Story:
Since last year (2014) was a hell of a year when it comes to plums (Prunus domestica italica) I've decide on making a brandy. All the plum trees in the garden was almost blue/purple from all the fruits my wife took best one to make jam and dried fruits (for baking and making kompot no, not the stuff with heroine
). I with my 3yo doughtier we were picking plums that were lying on the ground. Surely there were not best fruit for eating, a lot of wasps was flying around. Plum picking went fast in about 40 min I was packed with almost 30 kg of fruit.Fermentation:
I've got a 45 liter HDPE barrel, I crushed plums with a fat stick (and pick few stones that I saw - most of the stones I've left in wash). Plums was very juicy and sweet, juice was dripping from my fingers when I was picking them. I've added just 0.5L of water - just enough to dissolve wine yeast. Fermentation took about a week. Plums broke down and form a cap on the top. I've used a big wine nylon bag to get as much juice as possible. I've put juice to glass 25L carboy for 2 days and racked 22L to pot still.
Distillation:
I've run it very slowly on a pot still. I was collecting to small jars (200ml in a jar). Air the jars out with coffee filter on top for a day or two. First stuff came out @ almost 60% ABV las jar was like 20%. After blending I've got 1.2L of 45% stuff that I've like. I've got like two bottles 1 is 0.5L and second is 0.7L. In Poland Śliwowica is dank from a shot glass - we are not aging it on oak - just let it sit in a bottle for half a year (longer=better), shaking it and opening once in a while.
Drinking:
Yesterday I've took first bottle to drinking we had a family gathering and it was a really great time - so every one was testing plum brandy. Smell was a bit fruity with a pinch of grass, stuff was 45% (90 proof) but was smooth like water with a great aftertaste of sweet plums. It went down so easy I was surprised it contains more then 40% alcohol (stronger then store bought vodka) it was just warming up the stomach. I drink lot of plum brandy but this one is a destroyer - absolutely the best stuff I've ever made. To bad I didn't make any photos during whole process but this year I will do that for sure.