I have not made any homemade wine since before I started brewing. Don’t really have a good wine making book yet but have decided to used this recipe. http://www.morewinemaking.com/public/pdf/PWR.pdf
Any thoughts? Tips? Better recipe? What about adding pits to the must? I know some pits hide traces of carcinogens. All help appreciated.
I believe the pits contain cyanide. In enough quantity, they would be poisonous rather than carcinogenic.
I would avoid the pits.
I don’t know about plum pits but apricot pits are edible. some are better than others but if you split the pit open the kernal inside is quite delicious. I don’t think you would have to worry about leaving the pits in, I suspect it would add a nice nuance to the flavour.
** EDIT cause I hit post to soon **
I would think the ideal plum wine recipe would be to take a butt load of plums, crush them and add yeast, or just let them ferment.
Apricot pits also contain cyanide (technically a pre-cursor that becomes cyanide when metabolized).
Perhaps eating the occasional pit is fine, but I wouldn’t recommend doing anything with them in quantity. Unless you’ve got darker motives.
Lol. I meant to type “cyanide” and it came out as “carcinogen”. More coffee next time. 
so, any one ever make a plumb wine before? Thoughts on “grape tannin”?
I believe this was addressed in a past issue of Zymurgy. IIRC, the bottom line was not a good idea.
The pits or the plumb wine? ???
The pits.
And it’s “plum” wine, unless it’s perfectly vertical.
huh,
so after a little further research, there are sweet apricot kernals which do not contain the cyanide precursor which are the tastiest ones, just as bitter almonds contain the precursor but sweet almonds do not (almonds are a stone fruit kernal).
However according to this article that precursor is non-toxic and, in fact is vitamin B17 which is a valuable anti-cancer agent.
Plum eh? Who’d. Thunk it? :
;D
I was going to suggest using a level, but Denny beat me to it.
I’m no carpenter but I think you’d use a plumb bob. A shelf is level, a wall is plumb (and yes I know levels have a “plumb bubble” but since we’re being technical) .
But on the actual topic.
My father made a lot of fruit wines over the years. Sadly, he’s not here to ask anymore but he made many batches of plum wine, especially wild plum wine (and wild grape and strawberry and orange and watermelon and …). The fruit would be mashed and most of the pits removed (but not the skins) and metabisulfate added to kill the wild yeast. Then wine yeast would be pitched and it would ferment in an open fermenter for a week or so, covered with cheese cloth and then racked into glass for a long secondary.
I can’t tell you more than that but when we were moving my mother from her house, there were probably 20 cases of plum wine in the basement and I tried some. Most of it would be at least 15 or 20 years old and it had the most amazing port profile of anything I’ve ever tasted. I dearly wish I’d been smarter and kept a few cases. It was fairly sweet (he’d add supplemental sugar) and with the slight oxidation and aging it was fantastic. It had a lot of sediment but with a careful pour you could get 98% of the wine out of the bottle. Stupid me tossed it all 
Fun facts to know and share:
Plumbing has its roots in the Latin word plumbum - translation = lead. Lead is malleable and the Romans used it for making water pipes. Hence the atomic symbol for the element lead is Pb.
The Japanese make plum wine. It’s very sweet. The flavor reminds me of the smell of a toilet mint. Perhaps that’s the plumb - plum connection? :o
I feel plumb dumb.
Can’t believe you tossed it all. Bummer. Hope mine turns out half as good as your dad’s.
I have probably close to 20 lbs of plumbs (sorry, seems like it should be spelled that way) put them in the freezer and intend to make the wine next Saturday.
Do they look like this?
Pluuuummmmms.
I have made a lot of plum wine over the years. It’s very light so be careful with grape tannin, it will have a bitter after taste if too much is used. It can be “thin” also. A can or 2 of white grape frozen concentrate will help with that (no preservatives!!!).
I make it slightly on the sweet side - just enough so the fruit flavor comes through well.
Sorta.
Ya know, I’m starting to think now I know why I got no results on the search. :o