Racking the Plum Wine

It has been over a month since I started the latest batch of wine here. The first stage of fermentation was over in only ten days, and ever since then, the wine has been happily bubbling away in the glass carboy I transfered it into.  In the beginning, the fermentation took place at a furious pace, the bubbles rising to the top and lifting the airlock every few seconds.  In the last couple of weeks, the bubbles have stopped as far as I could tell, so it was time to add the last of the sugar and rack the wine again.

As you can see, the wine is a beautiful shade of magenta and is nearly clear.  The sediment from all of the yeast has sunk to the bottom and that is what I am clearing out by racking the wine.  First I boiled some water to help sterilize the bucket that I would be mixing the additional sugar in.  Once the bucket was clean I added the sugar and then started siphoning the wine into the bucket, mixing it as it filled.  Once the carboy was empty I rinsed it out very well and also did a round of boiling water to sterilize it again.  Then I transfered the wine back into the carboy where it will undergo another round of fermentation.  I don't expect it to ferment too much more, since I think the alcohol content is already fairly high.  Once it clears again it will be ready to be bottled which should be in about one month or so.  I took a little taste after transfering it and it was so delicious!  It is on the sweet side, but some of that should go away as it finishes fermenting.  I can't wait to taste the finished product and neither can my friends.  I made a small batch of this last year and it wasn't nearly enough to go around.  This year should make up for that since I should have about 30 bottles out of this batch.  Not bad for a $60 investment in fresh plums, sugar and yeast.