargain price of $1 per 16 oz. jar, made a 'licious mead. One word of advice, check the Sg before adding more sugar. Keep us informed.

[lockwood1956]

Sounds good valleydaz

but a couple of recommendations if I might be so bold, don't add the Sugar until you see what the S.G. is without it (these older recipes had far too much sugar in them) get your S.G to arund 1.080, (and I suspect it will be close to that without any added sugar) always use your hydrometer to determine the ammount of sugar to be used with these CJJJJJ Berry recipes.(they are generally 1/2lb per gallon too much)

personally I would replace the rasins with sultanas, or better still with 220ml red grape concentrate
and double (if not triple) the dose of pectolase


hope this helps
regards
bob

[valleydaz]

Thanks guys, I will definitely be getting a batch of this on the go then. I'll let you know how i'm getting on (might be in january before I begin).

[Mamgiowl]

I've done one of these using cheapo mixed fruit jam and it turned out quite nicely.

I would thoroughly endorse Bob's advice about the pectolase and would err on the side of three tsps. Pectin is added to jam to get it to set so you've a lot to counteract.

Good luck with it

[Hippie]

I agree with Bob on all points made. Keep us informed!

[Aristaeus]

Ole Home Week...

Aristaeus - Would it be possible if you could share a few of the your grandfathers and grandmothers mead making recipie secrets with us? I would really be interested in reading the way they went about making mead at that time - congratulations on you mead competition successes. Cheers DAW

I am so glad to find this forum...after visiting several other USA forums, I felt at odds with my methodology...UNTIL! In an obscure paragraph of a $3.50 "Winemaker's Recipe Handbook", this paragraph states, "Cold juice extraction is used vs. boiling (leftover from Jellymakings)". But what if in 1955, you learn this boiling of leftover from Jellymaking Method...and it was "bloody good" then; why not now...with some modern twists? Do not Boil...steep; that is when small bubbles start to form on the bottom of your pot. Do not boil off all the oxygen, 3 minutes is enough...skim off any scum, scums are those dead (Pasteurized) beastie yeasties. Fresh very ripe fruit, freeze, thaw, wet with one lemon or lime juice, add home canned fruit or jam (no sorbate), PINCH of epson salt, then boil, sterile carboy and utinsels, pitch starter, ferment, rack, cream of tartar (Potassium Bitartarate) for acid reduction in cold storage, rack, one egg white for fining agent (possitive charged), rack, then bentonite (negative charged), rack; and you will enjoy the results in a few months (six months) or more (four years). That is the family recipe in a "NUT-SHELL".

Then, I found on your forum this "British Winemakers Book"; Bless you Sir William Henry Roberts, at last...I have found "one" of many ancestoral niches. Best documented by Sir Roberts. We made medicines and teas...oh, and those poltuses around my neck...yuck! How empbarrasing to have school mates laugh at the smelly pouch around my neck...hidden under a shirt was no disquise (Back to the wines).http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/s...ead.php?t=1509 Delicious premium full bodied wines and meads, with nothing to waste. To share ancestoral recipes with you...is to read these three books. http://www.piwine.com/store/product....cat=274&page=1, Raymond Massccesi C 1976. Also, Presque Isle Catalog, http://www.piwine.com/pdf/cat24.pdf. Worth downloading for the use of additives descriptions and usage (start page 11).

I am out of the closet now! These OKieHoma Fophead Sophisticates from the OKieHoma Grapegrowers and WineMakers Association, are critical of this method. None of them has ever won 8 medals at the OKC State Fair or any other competition. We are taking no hostages now! As a general rule "body" means essence of whatever you are fermenting. "More Body", means more or condensed. Make condensed syrups of your must, within limits; and add these syrups in stages, as Sg approaches 1.001.

When possible, provide for your acids with other fresh fruits, not the chemicals I have referenced supra. Natural acids are more absorable by your yeast. Consult Natural Data http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-C00001-01c2103.html. Tartaric Acid, Malic Acid, Citric Acid, know how these work and how to best suppliment the specific nutritional needs of your wine or mead; Add a small quantity of apple juice; lemon, or lime, or orange juice; and some grape juice in your starter. With a Malolactic fermentation add a persimmon.