Many years ago when we bought the house I planted a Mirabelles tree and an apricot tree with the (secret) intention of making two of my favorite fruit brandys: eau de vie Mirabelles and Barack Palinka. Unfortunately, the deer chewed up most of the bark and branches of the apricot tree but the Mirabelles (red) have been plentiful ever since. However, I kept the apricot tree and one season we had little yellow plums on it, many. First I thought they were yellow Mirabelles but the flesh is harder and the fruit is sour, not sweet. Not for eating.
Now I’ve finally found out it’s a hybrid of plums and apricots called plumcot or apriplums. I had suspected it but never bothered to look it up. Now that I am planning to distill the fruit for the first time I decided to find out: a hybrid of my two favorite fruits!
Does anyone have experience from this hybrid? Since it’s not sweet, and quite firm fleshwise, I’m not sure how to get it to ferment. It does have sugar for sure, some, but there’s not much juice to press out of it. Any thoughts what I can do with my plumcots?
Rusty Ole Bucket wrote: ↑Fri May 16, 2025 10:57 am
Try freezing a few then thawing them back out as an experiment, it might make them easier to juice.
Rusty
Plus one on freezing, I've tried that and it works,
Freeze, thaw, use a drill and paint stirrer to pulverize the fruit without breaking the stones.
Remove the majority of the pits and ferment on the pulp. Remove the last pits before distilling.
Fully or over ripe fruit will have the highest sugar but if that's still to low. You can add some extra sugar or ferment as is.
Bubbas preference is to ferment as is till dry then add some neutral spirits to raise the abv to 10% before stripping.
I have frozen peaches, but then you have to thaw them before you can pulp them.
For any stone fruit, I tread them, wearing gumboots if they haven’t been destoned. If the Brix is very low, I add sugar. Pectinaze can be helpful. I always ferment on the pulp.
Depending on the quantity, I will press them in a wine press before distilling, or distil with the pulp in a large basket suspended in the still. The pulp can be put in a thumper.
I've only ever used stone fruits for wine, and definitely not those!
They do look similar to greengage though, so I've used something close.
My approach would be to wait as long as possible for the sugars to develop before picking, then let them naturally soften for a few days if you can.
Then freeze, thaw and depending on volume de-stone them if you can.
Add the recommended pectinase dose for the volume and mix in well with a little COLD water too loosen, then squish in whatever way you choose.
This will get you the maximum juice.
shadylane wrote: ↑Fri May 16, 2025 7:38 pm
Bubbas preference is to ferment as is till dry then add some neutral spirits to raise the abv to 10% before stripping.
Who is this Bubba character? I've seen his name mentioned in a few other fruit related threads. He seems to quite an authority on the subject. Adding neutral spirits to a low alcohol wine is probably a better way of increasing ABV than adding sugar, if you want to retain as much of the fruit flavor as possible.
NZChris wrote: ↑Fri May 16, 2025 8:05 pm
I have frozen peaches, but then you have to thaw them before you can pulp them.
For any stone fruit, I tread them, wearing gumboots if they haven’t been destoned. If the Brix is very low, I add sugar. Pectinaze can be helpful. I always ferment on the pulp.
Depending on the quantity, I will press them in a wine press before distilling, or distil with the pulp in a large basket suspended in the still. The pulp can be put in a thumper.
Since I am married to a Portuguese lady and have two daughters, I basically have all the treaders I need - this is what Portuguese women do for fun, tread wine.
MooseMan wrote: ↑Fri May 16, 2025 10:27 pm
I've only ever used stone fruits for wine, and definitely not those!
They do look similar to greengage though, so I've used something close.
My approach would be to wait as long as possible for the sugars to develop before picking, then let them naturally soften for a few days if you can.
Then freeze, thaw and depending on volume de-stone them if you can.
Add the recommended pectinase dose for the volume and mix in well with a little COLD water too loosen, then squish in whatever way you choose.
This will get you the maximum juice.
It's not greengage, we call them Reine Claude here, they are bigger my yellow plumcots. Plumcots has the same size as Mirabelles, if you are familiar with these, but these are too sour and hard for being that specie.
Ok. I have a spare freezer in the garage. I just need to get rid of a bunch of crap in it. Then I will be able to fill it. This tree gives a lot of fruit but it comes late in the season. I still have three months before it's time.
My plan was to put plastic cover on the ground below the tree so that fallen fruit can stay fairly intact and I can harvest them on a daily basis. That way the fruit foraged will be the ones with most sugar in them.
shadylane wrote: ↑Fri May 16, 2025 7:38 pm
Bubbas preference is to ferment as is till dry then add some neutral spirits to raise the abv to 10% before stripping.
Who is this Bubba character? I've seen his name mentioned in a few other fruit related threads. He seems to quite an authority on the subject. Adding neutral spirits to a low alcohol wine is probably a better way of increasing ABV than adding sugar, if you want to retain as much of the fruit flavor as possible.
Bubba is a friend of mine.
According to him, the added alcohol extracts more of the fruit flavor during stripping.
