Lets get carried away with fruity goodness

[cranky]

Im hoping for the same result with my apples. They are about half the size of last year but hopefully mych sweeter. Will find out in another month.

The 1.062 is about the highest I've had from all but the special wild ones I've been trying to clone which normally run 1.067 to 1.070. If they are sweeter the wife will be very happy because she gets the juice from those and she likes it sweet but we won't find out until late November on those.

[cranky]

I got carried away.

Lost in a sea of plums, I have decided to clear the books. That is correct... My life now revolves around basic needs, family life, and picking fruit into 55 gallon fermenters in the back of my truck.

All of this fruit would have otherwise been fertilizer. Running some brandy right now to clear up a fermenter for tomorrow morning picking.

I hate seeing good food go to waist and think all fruit should be fermented and made into something tasty, That's one of the reasons I am collecting fuchsia berries. The biggest problem is finding time to work the fruit. I'm jealous of the plums, the guy that has the Asian pears also has a couple plum trees but let most of them just fall onto the ground in spite of knowing I will ferment anything and contributors get special treatment at Christmas. If I had had time I would have borrowed a ladder from him and picked what was left on the tree but like I already said, I ran out of both time and bags to put stuff in so I will have to go back another day.

The wife just finished sorting pears into those that need dealt with right away and those that need a few more days to ripen. She is making all sorts of plans to go with them that are conflicting with mine but as long as she gets enough to make her happy she won't complain about the amount of time I'm spending on fruit.

[cranky]

Today I got the OK to go back to the Asian pear tree and strip it bare, all he wants is some of the cider or whatever I make from it. He don't know about my stilling so it will be pear wine or perry. I'm thinking I'll go back Thursday of Friday with enough bags to strip the tree, should go well in the calvados style brandy I'm working on or maybe a straight pear brandy, I really do like a nice pear brandy.

[MDH]

During fermentation the fruit will form a cap. Instead of stirring it in, siphon some of the fermenting liquid underneath into a carboy, airlock it and allow it to complete separately there.

[cranky]

Today I managed to go over to to the house of the guy I work with and picked his apple and Asian pear trees clean. All in all I got another 80-100 pounds of pears today, in addition to the 80 pounds I got the other day. Just in time too because in the 4 days between the first picking and today a lot of pears fell on the ground. I didn't even pick up the ones I saw fall on the ground because within hours of hitting they become very mushy and nasty.

My wife cleaned chopped and ground a bunch of the pears over the past couple days with the intention of cooking with them and making pear sauce, like apple sauce, but she decided she didn't like this type of pears for that and asked me to press them and make some dessert wine with the juice. So tonight I pressed the pears she prepped, getting about 3 gallons of juice, these are very juicy pears. I checked the juice and it tests at only 5.5% potential alcohol and the flavor is very mild so I decided to take her share and jack it before fermenting to raise the sugar and intensify the flavor. Dessert wines can be a little tricky because you want a high sugar content but low alcohol yeast but I have gotten pretty good at them. I prefer to use wyeast's sweet mead yeast for dessert wines but it can be pretty pricy when my brew shop even has it in stock so for amounts less than 5 gallons I like to use D-47 instead, it has proven to be a good yeast for me.

So I took a gallon jug and filled it with pear juice and put it in the freezer . Tomorrow I will take it out and let it thaw a bit and drain the condensed liquid out. Then I will decide if I should just add that to the rest of the pear juice or if I should jack the rest of the juice as well. My guess is I will be jacking the rest of the juice but I have only so much freezer space so can only do one gallon at a time.

My plans for my share depends on how much juice I get. More than 7 gallons and I will do a pear brandy, less and it will be added to the apple cider to make a more AOC Calvados Domfrontais style brandy instead of the Pays d'Auge style I have originally been thinking although in truth it will be my very own unique style when it is finished.

[NZChris]

I haven't tried jacking that way, so I'm interested to hear how it goes. I freeze in a plastic bottle, then upend it over a filter, thawing about a third. After a third it gets pretty watery, but nice enough for a refreshing summer drink. A refractometer is handy.

[cranky]

I haven't tried jacking that way, so I'm interested to hear how it goes. I freeze in a plastic bottle, then upend it over a filter, thawing about a third. After a third it gets pretty watery, but nice enough for a refreshing summer drink. A refractometer is handy.

A third is about what I'm after, I will see how it goes. I know a refractometer would be a handy thing but it just isn't in the budget right now so I have to make do with a simple hydrometer. I think about getting one frequently and will someday.

[cranky]

I've been working hard on pears over the past week and am down to only 2 buckets left to process. So far I have 5 gallons of straight pear juice plus the gallon of jacked juice for the dessert wine.

The jacking went well and is now a very flavorful 8-9% potential alcohol. Any more concentrated and I think the flavor would just be too strong and the juice too thick. Of course now I have a dilemma on my hands, it looks like the remaining pears will give me about 3 more gallons of pear juice for a total of about 8gallons. I will still owe the owner of the tree a fair cut of the perry so maybe a gallon of perry and another gallon of cider to him when it's done. This should just barely leave me enough perry to make a pear brandy or a potentially nice addition to my calvados style brandy. One other thing is I have been freezing the pulp after pressing so if the pears are anything like the apples this should yield me at least another gallon or two of juice which would definitely push me into the pear brandy direction.

In addition to these pears I stopped at the big pear try I pass on my way home and picked a nice bucket full of cooking pears. This was largely to make the wife happy so she has pears she likes to make canned pears and pear sauce and some pear gallettes with and maybe even pear preserves. I might stop again this coming weekend to pick more of those for myself if I can get caught up on the apples and pears I already have. I am actually almost caught up with only 1 bucket of apples left and the 2 buckets of pears.

Last Wednesday I tried to pick apples at the blueberry park but the wife put her foot down and said "absolutely not!!!" at least not until I get what I have processed. So the trees in the blueberry park will go unpicked this year which makes me sad Apple trees should be loved and picked and not neglected. If anybody is reading this and planning on going to the Tacoma blueberry park let me know and I'll tell you where the apple trees are hiding.

Other fruit this week have been the treetop blackberries which are giving me a gallon or so a day. My method for juicing them is fairly inefficient and the wife is trying to lay claim to all the juice to make jelly out of. My method of juicing is to crush them in a big pot, simmer them a little while to break them down a bit then place a spaghetti strainer over another big pot and carefully ladle the mixture into the spaghetti strainer. Then I place the original pot on top which seals it up preventing fruit flies from getting in and let it sit and drain overnight. In the morning I simply remove the strainer and pour the juice into jars through a small strainer and it's done, no mess at all. to recover some of the remaining flavor from the blackberries I then put the seeds and pulp back in the original pot and pour water in it, simmer it again for a bit then use the spaghetti strainer method once again. This yields me a thinner lighter juice which I then add sugar to to make a nice summer juice drink that goes well with lots of things but is nice to sip all by itself in the morning. The yield from the original juicing is about 1- 1.5qts per gallon of blackberries and the 2nd time through is about another 2qts of tasty juice drink. I don't know if I will get enough blackberry juice to make that Eau de Vie unless the kid I offered the telescope to comes through with a bucket or two of berries for me.

[cranky]

It's been another good fruit week for me I finally got all the Asian pears and apples processed netting me 8 gallons of pear juice plus the gallon of concentrated pear juice for the dessert wine. Last week I stopped at the big pear tree on my way home and picked 100 pears which is about a bucket full and close to 20 pounds. Those are ripe now, Sunday I went back and picked another 100 pears and 100 apples off the apple tree next to the pear. I think the apples need another couple weeks before they are ready. There is another old cider apple tree not far away that has started dropping apples so I need to take the time to pick what I can off of that one.

The wife wants to do some cooking and canning with the pears which I believe are comice or maybe anjou pears. It's hard for me to tell the difference but they are good cooking and canning pears although they are pretty good eating pears this year, they don't have the grittiness the asian pears have and have a perfect pear flavor that you think of when you think of pear brandy.

The big bonus this week was that one of the guys I work with brought me 2 buckets of my favorite kind of fruit...free fruit someone else picked In this case it is European plums, the big oval prune type. They are very nice tasting. Tomorrow I am supposed to go over to his house with my picking pole and get what he couldn't reach. He estimates it at another bucket full at least. 15 gallons of plums is enough for a run but I will need to make enough wine to give him for donating. He tells me I am actually doing him a favor by taking them off his hands so he doesn't have the mess in his yard. These are very similar to the plums I made the Sugarplum fairy dessert wine out of. I was so pleased with how that wine turned out I may just use them for that instead of brandy. The guy I got them from tells me he has another neighbor with a pear tree who may let us pick them and he will help. So this year may just be the year of the pear brandy for me.

[Jimbo]

Sounds great cranky. This is the time of year I walk around with a refractometer in my back pocket or in my truck. Very handy to see which trees are coming ripe. Do you carry a refrac with you?

I love pear brandy, so tasty. I still have a little of this gem left from a batch in 2000. It spent 3 years on some french oak chips and been hiding in the back of my bar since. Its mighty fine, like dessert. http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 9#p7050515

[cranky]

Sounds great cranky. This is the time of year I walk around with a refractometer in my back pocket or in my truck. Very handy to see which trees are coming ripe. Do you carry a refrac with you?

I love pear brandy, so tasty. I still have a little of this gem left from a batch in 2000. It spent 3 years on some french oak chips and been hiding in the back of my bar since. Its mighty fine, like dessert. http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 9#p7050515

I remember reading that thread Jimbo. Nice to have so much stock on hand you can forget about it. I was cleaning out a cabinet last week and discovered a bottle of scumble with about 4 fingers worth left in it. I thought it was long gone. It changed dramatically over the couple years it has been around and was very nice. I sat on the back deck with the wife and a fire and sipped scumble over ice until it was all gone. Now I need to make more, which I have started to but it's a process that takes time.

I do like a good pear brandy

I don't have a refractometer yet but I have been looking at them on Amazon and thinking about ordering one. My usual method of testing fruit is to pick one and take a bite, and if it tastes close to ripe I will pick enough to press a 1/2 pint or so of juice and test that with my hydrometer. I have a map made up of locations of apple trees with notes about when they ripen. This year has been a bit early and as a result I missed a couple trees. The reason I picked 100 apples from the one next to the pear is that last year around this time someone else found that tree and picked all the easy to reach apples just before they were ripe. The apples on that tree are tiny this year so I don't think that person will be back. There is a wild apple tree about 100ft from that tree that ripens in another month or so and the 2 of them really compliment each other in the cider. I didn't pick from the wild one last year and should have. Nobody else picked it either. I plan on keeping an eye on it and going ahead and picking it this year since I missed those others and the big apple has been damaged leaving me a bit behind this year.

I just emptied the 3 carboys of Unicorn sweat into the boiler and plan on running that in a little bit. Now I can strain the cheez-it into 2 of them and let it settle and run it tomorrow and I will have enough free fermenters to handle all the fruit. I figure if I get some more blackberries picked today I will have at least a carboy full of blackberry juice, a couple more pickings and I may just manage that blackberry Eau de Vie I want to make.

[Jimbo]

The refrac is the best 25 bucks Ive spent on this hobby.

[cranky]

I've been waiting until I have a $35 amazon order so the one I get will be filled by amazon. I just spent 46 days waiting on a part from china that never arrived and I'm not a prime member so to get free shipping I have to spend $35 and wait for it to be sent from New Jersey via the polar route, the South Polar route so either way it won't be here for this fruit season but I will be sure to get one for next year.

[Jimbo]

Here's one for 20 bucks with free shipping

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Newa-RSG-100ATC ... 1e940a17fc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

And dont forget to bookmark this, you need to use a calacmajator once fermentation has started. http://onebeer.net/refractometer.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[cranky]

Thanks Jimbo but my gift cards are for Amazon so I try to only use them for stuff and like I said, by the time I get one fruit season will be over.

I got another 1/2 bucket of plums today, Still not enough to do a brandy but I may try to fight my way back into the plum thicket again and see if I can get some there.

[raketemensch]

Great thread, cranky. It's a great character sketch, and well-written, I feel like I'm reading the setup of a novel.

We have a house in Wooster Square in New Haven that had a hundred year old pear tree in the backyard that I was never ready to take advantage of -- now that I am, a hurricane toppled it last fall. :sigh: Twelve years of wasted pears drove me nuts, but there are still two grape vines going, so I'm finally going to give those a proper afterlife next year.

Are you harvesting marionberries? I lived out there for a year or so, around Grants Pass and Murphy, after a childhood surrounded by blackberry bushes, and those were some of my favorite berries. Those may be what you're talking about when you say "blackberries" I guess.

[cranky]

Great thread, cranky. It's a great character sketch, and well-written, I feel like I'm reading the setup of a novel.

Thank you, it does kind of give an idea of my inner workings, doesn't is? Well this and the goofy things I do thread. As disturbing as that may be

We have a house in Wooster Square in New Haven that had a hundred year old pear tree in the backyard that I was never ready to take advantage of -- now that I am, a hurricane toppled it last fall. :sigh: Twelve years of wasted pears drove me nuts, but there are still two grape vines going, so I'm finally going to give those a proper afterlife next year.

That sucks losing a good pear tree. I grew up in a house in Oklahoma with pear huge old pear tree in the front yard. I know there pears were unusual but I didn't know it was a perry pear tree until recently. They were good keepers and we used them for everything you use apples for so I kind of have pears ingrained in me. On my way home from picking plums the other day I noticed some orange looking fruit and stopped to take a look. It turned out to be a different type of asian pear than the ones I picked a couple weeks ago. I picked one to try and it was larger, sweeter and better tasting than the ones I pick a couple weeks ago so I'm going to try to get brave and go talk to the owner and see if I can pick them. There was an apple tree a little distance away that had already lost all it's apples. They were all on the ground so I'm guessing he won't mind me taking the pears.

Are you harvesting marionberries? I lived out there for a year or so, around Grants Pass and Murphy, after a childhood surrounded by blackberry bushes, and those were some of my favorite berries. Those may be what you're talking about when you say "blackberries" I guess.

The Oregon Evergreens may very well be marionberries but I think they have a bit milder flavor than the Marionberry. They are very sweet and juicy though.

I started the wine for the blackberry Eau de Vie a few days ago. When I went to thaw out the juice I saved from last year it turned out half the containers were something other than blackberry juice so I only have 3-4 gallons or so. I spent a few minutes picking from the evergreens yesterday and managed to get another 2 quarts to add. I'm thinking I may just have to break out the little pot to run this one the way things are going. I'm still hoping for the kid wanting my telescope to come through but don't hold out a lot of hope, however the berries on the East side of my house produce until December most years so I may get enough yet.

[bearriver]

Got 40 gallons of plums in my truck. Gonna top that off for a 55 gallon ferment tomorrow morning. Everyone around me is giving me plums for some reason. This is my fifth tree. 2015 is my year of the plum. I hope to never see another one for many more years.

Fella I know gave away six 55 gallon drums filled with apples last year. I'm planning on renting a grinder/press and nabbing all of the next flush for Calvados.

[cranky]

Got 40 gallons of plums in my truck. Gonna top that off for a 55 gallon ferment tomorrow morning. Everyone around me is giving me plums for some reason. This is my fifth tree. 2015 is my year of the plum. I hope to never see another one for many more years.

Fella I know gave away six 55 gallon drums filled with apples last year. I'm planning on renting a grinder/press and nabbing all of the next flush for Calvados.

Damn bear, you are really hitting the jackpot with the fruit. I am just finishing up pitting and freezing all the plums I have and am planning on trying to work my way into the plum thicket and see if I can get enough for a run. Because these plums were mostly picked by someone else I need to make a gallon of wine catered to him as a thank you and encouragement for him to pick more next year. My wife also wants me to make plenty of dessert wine this year so that will take a couple gallons. I assume you are making it slivovitz style ( http://slivovice.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow ) and leaving all the pits in and distilling on the pulp. Have you tried doing the pain in the ass pit, ferment, strain then run method I'm using? I'm wondering what kind of flavor difference the final brandy might have.

I have most everything I need to make an apple grinder and press except the SS shaft and hope to get it together by next apple season. If I had all my apples at once instead of over a 5 month period I would probably just buy that Harbor freight chipper/shredder and be done with it.

[bearriver]

Great news. I'm glad your hitting the fruit hard also Cranky!

People love having me take their fruit. I first rake and throw away the drops, then mow the grass. After that I shake the tree and pick up the drops, followed by another raking. It looks nicer when I leave than when I get there, and I don't mind using drops one bit so long as they aren't laying in dirt. Everyone said that I can take their plums next year if I'm up to it.

I like doing it similar to slivovitz, but am limited with my equipment. Basically I mix and leave it sit for a week, knocking the cap down daily. After that I scoop the cap off and into paint strainer bags, then strain the rest of the liquid which doesn't have very many solids in it. A 5 gallon paint strainer fits over a screw top really nice, and can be held in place with the ring. After I filter it, it goes straight to the still.

I've ran plums well cleared, and so dirty it looked like sludge. There are subtle differences but not enough for me to form a preference. The older these two spirits get, the less difference I can detect between them. Someday I'll have a steam stripper and a flute. Every man needs a dream, so I picked a realistic one.

I forgot to mention that I got you around a gallon of wild yeast samples off plums to play around with. You'll dig it. (Tell your wife I'm still looking for that cat.)

[jedneck]

Bear once you go steam you will wonder what the hell took so long to convert.
I got peaches fermenting. Smashed them up with my hands and let the yeast have there way with them. I'll strain out the pits before I run it unless some one says different.

[bearriver]

Bear once you go steam you will wonder what the hell took so long to convert.
I got peaches fermenting. Smashed them up with my hands and let the yeast have there way with them. I'll strain out the pits before I run it unless some one says different.

That sounds delicious. I'll pretend that I'm not a little jealous. Peaches aren't popular here, probably because were ashamed by those southern candies y'all call fruit.

[cranky]

Wow Bear, it sounds like you do a hell of a job. It would be nice to have a reliable source of plums. I never see any plum trees around me except for that long neglected plum thicket I am determined to get into.

A steamer is on my short list, I'm trying to figure out how to make a top fit the keg I found that I cut the top out of to use as a keggle. If I can connect the steamer to the keggle with a lid it gives me a nice big opening to get any goopy mess back out of it.

[jedneck]

Cranky when the camera if charged i'll get a pic of how i did mine.

[raketemensch]

I don't know if I could ferment plums, I can never stop eating them. Same with blackberries, actually. When I was a kid we had a HUGE patch of them out by the pasture, and even though it was July I'd put on a thick sweatshirt and jeans and fight my way out into the middle of them and just sit down and gorge myself on them until I felt sick. Then I'd do it again the next day.

I've never been able to eat a single plum, or even 2 or 3, if there are more around. I've been known to eat an entire flat of strawberries while walking around NYC.

Speaking of which, I think I'm starting a batch of panty dropper tomorrow, it just sounds too good.

[cranky]

Cranky when the camera if charged i'll get a pic of how i did mine.

I look forward to seeing that Jedneck. I know my methods are slow and tedious and am gradually working to simplify them. Got so much to do on the house it's hard to make improvements anywhere else.

[cranky]

I don't know if I could ferment plums, I can never stop eating them. Same with blackberries, actually. When I was a kid we had a HUGE patch of them out by the pasture, and even though it was July I'd put on a thick sweatshirt and jeans and fight my way out into the middle of them and just sit down and gorge myself on them until I felt sick. Then I'd do it again the next day.

I've never been able to eat a single plum, or even 2 or 3, if there are more around. I've been known to eat an entire flat of strawberries while walking around NYC.

Speaking of which, I think I'm starting a batch of panty dropper tomorrow, it just sounds too good.

My wife has the same problem. She was helping me with the plums and kept eating them. Fortunately there were just too many to eat all of. She does the same thing with the evergreen blackberries. We did manage to put 8 gallons of sliced plums in the freezer. 3 gallons of those will be used for wine so 5 gallons can be used for brandy. I have gotten spoiled with the flute but I can do a 1.5 run on the little pot with 5 gallons if I can't find any more.

[jedneck]

Here is how I made my molested keg work.
Drilled and taped 4 holes around big hole and threaded stainless screwsfrom the inside.
The head is a piece of 3" split and flattened with a short 3" column. There is a ring of 3/8 tube tacked to the bottom of the plate that just fits the hole. I seal it with flour paste and use washers and wing nuts to hold it on.
The steam injector screws into the element hole.

[cranky]

Very nice Jedneck and similar to what I was thinking. I have the fitting to add an element because I originally thought about adding one when I was going to use it for beer but the idea that that fitting could be dual purpose is brilliant. Now I can see exactly how to make that steamer I want I just need the time to get it done.. So the list of winter projects grows, Double dimroth for the muggles, apple grinder and new cider press and now a steamer. Gonna be a busy winter for me.

[jedneck]

If we ain't busy, we ain't living.