Persimmon Wine

Persimmons are such an odd fruit. When you buy them, they’re hard as a rock. Like an unripe mango or papaya, it’s hard to imagine them becoming soft, or edible.

Yet, when they transform from their rock-like-state, they become delicate. They feel like an overripe tomato, that if dropped, would splatter across the floor.

The hard-like-a-rock and soft-like-a-tomato transformation only takes a couple days.

So when little ol’ me goes and buys twenty four of these little guys, I go from having zero ripe to ten ripe at a time. They’re like avocados: unusable until they’re ripe, then perfect for a short time, and overripe the next day.

Persimmon season is relatively short. Close to a month down here in Florida. They don’t keep very well, so when they’re out of season, they are quickly off the shelves for the year.

I’ve been buying copious amounts of them locally and finding uses for them. Persimmon wine was on my list of foods to attempt! To extract the juice, I placed them in sugar.

For 1 gallon (3.8 liters), I used 3 pounds, 6 ounces (1.5 kilograms) of very ripe persimmons. I covered them with approximately 2 pounds (0.9 kilograms) of table sugar.

Then I squeezed the persimmons with clean hands. After a slurry was made, I added enough water to make fill a gallon jug.

The next afternoon, I poured the goop through a mesh strainer and into a carboy. I squeezed 4 lemons through the strainer as well.

It was a mess but I made it work!

The residual sugar-coated pulp chunks (mmm such an appetizing description) are in the fridge. Most likely, they’ll be turned into jam or dehydrated overnight!

The strained liquid was vibrantly orange and thick, like mango juice.

The first week that I ferment wine, I cover the top with a plastic bin and place it in the bath tub. Last night, I had an overflow and I’m glad it was contained to the tub!

The pulp that made it through the strainer coagulated and pushed through the air lock. Lesson learned, I’ll use a blow off tube next time for persimmons.

I cleaned the air locks and placed the carboy back in the tub. The remaining pulp is still inside but I don’t feel like siphoning the liquid to another container today.

I’m very excited for this brew! Hopefully the persimmon juice thinned out when the pulp coagulated and separated!