Damson Wine

Haven't been on for a while feel bad as I was going to tell Moley which Damson Wine recipe I was using I am new to all this and still feeling my way . Only got round to picking the Damsons Yesterday evening they are washed and in the fridge going to start tonight.

I have three recipes almost decided on this one :-

4lb Damsons
1/2 oz stick of Cinnamon
4lb Sugar
1 Gallon of Water
Youngs super wine yeast compound.

The 2nd recipe is out of CJJ Berry his is just about the same but he adds 1/2lb barley (does he mean pearl barley).

3rd is also CJJ Berry which he calls Social Red Wine
4lb Damsons
3lb Sugar
1/4 pint Red grape concentrate.
1 gallon water
1 teaspoon pectic enzyme
Wine yeast compound.

As we have 25lb Damsons picked may try a DJ of this recipe and the rest into the first recipe unless anyone can give me any info on why to use Barley and what type of Barley. (sorry to sound thick).

We are not boiling Damsons as we have heard this makes it even harder to clear so we are doing as we did for the plum wine which is washing and stoning fruit and soaking in cold water with campden tablets for four days then straining juice onto sugar adding yeast and putting on airlock.

CJJ Berry recommends crushing the Damsons and removing as many stones as you can, Damsons are very fiddly and as we have a cider press we are going to try pressing them to get the juice out, could all go pearshaped but the Damsons are free so just really the cost of the sugar if it goes wrong. So watch this space in a years time !!!!!!!!!!

The plum we strained onto the sugar a week ago 5 gallons and what a job that was it took forever to strain using every kitchen implement we had Mr W and Son did it with the help of some Edme Stout ha ha (drinking that is)
It is still bubbling away, along with the experimental Beetroot which is also still bubbling for England.
Like any woman I could go on forever but have probably bored you enough so will say ta ta for now be back with update at a later date.
Oh one more thing Cider making begins Thursday the press and apple crusher built by Mr W using instructions off the internet is in the garage ready for action. :drunk: :drunk: :drunk:

good luck with damson wine i am sure someone more knowledgable than me will advise on the barley
i would love to see a pic of you press or a link on how to build it i am thinking of doing one for next year Mrs L dosn't like me overworking the blender!!

something like this

Clicky

Of the three recipes I would go with the third one . . . I can see no reason to add barley as there is nothing in the yeast that will enable it to be used, and It adds the possibility of adding a starch haze.

That's an awful lot of sugar (like most of Berry's recipes) . . . but you could very well press the juice, dilute it and then add sugar to make a gravity of 1.090-1.095 which is ideal for a table wine.

Double the amount of pectin enzyme suggested by the instructions.

You may find pressing the damsons to be a bit difficult because of the stones, i think you will still need to stone them . . . alternatively pulp them in a bucket with a spud masher, then remove as many of the stones as you can and then crush.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES HEAT OR BOIL THE FRUIT

Thanks for your good advice aleman will keep you posted.

Many thanks Welshwitch and Aleman.

I still haven't started my Damson, but am hoping I might get it underway tomorrow evening.

I have used the CJJB recipe in the past and seem to recall it was quite decent, although I had wondered about the use of barley. Incidentally Welshwitch, I have been told that you can use pearl barley, which is a much cheaper option than the barley I can get from my LHBS.

I don't think I fancy the cinnamon, and I haven't got any GJC, so I might still go with no.2, but add some amylase in case of starch.

My damsons have been washed, sulphited, rinsed, sorted and de-stalked and are currently in the freezer (which should help break them down), and I was thinking of pouring boiled water over the frozen fruit, so it would cool almost instantaneously to ‘barely tepid’ but thaw them out quicker.

lazydog said:

good luck with damson wine i am sure someone more knowledgable than me will advise on the barley
i would love to see a pic of you press or a link on how to build it i am thinking of doing one for next year Mrs L dosn't like me overworking the blender!!

something like this

Clicky

Click to expand...

here's a link to the brewday

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=2407