Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

My plum wine is just getting older and older waiting for me to get home and run it :angry-tappingfoot: :-w :!! :confusion-waiting:

Plum brandy cuts :angry-banghead:
Ok Ive watering down: smelling, tasting, dipping my fingers and so on and on and my best guess out of 60 small jars at 90%, run on 4 plates very slow is jars 8 through 35 :think:
This seem a little to close to the start of the run for comfort but maybe with the famous bubbler heads compression coupled with the slowness of the run it could be the go?

Thoughts anyone :greetings-waveyellow: x_x

res, plums can be pretty weird straight off the still.

Give your jars 48 hours airing, then try your cuts again... it'll help a lot :handgestures-thumbupleft:

MacStill wrote:res, you chose a hard one to do cuts on for your first... plums can be pretty weird straight off the still.

Give your jars 48 hours airing, then try your cuts again... it'll help a lot :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cheers mac :handgestures-thumbupleft: Forgot to mention I did the 48 hour thing as well 8-}
It's definitely back to ag whisky of one kind or another after this ;-)

P.S no such thing as FREE plums!

Yeah ok just cut as you normally would then, maybe stay cautious on the heads side.... early plum tails are very nice though.

Give it a couple of weeks on some oak and I'll bet your opinion changes, after 6 or so months it's real good :drool:

I'll tell you this much, 60 open jars are making my flat smell pretty dam nice :handgestures-thumbupleft: To the oak I go :pray:

I'd probably go a little on the conservative side with the oak res, treat your plums with love and tenderness :))

MacStill wrote:I'd probably go a little on the conservative side with the oak res, treat your plums with love and tenderness :))

My thoughts as well. I'm going to start off with 1 French domino
per 3 litres, won't be touching it until Christmas.

MacStill wrote:Yeah ok just cut as you normally would then, maybe stay cautious on the heads side.... early plum tails are very nice though.

Give it a couple of weeks on some oak and I'll bet your opinion changes, after 6 or so months it's real good :drool:

:text-+1:

Damn right Mac ! Ran a batch two weeks ago and I can't keep my sticky paws off the jug.

crow wrote:My plum wine is just getting older and older waiting for me to get home and run it :angry-tappingfoot: :-w :!! :confusion-waiting:

I've got about 4 barrels ready for nearly a month. Any down side to leaving it for a few more weeks ? Apart from not having enough to drink :O)

Not if they are adequately sealed, Hope mine are as I'm still not at home x_x

I thought other readers of this thread might be interested in trying a technique I learned from Myles that he calls 1 and a half.

Halve the wash. Run the first half through the still on a fast stripping run. Pour the spirit from the strip run into the second half wash and then run that nice and slow making your cuts.

Particularly good if you are short of time (or big jars) and need to get something half decent into the jug in a hurry . :handgestures-thumbupleft:

It's Plum season! I happened to catch up with uncle Peter the stone fruit farmer over the weekend who gave me about 30kg of plums. You bloody ripper. i tipped about 10kg into a 60l fermenter with 10kg of inverted sugar and wizzed it up with the paint stirrer on saturday morning. It appears to be bubbling away nicely now from the wild yeast. I'm going to put another 10kg down tonight into two 25l fermenters using EC1118 yeast and see how it compares to the wild ones :handgestures-thumbupleft:
the rest of the fruit got stewed up to go on my cornflakes :D

any red hot tips from you blokes that have done heaps of this? i'm loving fermenting fruit, makes the shed smell nice!

ive been told grapes have high pectin in their skin which causes higher methanol production. might want to look into your plumbs aswell

WTDist wrote:ive been told grapes have high pectin in their skin which causes higher methanol production. might want to look into your plumbs aswell

cheers cob. I've done loads of recon work on Pectin. I'm by no means an expert yet, but I think i'm prepared for it! i'll be overly conservative with my heads cuts. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

maddogpearse wrote:It's Plum season! I happened to catch up with uncle Peter the stone fruit farmer over the weekend who gave me about 30kg of plums. You bloody ripper. i tipped about 10kg into a 60l fermenter with 10kg of inverted sugar and wizzed it up with the paint stirrer on saturday morning. It appears to be bubbling away nicely now from the wild yeast. I'm going to put another 10kg down tonight into two 25l fermenters using EC1118 yeast and see how it compares to the wild ones :handgestures-thumbupleft:
the rest of the fruit got stewed up to go on my cornflakes :D

any red hot tips from you blokes that have done heaps of this? i'm loving fermenting fruit, makes the shed smell nice!

Great stuff mate!! I made an s. load of plum brandy last year, it took about 8 months to come good on oak but it is beautiful now! Basically the same as you except I did 10kg fruit and 4kg sugar per 30L fermenter and used EC1118. I used a fly screen to squeeze out all the liquid from the fermenter (after racking), its a messy job but not too bad.

I actually picked 10kgs this morning after spotting a tree up the road, but I spent the best part of the weekend dealing with 50kgs of apricots from my tree.. Got 100L total fermenting now! I'm gunna be stocked up with brandy this time next year!! :obscene-drinkingdrunk:

spit'n'shine wrote:
Great stuff mate!! I made an s. load of plum brandy last year, it took
about 8 months to come good on oak but it is beautiful now! Basically the same as you except I did 10kg fruit and 4kg sugar per 30L fermenter and used EC1118. I used a fly screen to squeeze out all the liquid from the fermenter (after racking), its a messy job but not too bad.

I actually picked 10kgs this morning after spotting a tree up the road, but I spent the best part of the weekend dealing with 50kgs of apricots from my tree.. Got 100L total fermenting now! I'm gunna be stocked up with brandy this time next year!! :obscene-drinkingdrunk:

Mate you and I aught to sit down one day over a drink and discuss toranas and distilling! :handgestures-thumbupleft:

maddogpearse wrote:

spit'n'shine wrote:
Great stuff mate!! I made an s. load of plum brandy last year, it took
about 8 months to come good on oak but it is beautiful now! Basically the same as you except I did 10kg fruit and 4kg sugar per 30L fermenter and used EC1118. I used a fly screen to squeeze out all the liquid from the fermenter (after racking), its a messy job but not too bad.

I actually picked 10kgs this morning after spotting a tree up the road, but I spent the best part of the weekend dealing with 50kgs of apricots from my tree.. Got 100L total fermenting now! I'm gunna be stocked up with brandy this time next year!! :obscene-drinkingdrunk:

Mate you and I aught to sit down one day over a drink and discuss toranas and distilling! :handgestures-thumbupleft:

:-D Sounds great! It will be a big session id say mate! :obscene-drinkingdrunk:

Are you running through the pot still?

I still have nightmares of trying to put plums through the grape press, fuck plums :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

MacStill wrote:I still have nightmares of trying to put plums through the grape press, fuck plums :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

I didn't try to take on two tons of the bastards! Made it a bit more manageable. I also read on one of the other slivovitz threads floating around here that you don't really need to mince them up. after a few days in water they all turn to mush and the sugar is available for the yeasties to eat. I reasoned the extra sugar i added will keep the yeast happy until such a time as this happens? Good enough theory?

spit'n'shine wrote: :-D Sounds great! It will be a big session id say mate! :obscene-drinkingdrunk:

Are you running through the pot still?

Yep, twice through the pot. Then i think i'll whack some on french oak, and try and find some fruit wood to put some on too. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
hope i like this stuff. I've never tasted it, it just sounded like fun to make!

That's the go mate! They do turn to mush after a few days in water... It happened last year to mine before I had a chance to touch them, it took like 10 seconds with the paint mixer to finish the job! :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I found it pretty undrinkable and rough the first few months.. that was through 4 plates. Double pot still may take longer to come good but you are guaranteed bulk flavour with this stuff! :drool: