“The queen took a flagon of sweet plum wine from a passing serving girl and filled Sansa’s cup. ‘Drink,’ she commanded coldly. ‘Perhaps it will give you the courage to deal with truth for a change.'” –A Clash of Kings
Plum Wine
Thoughts:
Usually I wait with brewing recipes, but it’s just the tail end of plum season, so I wanted to give you all the chance to brew some yourselves. The next post will be back to food, I promise. :)
This is an unusual fruit wine, to say the least. It starts with a raisin wine base, to which the plum juice is added. But really, THAT COLOR! The purple from the plum skins did a lot for the color, but the addition of hibiscus is what really tipped it over the edge into that gorgeous, almost grapefruity hue.
In terms of process, there are some things I might do differently. First off, juice the plums. I’m not sure if that would lose some of the purple from the skins, but it would certainly uncomplicate things a bit. I’d probably put the hibiscus in earlier, along with the plums, to get maximum flavor and color. All in all though, a fun historical romp.
Get the recipe and updates on the brew blog, Game of Brews.
That color is just glorious! It’s like a sunset in a bottle!!! I can’t wait to hear how it ages.
They wanna play fruit with us, let’s play. Plums!
PLUMS!
Looks cool. I should really start to search some fermentation equipmenty stuff.
I agree that the colour of this wine gives it a very special look. I hope that the aging makes it even better.
Be careful where you store your bottles if you “stop” fermentation early. The free SO2 from the Campden tablet will decrease over time and you could have further fermentation in the bottle. Also, this recipe may benefit from a fining agent like gelatin or egg white to get rid of some of the suspended fruit pulp. I think I might cheat and add some sugar to boost the alcohol content. :)
Agreed on all counts! Do let me know how it turns out if you play with it some. :)
when do you put on the yeast ? sorry, didn’t get it…
It goes in at the very beginning, along with the chopped raisins. Are you planning to make some of your own?
was the yeast in there all the time and I din’t see ?
i’m surely going to try making it… maybe next month, then i’ll tell you how it ended up… do I need to wait all those months to drink it or is it a sugestion ?
The time frame is the original suggestion from the original recipe, but I think it’s pretty tasty sooner. I’m interested to see how it ages myself, though!
I also wanted to have a mulled wine, but since I’m from Brazil, there’s no much need for it. I wish it was cold so I could have some…