This years slivovitz or plum brandy.

[BackyardBrewer]

I used fly wire and it made the fig racking marginally better than the apricots but fruit racking & clearing is a fucking nightmare!

Sheets, gravity, filters...it's a labour of love for sure. But your gear is astonishingly clear, well done. I've still to re-rack my apricot wash from February

[emptyglass]

I'm not sure if I've gone too far BB.
Not sure if the solids are such a bad thing. But as for wine, it didn't turn out so bad. I've had worse from the bottle'o. Chateau cardboard comes to mind.
But we's all not makin wines, is we?
I'm only going to toss it back on the pulp once distilled first time, so I guess it dosn't matter. I am tempted to do a normal bubbler run, and keep it as brandy, if it turns out ok. Smells bloody nice.

First time in my life tonight I pictured myself owning a grape press :scared-eek:
Well, at least borrowing one anyway.

[MacStill]

I'm not sure if I've gone too far BB.

That just sounds wrong (say it out loud) :hand:

Maybe if you buy him flowers he'll forgive you

:laughing-rolling:

[emptyglass]

He's ok with it, he knows me.

I'll be back again tomorrow night, bigger and stronger, and a whole lot longer.

[emptyglass]

I just finnished running this stuff through my bubbler.
I had a long wait to load the plates, a sure sign of a low yeilding charge.
I managed 1.5 litres at 90ish% (will measure properly later) from a 40 litre charge. I got another 30 odd litres to run. This still is pretty good at recovering all the good stuff from a wash, but I really had to wring its neck to get all that the wash had. It was almost running like a boka, drip, drip, drip.

So,

I got the choice to leave it like it is, or return it to the pulp. I'm thinking of collecting what I can and then add some pulp to it, it will be more efficient when it comes to racking it off again.
It has turned out delicious. Nice aroma, almost cherry like, a bit nutty, very nice.

But!

For the ammount of hunting and gathering, mashing, fermenting, distilling and possible re-distilling, its hard to know if its worth the work. I've ended up with a very nice drink, but bugger all of it. Have a sample and yeah, like wow man, but look at the haul and WTF??

I think Crow wins here, add sugar or its not worth the effort.

[BackyardBrewer]

I hear you - there's a labour of love and then there's just "labour"!

[crow]

yeah the 25 ltr ferment I did without sugar I didn't even run by itself as I determined the ABV to be to low to bother so it was added to part of a higher ABV wash, yield was of cause still down some on that run. I still got a heap to run when I get back plus whiskey that will be well and fucking truly finished (hope its all still good) :-s

[emptyglass]

The plums I used were not very sweet to eat, not bad, but there are lots better table plums than these, so I guess that it was a no brainer looking back.

I've still got a small drum to rack, but I think I'd need a 25 litre boiler and a 1" bubbler to make it worth it. I think I might do the same crow, and add it to the remaining 30 odd litres I have.

On a side note, I've not run anything that cleans the insides of a still like this stuff does. It even turned the outlet of the parrot pink inside.

@crow, whats this they are saying about you only being a part time Victorian?

[crow]

Crow as in croweater as in person native to SA as in supporter of the Adelaide crows. I am a south Australian that happens to own property and reside in Victoria Part in Victorian indeed :roll:

[emptyglass]

Well let me know when you are coming back, as I have been using your still for the past 3 months.

Victorian, my ass. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[emptyglass]

Well, I finaly ran the second half of this gear.
I had about 30 odd litres left from the big drum (pale flesh) and I got about 10-12litres from the small drum (blood plums), it made economic sense to put it through all together but I was worried I might miss out on picking the difference betwen the ferments.
No contest. The blood plums are the way to go. Even with only 1/4 of the wash being the blood plums, there is a distinct difference. A much better taste. This is getting close to the real deal. Just one time off the bubbler.
I love these bubblers. The first run was a bit dissapointing, being so low in ABV and me not being with it on the night to realise, it ran like a pig. Made me think I'd never run one before.
This run I was on to it a bit better. I pumped up the jam from the start and kept it running hard. I got the plates loaded from the start and kept them going for the first 700ml.
Yeah, fukin ye ha! 700 f-n ml. Then started loosing plates as per a normal ABV charge. I got about the same quantity as the first run, about the same quality.
It dosn't seem to matter if the still runs bad, it still runs good.

Now I just got to decide what to do next. I should put it back on the pulp, but being so high in ABV (92%ish) its a bit higher than what the recipie calls for. I'm thinking I'll throw it on the blood plum pulp, diluting it with all the tails. The stuff with a bit of tails in tastes better than none at all. I'm thinking this drink needs the tails.

I'ts just so very low yeilding.
But I have a new respect for the czech's and yugo's that drink this stuff by the shot glass. Real men they are. Forget your tequila and vodka, this stuff requires a dialisis machine on standby.

[emptyglass]

Ok, this stuffs been back on the pulp for a couple of weeks now, its sat long enough.
I tried to rack it, no hope. The alcohol seemed to disolve the flesh, for want of a better description. It was just chunky solids.
So I decided to tip the lot in the boiler and boil it off. I was a bit worried about my still being gas fired and cooking the crap out of it, so I decided to just run slower than normal, and hope I dont burn it onto the boiler.
The stuff on the flesh was pretty strong (80% ish?) so I diluted it back to less than 40%. I think it help stop it scorching.
Then I thought about the pits then thought of nan's plum jam thats always cooked with the pits in, she's over 80 and all good, no cyanide poisoning from eating jam over the years.
I didn't expect to have enough heat to load the plates so opted for a pot run of sorts, with a bit of reflux to clean it up. At the start of the run, the top plate did load, but didn't take long to dissapear, I guess. I say I guess cos I couldnt see anything. Thick fog from the start to the end. I couldnt see the plate tree rod with a maglight. Never had that before, but I've never put fruit directly in the boiler before. Sight glasses were useless.

It worked well, started collecting at 93%, dropping 10% per 500ml or so and collected down to 30%. It tastes and smells nice, but I'll let it breathe for a bit before getting serious on any blending.

I have not long finnished the run, so I don't really know what happened to the boiler, and if the remaining crap in the boiler turns to jam or if its burnt on. I'll let you know....

At the end of the day, a hell of a lot of effort and time went into this, for 3 litres of product. I think its nicer than it was after the first distillation, but time will tell.

[MacStill]

So perhaps over thinking with plums could be beneficial ? :think:

[SBB]

Then I thought about the pits then thought of nan's plum jam thats always cooked with the pits in, she's over 80 and all good, no cyanide poisoning from eating jam over the years.

Love the logic EG, :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[BackyardBrewer]

At the end of the day I felt same way about my apricot run. A 50L run got me about 4L total product before cuts. the smell is amazing but the yield was terrible. i suspect a stalled ferment:(

I've got about a other 100L to run and I recently hit it with bicarbonate & dap and I'll be adding some more yeast & sugar this week and tipping it from the racking cubes back into the fermenters to try and fire it off and up the abv.

Such a fantastic smell - like apricot lollies - but woeful yield. Ahh well, there's always next year!

[emptyglass]

So perhaps over thinking with plums could be beneficial ? :think:

Well, it took me longer to type it than to think it.

At the end of the day I felt same way about my apricot run. A 50L run got me about 4L total product before cuts. the smell is amazing but the yield was terrible. i suspect a stalled ferment:(

I've got about a other 100L to run and I recently hit it with bicarbonate & dap and I'll be adding some more yeast & sugar this week and tipping it from the racking cubes back into the fermenters to try and fire it off and up the abv.

Such a fantastic smell - like apricot lollies - but woeful yield. Ahh well, there's always next year!

Yeah, it is a woeful yeild, but I wanted to try it according to the recipie I'd been given. Next time I'm gunna get all sugared up. But like you say, the smell is fantastic. I made more smell than drink, I think 8-}

[MacStill]

So perhaps over thinking with plums could be beneficial ? :think:

Well, it took me longer to type it than to think it.

Apologies, was just thinking out loud re: comments made earlier ;-)

[emptyglass]

Thats ok mate, I was consulting my inner plum.

I just hope I havn't funk-shui'ed my boiler.

[MacStill]

I doubt I'll be making this again for quite some time so it's important to me to get it right with a decent yield, my main concern now is boiler size for running it all :crying-blue:

[emptyglass]

I did a little sniff and taste test of some pot ditilled stuff from 2 years ago, on oak for that time, and its better, but the stuff made tonight isn't far behind, just very new. A little time on wood and it should be nice.

Now, off to chop down a mulberry tree. They say its better than oak for this drink.

I'm hearing you mac, its an opportunity product. It is unique and some don't like it, no matter how good its made. I guess I have sort of aquired a taste for it.

I guess you might have to batch run it. Bubble caps should work well for this I think.