So before Christmas i bought a box of plums from the local fruit & veg shop. I had read here on HD about recipes and such, read through the wonderful slivovice.org but hadn't had a grasp on exactly how much plums were needed for a small batch, a boiler charge of around 25 litres.
So low and behold, with my box of plums squashed and whizzed, with about 80% of skins and seeds removed, i managed around 7 litres. A box would have been about 10kg. AUD$28.
This meant one thing.
Sugar.
9kg of the white stuff.
3kg added to the must of the plums in an airlock barrel (then filled to 28L), the other 6 kg was split between two other buckets that had the skins and seeds divided between them (20L each).
1 tsp of wine nutrient (DAP), a pinch of epsom salts and in went the EC 1118! (i may have added a multi vitamin to each bucket, but not the barrel) (also added a teaspoon of citric acid to the skins & seeds buckets.)
Fast forward to the new year and a few distillations later, it went like this;
Firstly, the ferments;
the juice + sugar barrel tasted great as a wine. i was considering bottling it.
the skins and seeds + sugar buckets tasted like you'd imagine from the ingredients.
in all 3 ferments, the ec 1118 flocculated nicely!
all 3 ferments were left unattended for roughly 3 weeks. the 2 buckets i scooped the skins and seeds (and bugs (loose lids)) off of the surface before racking into the still. the barrel had everything sink.
The plan was to double distill (pot) the 2 buckets of seeds & skins wash, and single distill the juice wash.
I stripped the skins and seeds buckets and then the next day did a spirit run. I collected in 400ml increments (one cup of fores taken) and blended the next day. I have a terrible nose, so i did the best i could. I probably used too much tales and was blending WIIIIIIIIDDDEE (in keeping with the slivovice style, except making more than the fores cut (
)). i kept 1 bottle of 60% and added french oak. it tastes crap but so did a bottle of apple juice brandy and that tastes good 11 months later. watered the rest down to 50%. It has too much tails!So guess what?
I stripped the juice + sugar barrel (taking a cup of fores, roughly 3 litres) and added the 2 litres of tails stuff back into the still and added 5 litres of hot water to make sure the element was covered (without a doubt) until the end. I collected in roughly 400ml increments, taking one cup of fores, and stopped after jar 6 (which was around 50%, or 60?) because it smelled and tasted like tails. Probably the most identifiable jar of tails ever.
but today, wow. 4 out of 6 jars smell wonderful! the 6th jar i ditched as hardcore tails. jar 1 was the best, a sweet floral smell, and only slightly less so each jar down until jar 5. jar 5 smelled a little bit... uh... "lacking"... threw 1 - 5 together and ended up with about 2 litres of 65%. put some water in a shot glass, filled the rest with the spirit and whoa... whoa! fruity. florally. everything.
my best fruit wash to date. i do intend to repeat this procedure next time.
Recipe & Procedure;
1 box of plums.
Make a yeast starter with EC 1118 yeast.
Squash plums in one fermenter and take out most of the seeds and skins, dividing them into 2 fermenters. (3 total, one with plum must including a handful of skins and seeds, 2 with skins and seeds only.)
Dissolve 9 kg of sugar and divide evenly between the 3 fermenters.
Add a teaspoon of DAP and a pinch of epsom salt to each fermenter.
Add a multi vitamin and a teaspoon of citric acid to each of the "skins & seeds" fermenters.
Fill each fermenter to a still charge worth with water and mix. (in my case, one fermenter had 28L knowing that i'd leave a few litres behind, the 2 buckets i used only made up to 20L but had less solids.)
Pitch yeast from the starter to each fermenter. (i didn't stir.)
In the first week; check washes but don't disturb. Leave for 2 more weeks unchecked and undisturbed. Check. Wait another few days eagerly waiting the chance to distill.
Taste the "skins & seeds" washes. Note that it tastes like shitty plum wine.
Strip down the 2 fermenters of "skins & seeds", air out for a day and then distill again, adding 5L of water - Around 15L total. Collect in 400ml increments and make bad cuts. Blend. Put away a bottle with French oak. Be turned off by the rest.
Taste the "juice & sugar" ferment. Note that it would make an excellent plum wine and consider bottling it. Shake your head and realise you like liquor more. Strip this ferment, realising bottling just one wouldn't have hurt...
Make the decision to throw it all in the still and have another go, keeping in mind the better quality wash you had tasted before.
Make 400ml incremental cuts.
Blend all except the last.
Be happy.