Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

...and I can't buy a ferment with my apple march wash:(

OK these things are hard work, the skins are pretty tough and dont split too well in the squisher and I reckon the fruit might be a tad too firm just yet.

Anyway we must proceed.



A fair while later and we're away







Time for a rum ~x(

You should get a motor for that squisher mac, the fella operating it looks a bit knackered. I think you're working him too hard. At least let him sit down for a smoke! :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Big effort mate, I hope you enjoy it in the end.

Funny thing is I dont drink brandy :laughing-rolling: this is a once in a lifetime gig with these plums, a lot will be put away for the long term as in gifts etc etc.

MacStill wrote:Funny thing is I dont drink brandy :laughing-rolling: this is a once in a lifetime gig with these plums, a lot will be put away for the long term as in gifts etc etc.

My birthday is in July ;-)

Your gonna have more than enough for gifts etc... You'll be putting it on your cornflakes :laughing-rolling:

I cant stand corflakes :puke-huge:

What I've done is take crows advise on 5kg plums, 5kg sugar & 25L water x by volume, it's taken off real quick and smells fantastic with EC1118 yeast working it.

After a "harsh" NO! by the fermentinator (crow) I didnt dare put bakers yeast anywhere near it, also BC said the same :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Another couple of drums are mashed up with water added, no sugar or yeast added and about 60kg of plums each.

On EG's advise the other 2 drums have 60kg's of whole plums covered with water to soften over a couple/few weeks ready for the smashing, hopefully by doing the 3 different ways it helps stagger out the ferments so I can deal with it all.

Just the smells in my shed are screaming flavour, I'M EXCITED :happy-partydance:

Might be ok on bacon and eggs 8-}

Good to see your putting the work in Mac, hope you reap the rewards. Worse comes to worse you could put corn flour in it and bottle it for ya toast :)) .

Nana norma's plum jam recipie;

4 lbs plums.
4 lbs sugar.
boil til mixture sets on a cold saucer.
Bottle.

(use green gauge plums if possible)

Just in case you get bored.

MacStill wrote:Funny thing is I dont drink brandy :laughing-rolling: this is a once in a lifetime gig with these plums, a lot will be put away for the long term as in gifts etc etc.

Yeah not a big brandy drink either but this stuff is not really like grape brandy. lightly oaked and aged a few weeks and its very morish, been drinking it with coke tonight and it is as good as anything I've drank and a whole lot better than a lot of European Slivovich I've choke down :handgestures-thumbupleft:

geez the shed smells good with this gear fermenting, kinda smells like a jam factory :D

So glad that part is over and have my shed back now, they're hard work these things.....

So I'm getting ready to start my own Plum Brandy courtesy of Macs Plums.

I'm just wondering what kind of ratio's everyone has been putting in?

Mac said above that he used 5kg plum 5kg sugar per 25 L water. So if this is right, assuming he is working off 150L of water he added 30kg of plums and 30kgs of sugar? It seems like a lot of sugar to add. Crow said he used 8kgs for 20kgs of plums.

With that said, how has it turned out for everyone? Is a 1:1 ratio for plums and sugar a little high? Is 2:1 plums and sugar better?

Looking forward to hear everyone's experiences. I'm hoping to get a couple drums starting to ferment tomorrow.

Adam.

You can use what you like. Plums vary in natural sugar content. You can add heaps or none.

If you add none, you get a slivovich instead of brandy, but you don't get a lot of product for the work.

Best off if you add some, if just for a bit extra yeild. I think mac has shown you don't need extra yeast, if you do add extra yeast, leave heaps of headspace!!
I'd go 2:1, or less if you dont have the room in the drum.

crow wrote:it is as good as anything I've drank and a whole lot better than a lot of European Slivovich I've choke down :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thats where you went wrong, should have been aussie slivo you were drinking :laughing-rolling:

OK day 2 of the fermentation going on, the first pic is of the blue plums with EC1118 added.

Beautiful smell, strongly fermenting ambient temp around 25c



Second pic is half smashed red/yellow, half whole waiting for sugar, no yeast added, strong natural ferment and incredible sweet smell, might just let this one go as is and just smash the plums up a bit more.



This pic is the first I put on, EC1118 added, blue plums, totally smashed, sugar added, going great guns fermenting, really sweet delicate smell but not as nice as pic 2



:happy-partydance:

edit: for some reason the first 2 pics are of the same batch.... will fix pics asap :angry-banghead:

I found the light flesh plums smelt more appetising than the dark ones while fermenting, the dark ones had some strong scents that I couldn't pin down, but the light ones smelt sweeter than the sweetest plum jam you ever tasted.
At the end of the ferment, the dark ones smelt better.

I helped crow rack his plum brandy, and I really thought the no sugar one I did smelt lots better. Amazing aroma.
But I also saw how much more he got out out of his than I did with no added sugar.

The stuff I made out of the bubbler was fantastic, and it cleans anything left of your teeth and also the insides of the still. Powerful stuff - all 6 bottles of it. It took half a big olive drum to get that much. Not sure how much crow ended up with, but he's still drinking it.

The shed will smell divine when you run it. A smell to remember. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Plumbs, plumbs, fucking plumbs, if I see a plumb soon I'll explode, I'll say now Mac is the god dam bomb for mashing 400kg+ of plumbs. So I mashed mine and did all the figures for those who care, the plumbs give of a og of 1055 and a ph of 4, which I think is damn good.

Blond & I felt same way after crushing all our apples too- cant look at one!

You will find I think that the pH will drop very rapidly . I found that by day 2 the pH was around 2 and needed ajusting

crow wrote:You will find I think that the pH will drop very rapidly . I found that by day 2 the pH was around 2 and needed ajusting

I'll test mine tomorrow on day 4 of fermentation & report back, it's not showing any signs of slowing at this stage with the ferment getting along quite nicely on all drums :handgestures-thumbupleft: