Plum time again !!!

[Luc]

Update 04 august

Today I had a great idea. I washed the plums like I mentioned
before but mashed them in my hands before mashing them
with the potato masher.
That worked great.
It saves a lot of work and is really not a big effort.

Yesterday I wrecked a potato masher just by mashing the whole
plums. Today this went smoothly. I mashed another 35 kilo or so and the end is nearing......
Well not every thing went smoothly.

Like I wrote yesterday i made a natural wine by just mashing up some plums and let nature do the rest.

Well nature did !!!! And how !!!!
I mashed the plums in two buckets and put a lid on with an airlock.
In one bucket nothing is going on.
The other bucket has this morning some faint signs of fermentation.
well this afternoon it blew the lid off.....
Indeed right in my livingroom.
Luckily we have a wooden floor and it was next to the radiator.
It made not a whole lot of a mess........
Els just shrugged her shoulders and mumbled something like $#I% happens......

Luc

 

[Tom]

LOL
Well... It happens to the best of us.

 

[Wade E]

What happened, did the airlock get plugged with plum?

 

[Tom]

The other bucket has this morning some faint signs of fermentation.
well this afternoon it blew the lid off.....
Indeed right in my livingroom.
Luckily we have a wooden floor and it was next to the radiator.
It made not a whole lot of a mess........

It blew !

 

[Nubz]

sounds like you have a very understanding and helpful wife Luc you should be very thankful for that(im sure you are though)

ive become very interested in this so ty for the updates and keep us posted when you can in between making a mess of the living room and mashing plums lol

 

[Luc]

What happened, did the airlock get plugged with plum?

Yep, bucket was to full. And with all the skins in there, a piece of skin blocked the airlock....

I had to clean up immediately so unfortunately I did not get a photo of this. Then again who knows when the other bucket gets going

Living on the edge

Luc

 

[Madriver Wines]

Yep, bucket was to full. And with all the skins in there, a piece of skin blocked the airlock....

I had to clean up immediately so unfortunately I did not get a photo of this. Then again who knows when the other bucket gets going

Living on the edge

Luc

I think you are PLUM crazy!!

 

[Wade E]

Ive pushed the bucket a few times and so far have gotten lucky but 1 of these days Luc ill be in your shoes!

 

[Luc]

Update 5 august.

Mashed 4 buckets. The end is in sight........

I now have 60 liter fermenting and 60 liters mashed.
These last will be pressed today (I am writing this on
6 august). They will gain about another 40 liter.
Meaning that this evening I will have 100 liter fermenting.

We had plum pie yestarday (well kind of pie).

Pineapple with plum juice is a great combination for dessert. We had it the day before yesterday.

The 'natural wine' is now coming along nicely. No more explosions.....

Luc

 

[Wade E]

Man, Im coming over your house for dessert!!!!!!

 

[Luc]

Wade, Welcome !!!

Yestareday we had plum pie again made in a different way.

I pressed the 60 liter which I mashed up yesterday. and the day before. It indeed gained 60 liter. So I have now 120 liter fermenting !!!! Happily bubbling away. Making a strong yeast starter from plum juice was really a good idea. Each day I used some of it to get a batch starting and each day I fed it with fresh juice and simple syrup. So I had 10 liter starter going at all times.

The end is in sight. I still have a few plums. We few crates have still a small layer of plums in it. I will use them in the next days.

I did something wise also.
I took the two buckets with the natural fermenting plums and poured them in a large 30 liter primary. I let the lid off and it is now happily fermenting. There is just a bit in this primary so each day I am going to feed it with some more plums I mash up.

I will see if I can make some photo's of my happily fermenting plum family in the next days.

Luc

 

[Luc]

Well here it is: our living room.
Actually we have a so-called open kitchen. A kitchen that is attached to the living room.

At the end in the blue 'crate' against out heating radiator there is a 30 liter primary filled with plum must. Next to it 2 5 liter primaries covered with a paper towel that are used as yeast starters. Next to them still against the radiator 2 30 liter carboys filled with elderflower wine. Aging since begin june this year.

Moving up to the front 2 white and 2 green buckets filled with plums ready for the processing.

Next 2 large 30 liter plastic carboys filled with plum must.

in front of that a yellow plastic crate filled with 3 5-liter carboys with plum must.

In front of that one 10 liter honey-cherry-chocolate must which is aging.

Then a 5 liter carboy filled with simple syrup for adding sugar to the fermenting must.

In front of that you can see the last carboy filled with a yellow must: Pineapple wine that is aging.

Now for how long will it be like this in my living room....
Well the 5 liter carboys will be moved down to my work-hobby room. There is already 10 liter apple wine in there.....

The buckets will be mashed and emptied in a primary for natural fermenting (just did that this evening).
The large carboys will be here for a few weeks to months as I will be starting bottling the elderflower (if it is clear) from next week.

I will have to make some room here as the apple harvest is coming in around end-september begin october.

Last year we had about 100 kilo apples. This year we plan to do more.
This is beginning to look like work

Luc

 

[Wade E]

Looking good there Luc and I hear you about all the work. i dont get bum rushed like you do but then again I dont have people giving me that kind of supply either or I probably would. I have to scrimp and scrape from whatever I can find wild. My wife would never go for all that stuff around the house either!