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Hi all,
I have a tree FULL of plum's which are just starting to ripen. I was wondering if anyone had any idea's on what I could do with them all??
This will be my first time playing around with fruit so the easier the better!
I have both a pot and reflux still's and not alot of knowledge or experiance with this type of thing, but am keen to give it a go!
Any "tried and true" recipe's out there?!

Thank's

Matt

6 lbs plums
1-1/2 lbs fine granulated sugar
Water to one gallon
1 tsp pectic enzyme
3/4 tsp yeast nutrient
1/4 tsp yeast energizer
wine yeast
Put water on to boil. cut fruit in halves to remove the seeds, then chop fruit and put in primary. Pour boiling water over fruit. Add the sugar and stir well to dissolve. Cover and allow to cool to 70 degrees F. pectic enzyme, , nutrient, and energizer, cover, and wait 12 hours before adding yeast. Recover primary and allow to ferment 5-7 days some leave pits in, I thank it is better with out.

this is one gallon,
after ferment stops let clear,, run threw pot still, one or two times as you want.

reviving an old thread i know but i've got a similar problem. i've just finished setting up a 50L ish batch of this, letting it cool overnight, but it's only used about 1/4 - 1/3 of my plums. i was cutting up the plums but that was taking ages and i eventually cut myself. tried putting them in a bucket and squishing them with a rolling pin (longways, wasn't rolling them out ), even went to plastic bagging my feet and squishing them like you would with grapes. no one way worked remarkably easier than another that i tried.

my question: is there any easy way to chop/press/squish the plums? i don't really want 100+kg of plums (from one goddamn tree no less) going to waste and there's only so much jam one can make...

Slivovitz.

Old European drink. I tried some at a mates one night and liked it.

I am about to try this recipe with mods.

Fill 50 gallon drum with soft ripe plums (pits and all)
Top with tepid water. not too hot or you will kill yeast.
After 3-4 days, mash plums with 3/4" oak plank.
Ferment to about 5%, can take up to 6 weeks.
Strain liquid off pulp and pits. Reserve pulp.
Run in pot still fast (strip)
Combine pulp and distillate and let steep for 2 weeks.
Strain again, run nice and slow. Discard foreshots. Collect till ABV drops to 35%. Filter, age for 3 months. Dilute to 40% and drink.
(from Distillers Wiki)

The mods I plan;
I will be scaling down to a 21 litre plastic bucket.
Old mate and his dad told me (both Czech) they prefer to use plums fallen from the tree. The riper, the better. Bird pecked, bruised, partly rotting fruit ok. He uses a plastic garbage bin, about 60 litres.
He also recomended double or triple distilling.
Lots of people complain that its headache gear, so I will collect small jars and try making some proper cuts. Chuck the rest in the feints jar.
If I can get hold of some fruit tree wood, I plan to age it on chips in glass. I may be able to get some apple tree wood Don't know how it will go, but I keen to find out.

What I think is good is you really dont have to prepare the fruit (aparrently, anyway). You just put it in. Big time saving and a good reason to clean up all that dropped fruit. No cooking, no sugar, no yeast.

The plums I got don't seem to have a lot of yeast on them, not like the blood plums on my own tree, they are nearly white on the outside with natural yeast. I may add some wine yeast if it dosnt do much.

Good topic to revive now plums are in season down under.

The last time I was in this situation I just filled a 150 litre drum with plums and made myself a blender.

3 foot length of threaded rod with some 6" long lengths of chain, secured by 2 nuts and an electric drill.


Just make sure the chains stay below the surface or it makes a hell of a mess. As its chain it will fit through a smallish hole if you wish to have a lid on when it is in use.

The chain liquidises the plums but does not break up the stones so I just ferment with the stones in.


You can't have too many plums in my view. I like to drink it white, but some prefer to flavour it a bit.

The nicest plum jam I made/tasted had the pits in. Made from "Green gauge" plums, not nice for eating, but fantastic for jam. Just watch out for crunchy bits when eating plum jam sandwich's.

Sounds like Slivovitz is a bit "backyard" and could well benifit from a HD workover. A great way to use exess plums. I wonder if the type of plum makes a difference.

I like that chain idea.

The first reasonable beverage I made was a fine brandy similar to schlivovitz. My buddy had a big carboy of 6 year aged plum wine that was well over 14% (since it hadn't had an airlock in more than a year and it never went bad). It was dry as a desert. After the first run through the pot still it was quite rough, but was a pretty good comparable to the schlivovitz.

We ran it through a second run with an unpacked column and it was quite fine with a good bit of plum and none of the need to put a fist through the wall to get it down.

I live in a mountain village in Bulgaria and the surrounding mountains are full of wild apples and plums and these are extensively used by the locals to make the local "brandy"which we call rakia. The fruit is gathered as ripe as possible and placed in a 200 litre drum, covered in water and then a large stick with many nails attached is used to squash the fruit which is then left to ferment using the wild yeasts. This is often left all winter and the distillation done in the spring. It is very common to see these drums with a thick coat of mould on the top and often FULL of small flies. This does not seems to produce failed ferments which never fails to amaze me as I was brought up to believe that sterility was vital, yet here there is no attempt to sterilise anything. The locals say the mould gives a better taste so maybe its another fermentation taking place, have to read more on that one. When its deemed to be ready, most villagers have their own still, a pot still and occassionally a thumper is utilised. The village also has the "village"still which during comminist times was supplied by the governement. Sometimes there is a single distillation but usually theres a stripping run done first and then the final. The distillate is always put into wooden casks to age, usually oak or acacia and sometimes mulberry. It is left for one to two years in this and always in the cellar which is dark and cold, ideal for aging. After bottling it is often stored in the freezer and served very cold.

Nazdrave (cheers in Bulgarian)