Making your own wine? Why not?

So, Daemonchild and I decided it might be a good idea to make our own wine. Nothing wrong with that...er...except that HE decided on Plum wine. I was sceptical. It doesn't sound particularly appetising. However...

We went out and bought 4 punnets of plums (3 1/2 lb) and a couple of buckets. (Some homebrew sites suggest white buckets as coloured ones may contain poisons but hey, the coloured ones were cheap and, besides, horses drink out of them without any ill effects!). We ended up having to divide our plums into two as they wouldn't fit into one bucket, admittedly.

We then halved and de-stoned them before putting them into the buckets.























We then boiled a gallon of water and poured half into each bucket. This was essentially two kettles-full.























Even after half an hour, you can see the change in the colour.
(The plums on the right were submerged in boiling water 30 minutes before the ones on the left.)























We then mashed the plums up (as they were easier to mash when in the boiling water) and left them for eight days, covered, in warm place. The result? Lots of mould!























We then strained it through a sieve to get it really smooth.























Then we added 4lb of granulated sugar and some yeast. It frothed; lots!























This mixture was then left for 3 days, stirred daily, somewhere warm - to let the sugar and yeast dissolve.























After 3 days, it was still really frothy:























But it got funneled into the Demi-John (glass) and an airlock (plastic) was fitted on top.























And in this demi-john it'll sit for a few months while we look after it.























We'll let you know what happens...and if Daemonchild was right about the "plum wine" thing! We're only 11 days in to this wine making venture and it seems to have progressed a long way. Apparently it's fizzing like mad upstairs as I write!